Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho
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| 13.07.2013 | Children Of Bodom |
Personal information
Also known as: Alexi Wildchild, Alexi Laiho
Born on: 08.04.1979
Died on: 29.12.2020
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With the release of Children of Bodom's debut Something Wild, the band played a concert with Impaled Nazarene in Russia, and Alexi was invited to join the latter band as a lead guitarist. Alexi joined Impaled Nazarene and remained with them until 2001, but never held much interest in the band, always relegating it to second plan.
One year after the release of Something Wild, at the age of nineteen, Alexi suffered a nervous breakdown. In his despair, he resorted to suicide and took thirty tranquilizers and a few shots of whisky, slipping into unconsciousness. A friend found him soon after and took him to the hospital.
Once he had recovered, Alexi decided to skip regular treatment and instead embraced his love of music. He increased his already dedicated practice schedule and made the guitar playing on subsequent albums more skillful than their debut.
In 1999, Alexi was invited to join Sinergy by Kimberly Goss, as the lead guitarist and support keyboard player. In 2001, Roope Latvala joined Sinergy, and a "master against disciple" situation was created, resulting in several guitar battles on the solos of Sinergy's songs.
Alexi was a guest musician on a song by To/Die/For ("In the Heat of the Night") and on a few songs by Norther, he also co-produced the debut album of the band Griffin, all between 2001 and 2002.
In September of 2002, Alexi's custom Jackson guitars (one of them bearing the famous "Wildchild" sticker, which was the guitar with which he appeared in all of the early Children of Bodom pictures) were stolen by an unidentified thief while he was asleep after a night partying with the other members of the band after a successful concert. Alexi needed new instruments, but Jackson had just been sold to the Fender Musical Instrument Company and wouldn't be able to build a custom guitar for Alexi for at least one year. ESP Guitars, however, told Alexi they could build a replacement in three months, and he signed with the company.
In 2004, Alexi founded a punk rock side-project called Kylähullut, which was assembled together with Tommi Lillman (ex-Sinergy) and Vesa Jokinen (from Klamydia). The band was created merely for the entertainment of the musicians, and takes a carefree approach to their music. The band's discography includes a 4-track EP and a full-length 12-song album.
More than once, Alexi has referred to his bandmates as "probably the only real friends I ever had". He has the letters "COBHC" (Children of Bodom Hate Crew) tattooed on his hand as an homage to Ozzy Osbourne, who has a similar tattoo. A couple of fans from across the world have reproduced the tattoo on their hands, a few of the more passionate ones reached the extreme of cutting it directly into their skin with knives and razors. Alexi has been featured on the cover of Young Guitar Magazine several times, as well as being on the cover of Guitar World along with master guitarists Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde. The "Wildchild" nickname comes from a song by the band W.A.S.P. His first guitar was a Tokai Stratocaster.
In April of 2005 Alexi generated a considerable amount of unrest in the metal guitar community when, in an interview with Guitar World magazine, he referred to popular prog metal act Dream Theater as "super lame" going on to say "It's not even music; it's sports." The magazine also referred to Dream Theater as Laiho's "favorite whipping boys." In January 2006 issue of the same magazine, reader Brad Bailey asked "Why did you make those lame comments about Dream Theater in GW? You're a fine player, but comments like those just make people lose respect for you. Did you know it caused a big stir?" to which Laiho responded "Fuck. Well, apparently it did. First of all, I think it's really funny that people trash bands and musicians every day on the internet, and nobody gives a shit. But once you say something like that - which wasn't even too bad - in a magazine, all of a sudden you're the biggest dick on the earth. But truthfully, I don't know why I said that. I was having a bad day or something. Obviously, John Petrucci is a better player then I am, and it's not my place to talk shit about him."
In January 2006, ESP Guitars announced a line of Alexi Laiho Signature Models. The US version guitars are a slightly different shape than what Alexi usually plays, as the RV shape is a copyrighted Jackson shape. So to avoid a lawsuit ESP made the bottom horn slightly larger among other differences. The guitar comes in two finishes: black w/yellow stripe and white w/black stripe. The guitar has a neck-thru 25.5" design, using a 3-pc maple neck with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard and pearl saw-tooth inlays. The ESP Alexi includes white binding on neck and head, the ESP custom shop version comes with a natural maple neck while the LTD is painted, and it comes with professional-quality components including a Floyd Rose original tremolo, Gotoh tuners, and a single EMG HZ H-4 pickup boosted with an EMG Afterburner.
In 2006 The Japanese Magazine Young Guitar presented Alexi Laiho as the best guitar player of the year 2005 (SR§)
In spring of 2009 Children of Bodom was forced to drop out of their North American "No Fear Energy Tour" when Laiho broke his wrist after falling out of his bunk when the tour bus took a sharp turn on April 26, 2009, after the show in Palladium Ballroom, Dallas TX. Laiho originally planned to continue touring despite his injury, but was forced to cancel the last 6 dates when any efforts to alleviate the pain failed.
On July 3, 2012, Children of Bodom announced on their Facebook page that they had to cancel 2 European shows because Alexi had taken to the hospital. The band released this statement: "It is with great regret that we are forced to cancel tonight's show in Oslo as well as tomorrow night's show in Malmö. Alexi was rushed to the Oslo hospital earlier this evening with extreme stomach pain. The doctors in the emergency unit checked him and while we are still waiting for a diagnosis, they made clear that he will not be able to perform within the next 48 hours. We apologize to all our fans who have bought tickets to these shows - we will try to reschedule both Oslo and Malmö at the earliest possibility. Keep your fingers crossed with us that Alexi will get well again soon!"
And on July 5, 2012, the band followed up with another update from their Facebook page: "This is not an easy letter for us to write. Alexi is suffering from a serious infection. He is still in hospital in Oslo under supervision of the doctors and we don't know yet when they will release him. We have no choice other than canceling Ruisrock in Turku on Saturday as well. This is a very bitter pill for us to swallow. We had decided to do only two festivals in our homeland this summer to make it real special, and now this. We hope that we will be able to make up for this very soon. To all our fans who had been looking forward to rock with us at Ruisrock this weekend, take our apologies and enjoy the festival. In our spirits, we will be there, too."
source: wikipedia.org
Born on: 08.04.1979
Died on: 29.12.2020
With the release of Children of Bodom's debut Something Wild, the band played a concert with Impaled Nazarene in Russia, and Alexi was invited to join the latter band as a lead guitarist. Alexi joined Impaled Nazarene and remained with them until 2001, but never held much interest in the band, always relegating it to second plan.
One year after the release of Something Wild, at the age of nineteen, Alexi suffered a nervous breakdown. In his despair, he resorted to suicide and took thirty tranquilizers and a few shots of whisky, slipping into unconsciousness. A friend found him soon after and took him to the hospital.
Once he had recovered, Alexi decided to skip regular treatment and instead embraced his love of music. He increased his already dedicated practice schedule and made the guitar playing on subsequent albums more skillful than their debut.
In 1999, Alexi was invited to join Sinergy by Kimberly Goss, as the lead guitarist and support keyboard player. In 2001, Roope Latvala joined Sinergy, and a "master against disciple" situation was created, resulting in several guitar battles on the solos of Sinergy's songs.
Alexi was a guest musician on a song by To/Die/For ("In the Heat of the Night") and on a few songs by Norther, he also co-produced the debut album of the band Griffin, all between 2001 and 2002.
In September of 2002, Alexi's custom Jackson guitars (one of them bearing the famous "Wildchild" sticker, which was the guitar with which he appeared in all of the early Children of Bodom pictures) were stolen by an unidentified thief while he was asleep after a night partying with the other members of the band after a successful concert. Alexi needed new instruments, but Jackson had just been sold to the Fender Musical Instrument Company and wouldn't be able to build a custom guitar for Alexi for at least one year. ESP Guitars, however, told Alexi they could build a replacement in three months, and he signed with the company.
In 2004, Alexi founded a punk rock side-project called Kylähullut, which was assembled together with Tommi Lillman (ex-Sinergy) and Vesa Jokinen (from Klamydia). The band was created merely for the entertainment of the musicians, and takes a carefree approach to their music. The band's discography includes a 4-track EP and a full-length 12-song album.
More than once, Alexi has referred to his bandmates as "probably the only real friends I ever had". He has the letters "COBHC" (Children of Bodom Hate Crew) tattooed on his hand as an homage to Ozzy Osbourne, who has a similar tattoo. A couple of fans from across the world have reproduced the tattoo on their hands, a few of the more passionate ones reached the extreme of cutting it directly into their skin with knives and razors. Alexi has been featured on the cover of Young Guitar Magazine several times, as well as being on the cover of Guitar World along with master guitarists Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde. The "Wildchild" nickname comes from a song by the band W.A.S.P. His first guitar was a Tokai Stratocaster.
In April of 2005 Alexi generated a considerable amount of unrest in the metal guitar community when, in an interview with Guitar World magazine, he referred to popular prog metal act Dream Theater as "super lame" going on to say "It's not even music; it's sports." The magazine also referred to Dream Theater as Laiho's "favorite whipping boys." In January 2006 issue of the same magazine, reader Brad Bailey asked "Why did you make those lame comments about Dream Theater in GW? You're a fine player, but comments like those just make people lose respect for you. Did you know it caused a big stir?" to which Laiho responded "Fuck. Well, apparently it did. First of all, I think it's really funny that people trash bands and musicians every day on the internet, and nobody gives a shit. But once you say something like that - which wasn't even too bad - in a magazine, all of a sudden you're the biggest dick on the earth. But truthfully, I don't know why I said that. I was having a bad day or something. Obviously, John Petrucci is a better player then I am, and it's not my place to talk shit about him."
In January 2006, ESP Guitars announced a line of Alexi Laiho Signature Models. The US version guitars are a slightly different shape than what Alexi usually plays, as the RV shape is a copyrighted Jackson shape. So to avoid a lawsuit ESP made the bottom horn slightly larger among other differences. The guitar comes in two finishes: black w/yellow stripe and white w/black stripe. The guitar has a neck-thru 25.5" design, using a 3-pc maple neck with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard and pearl saw-tooth inlays. The ESP Alexi includes white binding on neck and head, the ESP custom shop version comes with a natural maple neck while the LTD is painted, and it comes with professional-quality components including a Floyd Rose original tremolo, Gotoh tuners, and a single EMG HZ H-4 pickup boosted with an EMG Afterburner.
In 2006 The Japanese Magazine Young Guitar presented Alexi Laiho as the best guitar player of the year 2005 (SR§)
In spring of 2009 Children of Bodom was forced to drop out of their North American "No Fear Energy Tour" when Laiho broke his wrist after falling out of his bunk when the tour bus took a sharp turn on April 26, 2009, after the show in Palladium Ballroom, Dallas TX. Laiho originally planned to continue touring despite his injury, but was forced to cancel the last 6 dates when any efforts to alleviate the pain failed.
On July 3, 2012, Children of Bodom announced on their Facebook page that they had to cancel 2 European shows because Alexi had taken to the hospital. The band released this statement: "It is with great regret that we are forced to cancel tonight's show in Oslo as well as tomorrow night's show in Malmö. Alexi was rushed to the Oslo hospital earlier this evening with extreme stomach pain. The doctors in the emergency unit checked him and while we are still waiting for a diagnosis, they made clear that he will not be able to perform within the next 48 hours. We apologize to all our fans who have bought tickets to these shows - we will try to reschedule both Oslo and Malmö at the earliest possibility. Keep your fingers crossed with us that Alexi will get well again soon!"
And on July 5, 2012, the band followed up with another update from their Facebook page: "This is not an easy letter for us to write. Alexi is suffering from a serious infection. He is still in hospital in Oslo under supervision of the doctors and we don't know yet when they will release him. We have no choice other than canceling Ruisrock in Turku on Saturday as well. This is a very bitter pill for us to swallow. We had decided to do only two festivals in our homeland this summer to make it real special, and now this. We hope that we will be able to make up for this very soon. To all our fans who had been looking forward to rock with us at Ruisrock this weekend, take our apologies and enjoy the festival. In our spirits, we will be there, too."
source: wikipedia.org