After dissolving long-running melodic death metal superstars Children of Bodom in 2019, Finnish guitar virtuoso Alexi Laiho embarked upon his next musical chapter: Bodom After Midnight. Taking Children of Bodom guitarist Daniel Freyberg with him, Laiho enlisted Paradise Lost drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, former Santa Cruz bassist Mitja Toivonen, and live keyboardist Vili Itäpelto to help realize the vision for his new band. But it was not to be. Partway through recording Bodom After Midnight’s debut, Laiho passed away suddenly in late 2020 at the age of 41. Paint the Sky With Blood collects the material they finished before his death: two high-energy originals and a bold cover of Dissection’s iconic 1995 track “Where Dead Angels Lie.” “These are the last songs Alexi ever wrote,” Freyberg tells Apple Music. “It’s such an honor to be part of them, but they have a totally different significance now than when we wrote them.” Below, Freyberg comments on each track. “Paint the Sky With Blood” “This was the first song we wrote, and it took way more time than ‘Payback’s a Bitch.’ The melody, the chorus, the blastbeats in the intro—it’s got a black metal vibe from the start, and then maybe a catchy pop chorus. I felt that this song should be a single, but Alexi was suggesting ‘Payback’s a Bitch.’ We finally got through to him and he said, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about the lyrics because they were totally from Alexi’s head.” “Payback’s a Bitch” “This is a little more modern than ‘Paint the Sky With Blood,’ which reminds me more of Alexi’s early writings like [Children of Bodom’s] Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper. ‘Payback’s a Bitch’ is more of a 2005 to 2007 type of song, if that makes sense, and the opening riff sounds like American metal to my ears. The title is cool, but Alexi never told us who this was about.” “Where Dead Angels Lie” “This was actually our drummer’s idea to make a cover of this song, and I don’t think Children of Bodom ever did a black metal cover. The original is a masterpiece, in my opinion. It was really a challenge to cover a song that probably nobody would dare to pick, because it’s a little bit intimidating. You don’t have to be a virtuoso to play this song, but you really have to nail it in other ways, with personality. We didn’t want to go too far from Dissection’s recording, but the original doesn’t have keyboards, and our version does. Alexi’s vocals almost make it sound like an original track. I wish it were!”