Children Of Bodom guitarist Daniel Freyberg, who replaced Roope Latvala in 2016, has checked in with the following message to the fans:

"It's been a busy but rewarding year. Spent 140 days on the road, played 85 shows in 4 different continents. Got to see a lot of new places, meet nice people and travel with great company. Big thanks to the fans and supporters, and especially Children Of Bodom for the shot. It’s been a great time on and off stage and I feel privileged to do this. So, thank you awesome 2016 and happy 2017 everybody!"

Children Of Bodom drummer/co-founder Jaska Raatikainen has posted a year-end recap for 2016. Check it out in its entirety below:

"It’s time to wrap up 2016. So, what happened this year?

First of all a new guitar player Daniel (who is a Finnish guy FYI, if somebody is still wondering) joined the band. It has been great times with him on and off stage. Our band has had quite a solid group of people working together in the past and we are not eager to change that. There is always a lot of work to integrate a new guy into the group. We don’t want to do that very often. Hopefully this answers the question if he (Daniel) is gonna continue with us or not.

The year started with a tour in the US with Megadeth. Later we headed to South America. In the summer we continued with lots of festivals all around the Europe. After a little break in the end of the summer we were on our way to Japan for a couple of shows. Finally in the end of the year we went to the US again for a month and came back for holiday season.

One of my dreams came true this year as I had a chance to take my older daughter with me to Japan. My only concern was who could take care of her when I was on stage? Well, luckily I had friends there who could look after her. Also, I finally (sadly) had to admit to myself that she is not interested about my work at all. During the both shows she was playing games with my cell phone. Yeah, I can imagine her thinking like 'Dad, I don’t wanna watch the show, it is so damn boring what you guys do!' She has seen our show for maybe 20 times so there’s nothing new to her.

Being on the road and having two small kids is quite rough. Being frustrated, tired, busy and absent minded (and absent) I felt bad not being able to be there more for my kids. They are high maintenance but give you so much. I held on to the thought how lucky I was to have my daughters. I am happy that they are so active and energetic, and never stay on one place, but for crying out loud…

Even though so many great things happened to me this year it was still overshadowed by severe back pain that made me really frustrated and anxious. I needed pain killers to be able to perform a show and still wasn’t able to enjoy it. Sometimes it was just surviving through the set. The days I didn’t have pain and I could play normally were rare. Those shows I played like it could be my last show and just couldn’t help thinking that this great thing what I was doing on stage could end any day. The tour in South America and all the festivals in the summer made me think my life and career more deeply. Being a drummer with a body that is a total wreck is probably the worst combo. All the flying and suffering from sleep deprivation was just too rough for me. It really made me think if this all work is worth the pain. Though, I don’t give up very easily when it comes to what I love the most.

Luckily I always want to focus on the future and right now the upcoming celebration and making a new album helps keeping it all together. A 20 year career is a long time for anyone. For me and Alexi it actually means 25 years together. Two thirds of my life I have been playing drums in a band and performing around the world. I am very proud of that. I cannot wait for the tour in the spring and playing some old songs. The set will include some rarities and also some songs we have never played live. Practically we have played some of the songs in -97 or -98, 20 years ago! We really have to dig deeper to the first two albums and try to figure out what exactly was the thing each of us wanted to express with our music.

We will start creating new songs during spring and summer, and will head to the studio during fall. The album will be our tenth studio album, which is also quite a milestone. It seems that after the studio I will have some time to get my back better somehow, possibly an operation if all the other options have been tried out.

I hope next year will bring good moments and memories to everybody. I also hope the world situation would not be so tense. See you on the road somewhere around the world and may the force be with you all!"

Peace and love,
Jaska

Children Of Bodom's debut album, Something Wild, was released 20 years ago and thus the mighty Hate Crew were born. Finland's melodic death superstars will take to the road in 2017 to celebrate 20 years of life in the form of a mind blowing classic setlist.

For an entire month, Children Of Bodom will bring their reaper sound over Europe, so make sure to catch them on one of the dates listed below. Tickets will go on sale on December 14th.

Alexi Laiho recently told OC Weekly: “I don’t know yet if we’re going to play the whole album or probably just a lot of rare songs from it we never play live. We might do a mix of our first two albums. It will be weird, it will be a trip but fans will dig it. I am thinking instead of playing a whole album, we will play the most obscure tracks.”

Tour dates:

March
8 - Capitol - Hannover, Germany
9 - Longhorn - Stuttgart, Germany
10 - Den Atelier - Luxembourg, Luxembourg
11 - Academy 2 - Manchester, England
12 - Shepherd’s Bush Empire - London, England
14 - Le Cargo - Caen, France
15 - L’Echonova - Vannes, France
16 - La Nef - Angouleme, France
17 - Disney - Le File 7 - Magny-Le-Hongre, France
18 - Le Metaphone - Oignie, France
20 - Komplex - Zurich, Switzerland
21 - Theaterfabrik - Munich, Germany
22 - Live Club - Milan, Italy
23 - Tvornica Kulture - Zagreb, Croatia
25 - Arena - Vienna, Austria
26 - Strasse E - Dresden, Germany
27 - Astra - Berlin, Germany
30 - Pustervik - Gothenburg, Sweden

April
1 - Pumpehuset - Copenhagen, Denmark
2 - KB - Malmö, Sweden
3 - Rockefeller - Oslo, Norway
4 - Debaser Strand - Stockholm, Sweden