|
"First, I should define more accurately that HIM are as metal as
the Scorpions have ever been. Just like the smacking Germans, the Finns have one inexcusable virtue - they create songs, which
grab you and get stuck in your mind, so you need to listen some kind of bloody brutalism for a few days, to get it out of
your mind. HIM's albums are full of hits, made in the classical, but ideal method - beautiful, easy to remember, simply structured
melodies, lacking a lot of decoration; a vocalist with angelic voice, singing about love; some striking guitars. And let's
don't forget that very important thing- the SEXY front man.
The
music that the band is doing was named "Love Metal" by Ville Valo. Love metal is music, which is inspired by feelings, says
Ville. "Buried Alive By Love", "The Funeral Of Hearts" and "Beyond Redemption" - good symbiosis between fast, energetic
parts and tender melodies - will fascinate fans. The slower "This Fortress Of
Tears", "Circle of Fear", and
"The Path" verify for one more time that HIM have real talent to touch people's
hearts."
Rhythm Magazine, BG
There he was, working behind the counter of his father's sex
shop. It was all right for the time being, but the boy with an angel's face and a devilish smile had a dream. Disillusioned
with the music he heard around him, he wanted something more. The music was lacking in soul and imagination. He wanted something
that could move you, bring you to the verge of tears, leave a mark on you. And he fulfilled his dream.
Ville Hermanni
Valo formed HIM in the summer of 1995, gathering around him some old friends who shared his vision of a brand of rock Ville
himself calls 'love metal'. Depeche Mode meets Dimmu Borgir in a David Lynch movie...
"You're so close! Love metal
is music that includes elements of pop, metal, Goth, glam... It's music inspired by the feelings you have before the first
touch, before the first kiss. Love metal is like the movie poster of Gone with the Wind, you know, Clark Gable embracing Vivien
Leigh in the sunset."
No wonder then that HIM has chosen to cover Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. The HIM version has layers
of hard-edged guitars on it but the soul-searching inner qualities of that song are left intact.
"I could relate to
the mood in that song, it contains that same kind of melancholy feeling that you can find in our music. After all, we have
much more in common with a guy like Chris Isaak than any testosterone-heavy metal band. I hate joyful music! For You is my
'head banging anthem', if you know what I mean? When Love and Death Embrace on the other hand is my version of all those cheesy
80's pop ballads."
Ville Hermanni Valo - half sneering hard rock front man, half suffering poet. On stage with a bottle
of red wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other, a Jim Morrisonesque figure (in Jimbo's slimmer days, that is...) with
a deeply emotional voice, he instantly demands your attention. His mother's Hungarian ancestors are responsible for his dark
looks and that drop of Dracula's blood that he has in his system. HIM stands for His Infernal Majesty.
"It stands entirely
for my reputation of being a truly infernal ladies' man, totally hopeless. I get burned time after time again. His Infernal
Majesty has nothing whatsoever to do with ANY kind religious beliefs or ideologies - just as in our context 666 has nothing
to do with the number of the beast. When I read about those people that burned historical Finnish churches and who names us
along with Black Sabbath and Dimmu Borgir as being their main source of inspiration, I was deeply offended!"
HIM's
debut album is entitled Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666 and it has a track on it called Your Sweet Six Six Six. For Ville and
HIM, 666 is all about contradictions, the Good and the Evil in love. Love that's larger than life and yet very close to death,
the never-ending duel between the carnal and the pure, spiritual sides.
"666 is something you're possessed with, something
you just have to get although you know it will destroy you in the end. It's something sweet but it has a bitter aftertaste,
like Belgian beer or something, ha-ha..."
"Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666" contains nine songs of which seven are originals
written by Ville Valo. A second cover version is a stunning, slowed down reading of Blue ster Cult's mid-70's classic (Don't
Fear) The Reaper.
"You could say that Romeo and Juliet are the hero and heroine in our music - that's why we chose
to cover (Don't Fear) The Reaper. I heard the original for the first time on the soundtrack of Halloween and it has stayed
with me ever since."
That androgynous figure on the cover of "Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666", burning in the fires
of hell and staring into nowhere, that is Ville Valo. A guy who started his musical career learning the bass entirely because
of Gene Simmons' pyrotechnics and for whom performing is a kind of mental masturbation. The sex shop boy who with his band
HIM has just delivered one of the most impressive debut albums of the 90's.
"What next? You just wait", Ville says
with a sly smile. "It could be anything I just may have a plan V, you know. I might go full time into the family business."
|
