In 2015, guitarist Roope Latvala was fired from the Finnish death metal band Children of Bodom . The reasons were never clear, but it is speculated that Latvala's departure was an attempt to keep his alcoholism away from vocalist Alexi Laiho , who at the time was trying to stay sober.
Laiho passed away in December at the age of 41 due to connective tissue degeneration of the liver and pancreas induced by excessive alcohol consumption. In a recent interview, Latvala commented on his expulsion from the band, saying he felt "betrayed and dumped" by his bandmates and that they were "dead" to him since then.
“I was betrayed and kicked out… I never exchanged a word with them [after the incident], and when I tried, they completely ignored me and said, ‘You can talk to our lawyer.’ That was it. So, those guys were already dead to me,” he commented.
Regarding the death of his former bandmate, Alexi Laiho, Roope Latvala commented that he wished he had cleared up some things before his tragic passing and that he still dreams about the singer. “We had some things to settle. I still want to remember and still have dreams about the time when he used to be my best friend,” he revealed.
During the conversation, however, Latvala blamed the band's change of management for the events that led to his dismissal and made a scathing comment about the possibility of him being removed to preserve Alexi's sobriety: "All alcoholics, when they want to pretend to be sober, start with this hypocrisy and this nonsense about Christian morality," he commented. "[The German firm] was very good. And then [Alexi] had to fire them because he started to like the Americans more. Everything American was cool; everything else was rubbish."
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