#135: Alexi Laiho and Herman Li [70,000 Tons of Metal Episode]

February 15th, 2016 at 12:00pm
MetalSucks

This week we were recovering from our trip to the Caribbean on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. The floating festival is in its sixth year, offering 60 bands over the course of four days, and somehow we survived our third trip. Whether you love to see the crowd, the destinations or the bands you will have a spectacular time. As part of the press corps, we got the opportunity to talk to some of the bands on board in an “official” capacity, and this can present some challenges for your hosts who tend to talk without end.

The guitar shredder Herman Li of the mighty Dragonforce took some time to speak with us. They had a tough go of it — their first performance was cut due to tech problems, then rescheduled, and their final show was booted from the main stage by the weather — but he was in good spirits the whole trip and we were able to have an in-depth chat with the man behind the guitar.

We had been working to get Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom to guest on the show when their latest album dropped and couldn’t make it work, but he had nowhere to run on the cruise ship. You may forget how long Children of Bodom have been bringing the metal, and his history with the band is obviously interesting, so we pick his brain to find out what drives him to keep moving forward, both personally and musically.