† NillaMora †

Finnish "love metallers" HIM are debuting the video for their new single, "Bleed Well", for the HIM fan club on Heartagram.com today. Imeem will feature the official "world premiere" of the video on Tuesday, November 27.

The band filmed the live footage for the new clip at their Los Angeles shows on November 14 and November 15 at the Orpheum Theatre. The footage from the shows will also be used for HIM's upcoming live DVD, to be released in 2008.

HIM frontman Ville Valo recently spoke to Straight.com about his songwriting process. "It's very hard to sing about sunshine and ice cream and birds in fast cars . . . I'm a miserable bastard when it comes to writing music," he said. "I love melancholy music, and I love the darker aspects when it comes to, like, popular music. I've always been a big fan of [BLACK] SABBATH and…

According to Ville Valo, lead vocalist for Finnish rockers HIM, "It's very hard to sing about sunshine and ice cream and birds in fast cars." So he doesn't even try. Instead, song titles like "Cyanide Sun", "Dead Lovers' Lane", and "Song or Suicide" populate his band's latest CD, Venus Doom. "I'm a miserable bastard when it comes to writing music," claims the singer, calling on his cellphone from the outskirts of Detroit. "I love melancholy music, and I love the darker aspects when it comes to, like, popular music. I've always been a big fan of [Black] Sabbath and all that, so obviously they've been a big influence on me, and I wanted to write music that would have a similar kind of gloomy atmosphere to it."

The 30-year-old…

by Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald

Finnish rockers HIM enjoy injecting humour into music where power and aggression reign

 "I just came out of the bath and my smell is exquisite," says Finnish rocker Ville Valo, lead singer of the band HIM, a tone of mock arrogance in his voice. "Remember to mention that," he says, cracking up with laughter during a phone interview. "It's very important."

Apparently this is a rock star who doesn't take himself all that seriously, which is refreshing because at first glance HIM seems to be a rather precious lot.

For one thing, Valo describes their music as "love metal," and indeed that label fits the bill for this band. There's a certain heart-on-sleeve sensitivity in much of HIM's music that is not often found within the world of heavy metal, where power and aggression reign supreme.

"One of the first songs this band ever did was a Chris Isaak's…

source: muchmusic.com

HIM frontman Ville Valo seems totally at home sitting poolside at his hotel in L.A. Sipping tea between cigarettes, the lead singer of the first Finnish band ever to go gold in the U.S. is happy to be back in L.A. after spending months at home recording the band's follow up to 2005's Dark Light, the aforementioned gold record. Then again, if the quintet hadn't been at home during the dark, cold winter months they might not have recorded the aptly named Venus Doom, an album that Valo describes as being "Like a trip into my personal hell to a certain extent."

Musically, the album is the dark, hard rocking soundtrack necessary to accompany Valo's downward descent. "I felt that we needed a lot less keyboards and there was just going to be more punching to the face type of thing," Valo says, referring to…

by Mark Saleski

Hey, let's have another musical genre argument. You know, the one where a band is mis-labeled, followed by incensed fans and ProfessorsOfRock™ coming back with any number of variations on "You idiot!" It's so much fun! Heck, back when I reviewed H.I.M.'s Dark Light, I was informed (without the 'idiot' part) that the band played "goth pop." So be it.

Truth be told, I don't really care what the proper label is because what really matters is this: does the music rock or not? "Yes, hard" is the answer.

Hard, in fact, is the key word here, as this band brings to mind many of the aspects of what, back in the 70's, was called "hard rock." Before we got all hung up on genre specifics, our favorite music was thought of as…

Venus Doom
HIM
Sire

by Mike Villano

Although it's only starting to penetrate the consciousness of U.S. listeners, the past decade has seen Scandinavia become the not-so-quiet center of the hard rock and metal universe. Once better known in musical circles for the spate of early-'90s black-metal-related church burnings than for any actual music, today's scene finds bands as disparate as Turbonegro, Nightwish and Opeth all coexisting under the big tent of heavy rock music.

Finland's HIM has been at it for a decade now, and this, their sixth studio album, finds the band in a bit of a holding pattern. Band leader/Johnny Depp-look-alike Ville Valo's vocals are still as moody as ever and his lyrical themes dark as a Nordic night, but something's missing from the mix this time out. The album centerpiece, "Sleepwalking Past Hope," best illustrates the album's dilemma. An ambitious, sprawling…

HIM rocker VILLE VALO is considering quitting the music industry because songwriting turns him into a suicidal wreck. The Finnish rocker admits penning his band's dark songs drives his depression and he can only envy those who find the process cathartic and therapeutic. He says, "You open the door for the demons, and everything just f**king comes out. "Now the meltdowns are getting worse, and the depression won't go away; it's like being haunted by the most vile creatures ever created. "I've had depression before, but when you're so overwhelmed that it's taking you over... I just don't know if I'm prepared emotionally or mentally to write another song." Valo's bandmates and friends were so concerned about the frontman's mental health they implored him to seek help - and applauded him when he checked into celebrity rehab facility Promises in California. Producer Tim Palmer, who…

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HIM

Venus Doom

2007

As doom merchants go, HIM are pretty easy to take. On their sixth album, the long-running Finnish quintet tops Black Sabbath riffs and grinding, tightly wound grooves with Ville Valo’s lovesick crooning, all of which adds up to a dark, sexy sound the band once dubbed “love metal.”(Its logo is a pentagram mashed up with a heart.) Valo keeps his bleeding heart on his sleeve, yowling about dead lovers and dropping creepy poetry like the title track’s gothed-out lament: “Watch me fall for you my Venus…

Here’s your big change to ask Ville some questions. Ville will be answering fan questions in an upcoming issue of Revolver magazine. So if you’ve got something to ask him, email it to:
letters@revolvermag.com

with the subject heading HIM QUESTION by October 9.

source: The Street Network