Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM have been forced to cancel their appearance at next year's edition of the Tuska festival, set to take place June 28-30, 2013 in Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland.

Commented CHILDREN OF BODOM bassist Henkka Seppälä (a.k.a. Henkka T. Blacksmith): "We've been waiting to play Tuska for some years now. It is our home festival after all. Unfortunately, this year we have to sacrifice a couple of festivals in Europe in order to be able to be part of a big tour in USA. These are not easy nor nice decisions. We only can hope we can do Tuska in the near future again.

"Please stay tuned for our schedules for summer 2013. Fortunately, we are able to play shows in Europe as well. Looking forward!"

CHILDREN OF BODOM recently inked a Japanese record deal with Marquee Inc. The label will release the band's new album in late spring/early summer 2013. The CD will be made available in other parts of the world via the band's new label home, Nuclear Blast Records. The group's drummer, Jaska Raatikainen, recently wrote on his Facebook page, "We have some songs ready and I must say that they really sound great — very inspiring, dark and also little 'black' [metal]-ish. We have been joking about [CHILDREN OF BODOM guitarist/vocalist] Alexi [Laiho], that one day he will come to rehearsals with corpsepaint :-) ! So dark the songs have been."

CHILDREN OF BODOM released a photo book, "Roadkill", on August 8 via Hatecrew.com. The first 666 copies are numbered and personally signed by the band.

Photography for "Roadkill" started in 2007. It includes exclusive material of life on the road, shows, promo shoots, recording sessions, album cover production and the worldwide "hate crew," as the band's fans are affectionately known. The book also contains comments and diary entries by the band and the photographer, Jussi Hyttinen of FLC415.

CHILDREN OF BODOM's most recent release was "Holiday At Lake Bodom (15 Years Of Wasted Youth)" , a very special CD+DVD career retrospective in celebration of the band's 15th anniversary.