Roope Latvala

As of late May 2015, Latvala no longer is a member of Children of Bodom with the band having recorded the I Worship Chaos album as a four-piece, he was later replaced by Finnish Swede guitarist Daniel Freyberg of Naildown and Norther. According to Latvala he was fired from Children of Bodom just days before recording for the album was about to start. He later stated that he felt like he was "stabbed in the back" by his former band mates, while the band themselves said Latvala was not committed to the group, which included missing practices.

ESP guitars released in early 2008 an LTD Roope Latvala signature guitar. It features an alder, Star shaped body, a neck-through maple neck with an ebony fretboard, cross inlays and reversed headstock. It includes an Original Floyd Rose bridge, Grover Tuners, a single EMG HZ H-2 bridge pickup with a single volume control. His signature guitar is discontinued in North America as of 2011. ESP produces an ESP comprised Roope Latvala signature series in Japan.

When Alexander Kuoppala left Children of Bodom in 2003 in the middle of their world tour, the members of the band were forced to search for a new guitarist in the time span of one month, when their next show would happen. The new guitarist needed to be able to learn about twenty songs to be played live. Alexi Laiho allegedly tried to recruit Kai R. Nergård, of the Norwegian Heavy metal band Griffin, who declined. With little time left, Latvala contacted Laiho and asked him if Children of Bodom needed any help on the tour. Laiho agreed that he would be a session player because he was the only guitarist he deemed skilled enough to manage the feat of learning the songs with enough accuracy to replace Kuoppala, who had been playing with the band for 10 years.

After the breakup of Stone, he released an instrumental work with his brother, entitled Latvala bros. He then played with Dementia for around a year. In 1995 he joined Waltari after guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö left the band. They played together for six years before Latvala decided to quit the band.

Latvala was born in Helsinki. At the age of 15, he founded the band Stone together with Janne Joutsenniemi. The band's style was initially focused on a more traditional heavy metal, but they soon shifted to a faster and more aggressive sound, which was the key for them to receive mass recognition. In the year of 1991, the band was dissolved, with a discography of four studio albums, one live album and one compilation album. He is the main influence of many Finnish guitarists, especially Alexi Laiho (from Children of Bodom).

Roope Juhani Latvala (born 25 June 1970) is a Finnish guitarist, best known as the former rhythm guitarist for the band Children of Bodom from 2003 to 2015 and the co-lead electric guitarist for Sinergy. He was also one of the founding members of Stone, which was one of the first notable bands in the history of Finnish heavy metal.