JANNE WIRMAN: “upcoming CHILDREN OF BODOM book tells the whole brutally honest story of the band”
30-06-2025
In a new interview with Ed Hackimer of This Day In Metal, CHILDREN OF BODOM keyboardist Janne Wirman spoke about the band’s upcoming official book, which will be published in August via the London, U.K.-based publisher Rocket 88.
The book tells the story of the Finnish melodic death metal pioneers as an oral history in which Wirman, bassist Henkka Seppälä, drummer Jaska Raatikainen and early guitarist Alexander Kuoppala plus other former members, their friends and colleagues recall the 30-plus-year history of their career.
For the first time, members of the band tell the story of CHILDREN OF BODOM in their own words. Henkka, Janne and Jaska recall the founding of the band with their lost brother, guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Alexi Laiho and the struggles, adventures and triumphs they experienced in the more than 30 years that followed. Drawing on personal memories and new interviews with the band conducted by Finnish best-selling author and longtime friend of the band Timo Isoaho, the official CHILDREN OF BODOM book tells the whole story, warts and all, of the groundbreaking melodic death metal band.
Janne told This Day In Metal about the CHILDREN OF BODOM book: “We spent, I don’t know how many times — like 10, 15 times we got together and we had drinks and we told these stories to Timo‘s recorder. And there was laughter, there was tears, there was everything. ‘Cause it tells the whole fucking brutal honest story of the band and how much fun was it when it started and how shit was it when it went to shit.”
The official CHILDREN OF BODOM book will be published in August via the London, U.K.-based publisher Rocket 88.
The book tells the story of the Finnish melodic death metal pioneers as an oral history in which bassist Henkka Seppälä, keyboardist Janne Wirman, drummer Jaska Raatikainen and early guitarist Alexander Kuoppala plus other former members, their friends and colleagues recall the 30-plus-year history of their career.
For the first time, members of the band tell the story of CHILDREN OF BODOM in their own words. Henkka, Janne and Jaska recall the founding of the band with their lost brother, guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Alexi Laiho and the struggles, adventures and triumphs they experienced in the more than 30 years that followed. Drawing on personal memories and new interviews with the band conducted by Finnish best-selling author and longtime friend of the band Timo Isoaho, the official CHILDREN OF BODOM book tells the whole story, warts and all, of the groundbreaking melodic death metal band.
The book is available in two deluxe editions; the Signature is signed by Henkka, Janne, Jaska and Alexander, and preordering gives you the chance to have a name printed in the book — only at childrenofbodombook.com.
Henkka, Janne, Jaska and Alexander said in a statement: “Since we stopped making music and suffered the tragic loss of our brother Alexi, we’ve been remembering so many great times that we had together, and you can now read about those times in this book. It tells the full history of CHILDREN OF BODOM in our own words.”
CHILDREN OF BODOM‘s final concert took place on December 15, 2019 at the Black Box in Helsinki Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland. The show was released as a live album.
Alexi Laiho passed away on December 29, 2020 in his home in Helsinki, Finland. He died of alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue. Furthermore, Laiho had a cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication in his system. He had suffered from long-term health issues leading up to his death.
Last year, Raatikainen, Seppälä and Wirman discussed publicly for the first time the circumstances that led to the band’s split and ultimately Laiho‘s death. In an interview with Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat, the three surviving members of CHILDREN OF BODOM said the real reason for the band’s breakup was not that they wanted to stop touring in order to spend more time with their families, which is how Laiho explained it to Helsingin Sanomat in November 2019. Instead, what caused the group to split was Laiho‘s substance abuse, and that is also what eventually killed him a year after they went their separate ways.
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