Osa 10: Vieraana Alexander Kuoppala - Miten komppikitarat taiottiin Alexi Laihon soiton taustalle

Recap

The episode gives Children of Bodom’s often-overlooked rhythm-guitar work the spotlight. At the Osmos Cosmos bar in Imatra, guitarist Alexander Kuoppala talks with host Vesa Winberg about how he and Alexi Laiho built the guitar parts behind Bodom’s lead lines—and demonstrates some of the techniques along the way.

Kuoppala begins with his custom ESP, made in 2002 with a camouflage finish inspired by his idol Jeff Hanneman. He explains why he prefers its passive pickup and why the volume knob is positioned where he can reach it without accidentally turning it down. The guitar talk soon shifts to his powerful picking hand: growing up listening to Scott Ian and Hanneman helped shape his heavy, tightly muted rhythm style. Kuoppala shows how using more of the chord—not just the low note—can make a riff sound weightier.

A recurring theme is just how carefully Bodom’s parts were worked out. Kuoppala and Laiho would consider whether a riff should start with an upstroke or downstroke, and even choose different fingerings or strings to get a particular tone. Kuoppala describes his role as starting with the backing parts on the demos, then gradually developing them with Laiho. In songs such as “Everytime I Die,” “Hate Me!” and “Sixpounder,” small changes in harmony, accents, and chord movement help keep a repeated part evolving rather than sounding copy-pasted. Sometimes the two guitar tracks were deliberately arranged differently across the stereo image to make the harmony clearer.

The stories from the studio are both revealing and funny. Kuoppala recalls grinding through riffs again and again with producer Anssi Kippo—sometimes dozens of takes, until his hands were cramping and they had to pick it up the next day. He jokes that after repeating a riff for hours, it can start to feel as if “nothing is enough.” Winberg also teases him about making practice harder by turning down the distortion. Kuoppala says the point was to hear exactly what he was playing, since extra gain won’t rescue a messy part.

They also talk about groove: a riff can be technically correct and still fall flat if the players don’t give it the right swing and accents. Kuoppala points to “Sixpounder” as an example of how the feel depends on the whole band, especially the drums—not just the notes on the page.

The conversation turns more personal when Kuoppala describes returning to the stage with Bodom after many years away. He was nervous before the first show, and the audience’s roar through his in-ear monitors made the moment even more intense. As “Living Dead Beat” began, he focused on the song’s structure; his hands initially felt numb from tension, but he settled in as the set went on. What had felt like a long, daunting show seemed to pass in minutes. He says he was moved to play the old songs again and admits he wishes he had stayed in touch with Laiho more.

Kuoppala also recalls getting to know Sami, who took over the guitar parts for the reunion performances. He was impressed by Sami’s ability and recognized shared influences in his playing, while the two compared notes on details that were difficult to work out from old videos and recordings.

The closing question asks Kuoppala to name three important albums: Anthrax’s Among the Living, Manowar’s Kings of Metal, and Kiss’s Lick It Up. His story about playing Lick It Up for his grandmother—who couldn’t stand it, despite being an English teacher—provides one of the episode’s best laughs.

Personalities

• Featured: Alexander Kuoppala, Vesa Winberg
• Discussed: Alexi Laiho, Sami, Henkka Seppälä, Jaska Raatikainen, Janne Wirman, Anssi Kippo, Roope Latvala, Pete Kiisseli
• Musical influences mentioned: Jeff Hanneman, Scott Ian, James Hetfield, Randy Rhoads, and others