CHILDREN OF BODOM Drummer Describes Life On The Road

Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM kicked off their headlining "Halo Of Blood Over Europe 2013" tour on September 25 in Stockholm, Sweden.

In a posting on his Facebook page, CHILDREN OF BODOM drummer Jaska Raatikainen writes: "Being on tour in Europe is always something special.

"The first tour abroad we did as CHILDREN OF BODOM was a European tour in early 1998. That tour started from Markthalle, Hamburg, where we again came to play three days ago. It was a hot, sweaty and superb show. Also the shows in Gothenburg, Oslo and Copenhagen were great. The audience in Oslo was particularly amazing — it seemed like everybody was really into the music and they made us feel welcome.

"Can't believe I'd forgotten what daily life is like on a real headline tour.

"I usually wake up around 2-3 p.m. and have breakfast. Then I go through e-mails and reply to them (if the Internet works) and try to fix the issues that usually come along with the e-mails. There are quite a lot of things you need to take care of on your computer while on tour: all the future tour planning, everything band-related and also your personal life that is partly left behind when you leave on tour for several weeks all need tending to.

"Next thing I really need is some fresh air and a little exercise. Normally I go for a little sightseeing and walk for 1-4 hours. Then it is already time for dinner and some promotional duties. After all this, I start preparing for the show by napping for an hour or so (I know, I am like a little baby and I need lots of sleep for my body to function well) and wake up about an hour before the show.

"During that last hour before the show, all the most critical things happen. You try to free your mind from the day's hassle and prepare your body somehow for the next 90 minutes on stage. You can see and feel that both the crew and the band are concentrating on their own things and all that loud shit-talking and joking sometimes just disappears. All the problems or even little changes (not to mention the surprises) before the show are always disturbing and might affect your concentration. Guests are escorted out of the dressing room at some point — even girlfriends. Only the band and the crew can enter the dressing room without asking. It gets more serious. At this moment you are ready to go on stage and the last few minutes you basically spend calmly waiting for the show to begin and hoping everything is perfectly set up on stage. Then BOOOOOOOM!!

"After the show, you take a shower and talk about the show, if there is anything to talk about. If the show is good, you are happy and just smile. You do not wanna talk about a bad show and so you just accept the fact that sometimes it is like that. Those shows with lots of technical difficulties or other problems you usually do go over, however, and try to learn from any mistakes so they won't be repeated.

"Luckily on this tour, every night has thus far been very good — like last night's show in Cologne!"

CHILDREN OF BODOM's eighth album, "Halo Of Blood", sold 8,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD was made available on June 11 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. The cover art was created by Sami Saramäki, who was responsible for the artwork on previous CHILDREN OF BODOM albums "Follow The Reaper", "Are You Dead Yet?" and "Hate Crew Deathroll".

CHILDREN OF BODOM's new album was recorded at Danger Johnny Studios in Helsinki. For the recording of the LP, CHILDREN OF BODOM has teamed up with recording engineer Mikko Karmila, who worked with the band on their fan-favorite albums "Hatebreeder", "Follow The Reaper" and "Hate Crew Deathroll", as well as Swedish producer Peter Tägtgren (MARDUK, AMON AMARTH),who oversaw production of both vocals and keyboards on the record. The album was mixed at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki.