Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Seppälä (bass), Janne Wirman (keyboard), and Daniel Freyberg (rhythm guitar). The band released ten studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums and one DVD. The band's third studio album, Follow the Reaper, was their first album to receive a gold certification in Finland, and subsequent studio albums acquired the same status. Their next four albums debuted at number one on the Finnish album charts and have also seen chart positions on the United States Billboard 200. They are one of Finland's best selling artists of all time with more than 250,000 records sold there alone. In 2019, Children of Bodom held their last concert in Helsinki named A Chapter Called Children of Bodom, before disbanding the band. Laiho and Freyberg carried on as Bodom After Midnight in 2020.[2] Laiho, who was one of the founding members of Children of Bodom as well as the only main songwriter, died on 29 December 2020.
