Disco de HIM: “Love Metal”

While HIM has pleased us in the past with brilliant releases like "Greatest Love Songs v. 666" and "Razorblade Romance", they hit a slight slump with their third full length album, "Deep Shadows & Brilliant Highlights". The album was not bad, is just showed no progress. However, HIM come back with their most powerful and masterful work yet, "Love Metal".

Before this release, I never truly realized how talented this band was. I've always appreciated their vocalist, Ville Valo, and consider him one of rock's best singers. He also writes music for all the band, which must be why they all work together and play off each other so well. Their guitarist (there's always two guitars at work at the same time on every track, so I guess he overdubs it) does som pretty tricky and catchy stuff that he hasn't shown off in previous releases. Their bassist, while no Les Claypool, is an excellent rhythm keeper. But the one bad musician, as on all HIM releases, is their drummer. He's not too good, basically. He does not complicated things, and basically hits a snare and a bass drum throughout the whole album, sometimes throwing in a crash. It's either he's not capable or Valo isn't writing good enough stuff for him, but it kind of brings down the music.

Despite the drummer, this release is a masterpiece. Every time I listen to it, it gives me a feeling of seclusion and peace. That sounded corny, but this is one of the only album's I recall that can actually do that. The way "Soul on Fire" comes to it's epic conclusion is oh so super. This is the way music should be done.

The lyrics in the album are quite unique. They basically revolve around joy, sorrow, love and hate. But they are not handled in the Simple Plan way: someone's miserable because their girlfriend used them and now she's going out with the jock. No, I think HIM's a little more mature than that. Most of the lyrics are metafourical, as they have always been. Which is the uniqueness of them.

I highly recommend this band if you are looking for originality. This band is bleeding it.

P.S.: Love metal is the genre HIM falls into. Not goth. Though Love Metal does highly resemble it. And I've read reviews where people seem to think "Love Metal" means something like "I Love Metal". No. That's wrong. Sorry.

Well, I found out about this band in GERMANY, when I saw the video for "Join Me", which as I can now (barely) remember had been released with some connection to the soundtrack of "The Thirteenth Floor", but I could be wrong. That was 1999 or so, so I guess I have been following them for quite a while. As a matter of fact the next time I went to Germany, I bought a copy of Razorblade Romance.

I just want to establish some of my objectivity here, I'm no "teenybopper" as some would assert. I happen to like a wide range of music, which includes Classic Rock, Blues, Historical Music (i.e. Classical, Medieval, Baroque..etc)Industrial, Punk, Ambient, and the list goes on and on. By the way- I also have a massive disgust for most of the music that has come out in the past 7-8 years, so I hear all you people.

What attracted me to this band was their dark/tragic presentation of love, if you want to call it that. Whether it is cliche or not, I can't say because this kind of angle just interests me, regardless of the context. It is something that is not explored the way they explore it in much of music today. It was also somewhat of a relief in the days of boy-bands. Now, their sound is original based on what is out today, which is what drew me to them.

I'm positive there are a slew of groups from the 80's and early 90's (I dont mean grunge, dont get me wrong here) that would remind someone of HIM, but these days (as in LIKE, NOW) there are very few bands that sound like them. They just have that European touch, if you dont mind me saying. Also, keep in mind that they are not for everyone. I would never encourage anyone to buy their album, because they don't appeal to everyone. My advice to you is to go out and LISTEN first. Thats the way it should be. Find some way to listen to most of their album before you buy it, no matter which one it is.

Now, for those of you who have listened, or want to buy anyway: I think that people who only bought Deep Shadows..made the wrong choice at the wrong time. The album is good in itself, but not representative of the band. Their best ones are Greatest Lovesongs vol. 666, and Razorblade Romance, and these albums are the ones that would make someone appreciate their sound. This last one here, is much closer to their first sound, and I really liked it, and it shows a good amount of progress from their last record, which was not bad, but well- sappy. I dont need to sit there and justify this. You all probably have MP3 players, so see for yourselves. Get Love Metal, but only after hearing what its all about. I like HIM, that doesnt mean YOU will. Thats my story and I am sticking to it- happy buying!

HIM is a very unique band. The heartgram is prob. one of the most beautifulest band symbols I ever seen,even though Bam stole it from them and put it on his shirts and uses it alot on TV. Ville Vallo has very unique and depressing songs. His voice can even make you want to cry. His style hes going for is so different from other bands. HIM's not my fav band but there one of them. Very unique and different from other rock bands from out of America.

There is no arguing, this is HIM's hardest album to date. Moving in a very different direction from their pervious album, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights, Love Metal combines HIM's dark Scandanavian metal, with a classic, Black Sabbath like sound.

Buried Alive By Love: One of, if not the hardest HIM track ever. This track was placed at the beginning of the album to try and replicate the powerful opening of Iggy Pop's, ''Raw Power.'' This song is simply a great song. Very good at thier live shows.

I have to say that even though this album keeps to the original sound of HIM, they've changed quite a bit. And as we know, change is mostly good. Ville's voice keeps us listening with its multiple angles and wide vocal spectrum. The sound is refined and compelling, making us want to hear more of what they have to offer as a band. The lyrics though stay the same pretty much, dark and yet full of emotion and power. They have a truly unique sound which is thoroughly expressed in this album as well. There's always a touch of sadness yet it is welcomed sadness; it is sadness we want to see and feel. I would say the strongest track from this album are 'Sweet Pandemonium', 'Fortress of Tears' and 'The Sacrament'.

However, I like all their songs - I don't know a lot of bands that are as strong and just... beautiful like HIM. If I had to compare this album to their other albums... Well I'd say that's fairly impossible since each album they make is unique and has a slightly different 'tone' to it. My only regret is that their tours don't include the US and Canada. I feel like people here are really missing out on what HIM have to offer.