Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho is a Finnish vocalist, composer, and guitarist. He is
best known for being the lead guitarist as well as lead vocalist for melodic
death metal band Children of Bodom, and he is also the guitarist for Sinergy and
Kylähullut. He has previously played with Thy Serpent and Impaled Nazarene on
occasion, as well as Warmen and Hypocrisy.
Laiho was ranked #96 out of 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time by
Guitar World. Guitar World magazine has also ranked him as one of the 50 fastest
guitarists in the world. In addition, Roadrunner Records ranked Laiho at #41
out of 50 of The Greatest Metal Frontmen of All Time. In addition to this, Total
Guitar did a voting poll to determine the greatest metal guitarist of all time
and he was voted #1 out of 20 metal guitarists.
Career In 2004, Laiho founded a side-project
called Kylähullut, which was assembled together with Tonmi Lillman and Vesa
Jokinen 69er. The band was created merely for the entertainment of the
musicians, and takes a carefree approach to their music. The band's discography
includes two EP's, and two full-length albums.
In February 2002, Laiho married Kim Goss during a private ceremony in Finland.
Prior to the marriage, they dated for four years. In 2004 they separated, but
still remain close friends. He has the letters "COBHC" tattooed on his left
hand and "HATE" tattooed on his right hand as an homage to Ozzy Osbourne, who
has a similar tattoo with the letters O-Z-Z-Y, except that it is on the left
hand. Laiho 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 is derived from the
song "Wild Child" by the band W.A.S.P. He also has a clothing line called "wild
child industries". His first guitar was a Tokai Stratocaster.
Children of Bodom played at the 2008 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. There,
Laiho also received the Dimebag Award for "Best Shredder," and he performed a
track off of Bodom's 2008's album, Blooddrunk.
Laiho appears on Canadian thrash metal outfit Annihilator's 2007 album, Metal,
as a guest, performing a guitar solo on the song "Downright Dominate."
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 six 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 two European shows because Laiho had been 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.” Guitar endorsements
In January 2003, 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 SV shape is a copyrighted Jackson shape. So to avoid a lawsuit,
ESP made the bottom horn slightly larger and also put in a cut-away to get to the
higher frets, like a modified B.C. Rich Ironbird. Another difference is the use
of solid black or yellow pinstripes on the paint finish instead of his
traditional pinstriped design which lies on the bevels of the guitar.
The guitar comes in two finishes: black with yellow stripe and white with black
stripe. The guitar has a neck-thru 25.5” design, using a 3-pc unfinished maple
neck with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard and pearl sawtooth inlays, although
Alexi does not actually use these in live shows
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, Schaller straplocks and a single Seymour Duncan AHB-1 in the
bridge position,. Alexi's personal guitars, as well as Custom shop,
Standard, and the models made for the US market are equipped with an MM-04
preamp. As of 2007, a cheaper model is also
available, in either solid black or white finish. It's a bolt on, 25.5"
Scale with the body made out of basswood, with a maple neck and rosewood
fingerboard. It features a Floyd Rose Licensed bridge and one EMG-ESP LH-301
bridge pickup. There is also a Limited Edition Alexi signature guitar which is
black and pink. He also has a Custom Shop and Standard version of the Black
and Pink guitar in his traditional pinstriped design that is not available
in the USA. There are seven ESP models that he
actually uses 1. Scythe white with black pinstripes
and Scythe inlays,Chrome hardware 2. Arrow Head Black with solid yellow
pinstripes very much like the USA Alexi and the Alexi 600 but with pearl Arrow
Head inlays, Gold hardware 3. Sawtooth Black with luminous
pinstripes and luminous sawtooth inlays Black with white pinstripes and pearl
sawtooth inlays both the CS and STD version are available in chrome or gold
hardware 4. Katakana Black with yellow pinstripes
1, 3, 5, 7, 9 frets with pearl sawtooth inlays katakana inlays in the 12 fret
which spelled "Alexi", gold hardware with larger cutaway, frets 21–24
scalloped. 5. Pink Sawtooth Black with Pink
pinstripes pink sawtooth inlays frets 20–24 scalloped, black hardware with
larger cutaway 6. Blacky Matte black with gloss black
pinstripes black pearl sawtooth inlays, frets 20–24 scalloped, black nickel
hardware with larger cutaway 7. Greeny – Matte black, light green
pinstripes and green skeleton. Note: The 2010 version of Scythe,
Sawtooth, and Arrow Head has the larger cutaway like the Pink Sawtooths
Equipment Alexi Laiho has used the Lee Jackson
GP-1000 preamp since after touring and recording Something Wild, where he used
a Peavey 5150, and up until his endorsement with ENGL, still always
employed it with various other different amps and preamps, creating a stereo of
Amp sounds. Note that, for the first half of his career, he used Marshall
1960A cabinets and various power amps, including Lee Jackson Sp-1000, Rocktron
Velocity 300 among others. After Hate Crew Deathroll, he started experimenting
with different amp heads including the Krank Revolution, Marshall JCM800 KK,
and the Engl Special Edition EL34 head. As of late August 2011, Alexi is now
signed with Engl and is currently using the e530 preamp with various poweramp
and cabinet combinations since their last 2011 tour.
Laiho first used an Ibanez RG 220B along with a Jackson Custom Shop, which Roope
Latvala was part of) to record the first Children of Bodom record and eventually
switched completely to Jackson Guitars which he used for several years until 2
of his 3 Jacksons were stolen. He asked Jackson to make him another one, but the
time-table they gave him for its production was too long. ESP came to him
and said that it would take around 3 months for his new signature model to be
up and running, so Alexi took this offer. Thus he switched to ESP guitars.
The change occurred shortly after the release of Hate Crew Deathroll. His ESP
guitars are based on the Jackson Randy Rhoads, except the body is cut slightly
different on North American models. They all feature a single bridge pickup and
double-locking tremolo. He is known for using a passive EMG ALX pickup with an
on board active preamp circuit to boost the output signal as oppose to active
pickups. Laiho uses Audiotech Guitar Products Source Selector 1X6 Rack Mount
Audio Switchers. He also uses DR Strings Hi-Beam 11–50
gauge for D Standard tuning. For Drop C, he uses DR Jeff Healey Signature 10–56
Strings. He has also recently been given a signature set of DR strings. He uses
Jim Dunlop Jazz III picks. Tunings
D Standard : Hatebreeder, Follow The Reaper, Hate Crew Deathroll, Are You
Dead Yet?, Blooddrunk, Relentless Reckless Forever, Halo of Blood
Dropped C : Hate Crew Deathroll, Are You Dead Yet?, Blooddrunk, Relentless
Reckless Forever, Halo of Blood C# Standard : Something Wild, I Worship
Chaos Dropped B : I Worship Chaos
Discography See also
ESP Alexi Laiho Children of Bodom
Lake Bodom murders References