An Interview From EMP Germany

A very interessting CD was released by CoB with 'Something Wild'. We'll for sure hear again from this 'newcomer' because the mix of death, trash and classical elements has very good quality. On the one hand it 's not easy to listen to this complicated music, but on the other hand shouldn't you listen to the CD more than one time if the playtime is only 32 minutes?
The band was found in the beginning of 1993 and after releasing some demos the band started in summer last year to record their first LP. Guitarist and vocalist Alexi Laiho, typically for a finnish man of not much speaking, took the time to answer my questions:

Your unusual bandname has a mysterious background.

Yes, on the one hand we are form the area from lake Bodom, on the other hand there were some brutal murders in the sixties. One time the whole camp was slaughtered.

Would you camp at this lake?

Sure, but only weaponed! Hehe...

The music of the band is very difficult and full of technical stuff.

That's right, but we do not do that because we will show how good we can play. We only play the music we want, it's not our purpose to write complicated music. Especially here in Finnland many metalfans can't understand our music and therefore they don't like us, but we don't really care.

Amazing is, that the guys pre-financed the album and went to the studio without having a deal.

We had an offer from a very small belgian label, but luckily we hadn't signed yet, because when we gave our friends at Spinefarm a demo, they imideadly wanted to make a contract with us.

Afterwards Nuclear Blast licenced 'Something Wild' from Spinefarm.

With this we had nothing to do, but I think that Nuclear Blast could help us outside Finland, because Sinefarm is rather fixed to the finnish market.

If you think of the financial situation of the band members the sound qualitaty is surprisingly good.

The recordings costed about 7 000 DM (about $ 5 000 I think), which is a lot of money for us. But if you compare it to others it's quite cheap. Fortunately Spinefarm did something for us, because we would have had problems to raise the money.

Because of the classical Metal-influences you could also imagine such a vocalist, but the band likes a high death metal-shouter, like Alexi.

We like the combination of classical sounds and aggressive vocals. There are many power metal-bands I like, but I also like listening to death metal. So, why don't combine both?

When I listened to the CD I always had to think of Yngwie Malmsteen.

That's right, he's a big influence on me and I like his albums very much. I listen to other guitarists too, like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and I like listening to classical music of Mozart or Bach style too.

Alexi also plays in the excelent black metal band 'Thy Serpent' as lead guitarist.

Sometimes it's very stressing playing in two bands, but I manage this. Sure my main interest is COB, but I also put in very much for Thy Serpent. How I seperate my different riff-ideas? I don't know for sure, but I always know which riff or solo fits better to this band and which one to the other. Both bands are aggressive, but however different.

A bit disapointing on SW is the far too short playtime of only 32 minutes.

I know, but next time we'll definitely do a longer LP. This time we didn't have the money and we didn't have any more songs we wanted to put on the album.

Plans for a tour?

Yes, we'll play as support for Hypocrisy and tour through Europe. Perhaps we'll do anyother support tour afterwards, but that's not sure yet. What's more we want to record the next album in summer so that it hopefully will be out in autumn.

Alexi doesn't want to be called as one of the much-drinking finnish musicians.

Of course I'm drunk one time per week, but that's all. Sometimes you'll have to keep a clear head, even if it's very dark here in Finland. The sun is only shining for four, five hours a day.


Sorry if I did some translation-mistakes!


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