Henkka T. Blacksmith

Henkka T. Blacksmith — born in Finland in 1980, given name Henri Seppälä — was Children of Bodom's bassist through practically the whole of the band's history. He joined in the early years and stayed until the group's end, recording from Something Wild (1997) to Hexed (2019). Alongside Alexi Laiho and Jaska Raatikainen, he forms the core that sustained the band for more than two decades. His function in the repertoire is harder than it looks. Children of Bodom plays melodic death metal at extreme speed, with keyboard and guitar occupying the foreground in duels of neoclassical vocabulary. The bass has to follow those figures in unison, with clean articulation and no lag against the continuous double kick — work of constant precision noticed only when it fails. After Laiho's death in December 2020, he took part in the projects honouring the band's legacy, keeping active the only line-up able to perform that repertoire with authority.