Guitarist, and Alexi Laiho’s CHILDREN OF BODOM and BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT bandmate, Daniel Freyberg recently spoke with Revolver about the passing of the frontman, saying that he “definitely” didn’t see his death coming.
Freyberg, who joined CHILDREN OF BODOM in 2016, said that he had no idea that Alexi was so close to death while they were working on the first BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT album last year. “He seemed as normal as ever,” Daniel said. “Yeah, I definitely didn’t see this coming.”
Asked what Alexi was like on a personal level, Daniel said: “He was a very humble guy. Never made a fuss about himself, you know? He had an excellent sense of humor — really black, gallows humor. It was awesome. He was a very down-to-earth guy and a private guy outside of the band.
“He was very likable,” Freyberg added. “Everybody wanted to be around him and everybody wanted a piece of him. That was exhausting to him — he was always in the spotlight. But he was very loyal and generous towards his friends and always curious about how they were.”
Alexi Laiho passed away on December 29, 2020 in his home in Helsinki, Finland. It was later revealed that the official cause of death was “alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue.” Also, Laiho had a cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication in his system at the time of his passing. He was 41 years old.