Children Of Bodom have announced that they will be opening their very own bar and sauna.
The Bodom Bar & Sauna will open its doors on November 10 in Espoo, Finland, nearby to where the band first formed.
On top of bar facilities, the establishment will feature displays of gear and memorabilia from across COB's career, as well as offering customers the chance to "experience the Finnish sauna culture" in its spa, which will be comprised of three sauna rooms.
Taking to Instagram to explain their decision behind this new business venture, the remaining members of Children Of Bodom, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, and keyboardist Janne Wirman, wrote in a joint message: "We toured actively from 1998 until 2019. We have visited a bar in almost every town we ever played in. From Hard Rock Café Tokyo to a dive bar in the outskirts of Milwaukee. Everything from the legendary Rainbow Bar and Grill in West Hollywood to the Crobar in London UK.
"Almost everyone in our profession dreams of opening their own bar at some point and we were no exception" they continue. "When the active career of CoB was already coming to an end we started looking into it a bit more seriously. We had a warehouse full of memorabilia and we thought that a lot of people would want to see some of this stuff that used to be and still was very meaningful to us and the career of the band.
"A thought of a museum felt a bit foreign but an idea of a bar that works as a museum displaying our gear and memorabilia seemed quite natural at this point. We had almost given up on this dream when the power duo of Jykä Peltonen and Kimmo Helistö emerged and were ready to provide us with their know how in the matter.
"Together we will build this unholy concoction of hard rock café and dive bar with a lot of Bodom in it. The new HQ of CoB will combine a museum and a bar but also include the possibility to experience the Finnish sauna culture. Situated naturally in Espoo only a stone's throw away where the band started their career.
"Bodom Bar & Sauna is being built in Espoo into a location with easy access to a Metro station. The establishment will also include three saunas. There will be no entry fee to the Bar and no age limit. There will be a fee for the sauna experience. We will open the Bar on 10.11.22."
Earlier this year, the three surviving COB members opened up on the deteriorating relationship they had with late frontman Alexi Laiho, around the time of the band's split in 2019.
In conversation with Helsingin Sanomat over email, the band reveal that Laiho's addiction issues began to effect business dealings, and that his behaviour became increasingly more erratic as the years went on.
"Addiction is an illness, and he destroyed our trust in him with his actions in our business venture," Wirman, Raatikainen and Seppala say. "But he apologised for a lot of things, and we did work together even after the band broke up."
