CHILDREN OF BODOM Has 'Almost Half' Of Next Album Written; Late 2018 Release Expected

CHILDREN OF BODOM bassist Henkka Seppälä (a.k.a. Henkka T. Blacksmith) has confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune that the band has commenced work on material for the follow-up to 2015's "I Worship Chaos" album. "We've been already writing the whole fall, actually," he said. "We have almost half the new album. So we'll go back and do some more new songs. And then, in the spring, we're gonna start laying the tracks."

As for the musical direction of the new CHILDREN OF BODOM songs, Henkka said: "I don't know. It's always hard. For me, for some reason, I'm incapable of describing any direction that we go. There's always something new, and it's always somehow refreshing to me to do the new songs. I'm very, very excited. Very, very excited."

According to Seppälä, the new CHILDREN OF BODOM album "should be mastered by the summer" of 2018, with a release to follow later in the year.

Henkka was also asked about recent comments made by ex-CHILDREN OF BODOM guitarist Roope Latvala, who claimed that he was "stabbed in the back" by his former bandmates.

Latvala was a member of CHILDREN OF BODOM for more than a decade before being dismissed from the group in May 2015. His exit came just as the band was preparing to enter the studio to begin recording "I Worship Chaos".

Roope told Finland's YLE that he was "bitter" at his former bandmates because he was "fired without an explanation." The guitarist added that he felt that "CHILDREN OF BODOM's success had gone to" frontman Alexi Laiho's head and that Alexi started to "look down on" him for reasons that weren't quite clear to him.

Pressed by The Salt Lake Tribune for a response to Roope's remarks, Henkka said: "Well, it was pretty clear, the whole thing, when we made the announcement when we split up. There was really nothing unclear. I don't know where this now came from. It was really kind of, like, sad — a sad thing to see it. I'd rather not talk about it. There's nothing to comment about it, and I'd rather leave it like it is now."

CHILDREN OF BODOM has embarked on a U.S. tour during which it is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the band's debut album, "Something Wild". The 24-date trek kicked off on October 31 in Dallas, Texas and included an appearance at this year's Ozzfest Meets Knotfest. The tour will conclude in Montreal on December 1. Joining the band are Dutch masters of horror CARACH ANGREN, Finnish thrashers LOST SOCIETY and New Jersey progressive, technical death metallers UNCURED.