Ykä Järvinen, who directed, edited and produced BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT‘s music video for the title track of the band’s “Paint The Sky With Blood” EP, has shared previously unreleased studio footage from the EP recording sessions, which took place in November 2020. You can check out the two short clips below.
BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT was formed in 2020 by former CHILDREN OF BODOM frontman Alexi Laiho. He was joined in the group by guitarist Daniel Freyberg, drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (PARADISE LOST), bassist Mitja Toivonen (ex-SANTA CRUZ) and live keyboardist Vili Itäpelto.
Alexi died 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.
In a message accompanying the YouTube release of the second BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT studio video, Järvinen wrote: “I have quite a lot footage from these BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT studio sessions which never got released because maestro left this realm way too soon. I really don’t know if any more of this stuff will be released, but here’s another small clip I did edit over a year ago as a demo for the guys. I hope you enjoy it.”
Laiho‘s ashes were buried last month — nearly a year after his tragic passing at the age of 41. He was laid to rest at the Malmi Cemetery, a large cemetery located in the Malmi district in Helsinki, Finland.
Australian-born music publicist Kelli Wright, who says she married the musician three years before his death, announced Alexi‘s burial in a social media post on December 10, 2021. She wrote: “Finally, with extremely mixed emotions, I can announce MY late, unconditionally and forever loved husband’s ashes were buried yesterday on our 4 th Wedding Anniversary. The family Laiho plot is where he was buried. Alexi and Kelli 2005 – eternity”.
A large gravestone has been ordered for Alexi‘s final resting place, but it has not yet been installed. Social media posts of Alexi‘s grave show a candle sitting on top of his burial spot.
At the time of his death, Alexi was still legally married to his former SINERGY bandmate Kimberly Goss. In January 2021, Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported that Laiho tied the knot with Goss in February 2002, and the couple never officially divorced. Although Laiho filed for divorce in November 2002, he quickly withdrew the petition and never filed another.
According to Finnish law, Laiho and Wright would not have been able to legally wed, as Laiho and Goss had never terminated their marriage.
In March 2021, Alexi‘s sister Anna accused Kimberly of holding up the burial process, writing in a social media post that Goss was using “her legal rights as a widow, preventing grie[v]ing mother and father [from] bury[ing] their own son. Her selfish and narcissistic explanation is that she wanted to take part in the funeral and still wants to be present when the ashes are buried,” she wrote. “But our family does not want this monster anywhere near us.”
For her part, Goss, who lives in Chicago, Illinois, denied allegations that was “a ‘gold-digger’ who Alexi ‘hated’,” explaining that “this can be easily disproven through the beautiful text and video messages he sent me daily, right until the last day of his life. Messages so sweet, yet so heartbreaking at the same time. Heartbreaking because you can see how ill he was. I tried everything I could to help him. I often messaged people in Helsinki to check in on him because I was so worried.”
Last month, Anna told Ilta-Sanomat that “the protracted dispute” over her brother’s ashes was “over” and that she and the rest of her family welcomed the opportunity to focus on grieving her brother “in a new way.”
Alexi and drummer Jaska Raatikainen founded CHILDREN OF BODOM in 1993, and the band was one of the most internationally acclaimed metal acts in Finland up until their very last farewell concert in December of 2019.
BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT recorded three songs and shot one music video, all of which were released posthumously.
Besides CHILDREN OF BODOM, Laiho had played in such acts as WARMEN, SINERGY, KYLÄHULLUT and THE LOCAL BAND. Awarded with a Metal Hammer Golden God and several other international prizes, the guitarist was also the main star, leading a group of one hundred guitar players at the Helsinki Festival in 2015 in “100 Guitars From Hel” — a massive concert piece he composed.
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Tagged: Alternative Music, music blog