Finnish bashers Children Of Bodom have started booking European festival dates for summer 2018. Their schedule is currently as follows:

June 
7 - Rockfest - Hyvinkaa, Finland
23 - Hellfest - Clisson, France

July 
22 - Savonlinnan Oopperajuhlat - Savonlinna, Finland
23 - Metaldays - Tolmin, Slovenia

On November 24th, 2017 Children Of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho spoke with the Shred Shack about new guitarist Daniel Freyberg (ex-Norther), who replaced Roope Latvala in 2016, and working on the follow-up to I Worship Chaos.

Laiho recently sat down with Billboard to discuss the band's first four albums - Something Wild, Hatebreeder, Follow The Reaper and Hate Crew Deathroll - which are the focus of the band's current 20 Years Down & Dirty North American Tour. An excerpt is available below.

Q: Would you say the album after that, Hatebreeder, was the first one that got people paying more attention to the band?

Alexi: "Yeah, I would say that less than a year-and-a-half between Something Wild and Hatebreeder, the band had taken such a huge leap forward, as far as everything. That’s when we started touring and playing live, and all of us, we were practicing like madmen. It was fuckin’ insane, dude. Every single day, we would practice as a band for hours and hours. And before and after, I would practice my own instrument. Our drummer, he would do the same thing. So Hatebreeder was obviously (better-played), and production-wise, it was a whole different band. Also, the songs, they had started making more sense. There was some sort of verse-chorus loop going on. Even though it was pretty progressive, but it wasn’t like one riff after another. The songs were actually a lot better, too."

Q: Hate Crew Deathroll; what did that album do for you?

Alexi: "That was the album where we'd finally found our own path and our own style. Because up until then, we were kind of like going here and there. Sort of looking for what we're all about. And I think on Hate Crew, we had finally captured it … That's definitely one of not only the most important albums for Children of Bodom, but definitely one of the best. For a lot of people, it’s their favorite record of Children of Bodom — and I don't blame them. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but it is pretty fucking badass. When I look back and I listen to it, I'm like, 'Shit, man. We nailed it.'"

Read the complete interview here.