Album: HIM - Venus Doom
HIM albums have been following a trend; a heavy release is followed by a more mellow one, after which they release a harder album again, and so on. After the amazing Razorblade Romance in 1999, there was Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (2001), which was a lot slower and pop-oriented than Razorblade. Or should I say boring? In 2003 we were all blown away by a brilliant album called Love Metal, which was full of HIM's trademark doom and gloom. Then HIM tried to break the US, switched record companies and recorded Dark Light (2005), their most overproduced and poppy album to date. It has some decent songs on it (Vampire Heart for instance), but I must admit that it's my least favourite album so far. It didn't do as well as the band had hoped either and Ville quickly started to write new songs. He booked himself a trip to the lonely northern part of Finland (Lapland), where he rediscovered his muse and was able to find the inspiration he needed. The result was released on September 18th and is called Venus Doom.
The stuff I heard before the album was released sounded promising. Transformers OST Passion's Killing Floor was catchy, but a little harder than most songs on Dark Light. The band has played Dead Lover's Lane all through the summer, and the song was all over the communities and on youtube. The album itself was a relief. It sounded like Ville had promised: harder, and full of the regular doom and gloom. Producers Tim Palmer and Hiili Hiilesmaa did a great job, and I'm very happy that this time all of Ville's moans have been kept. Ville is back into shape when it comes to songwriting! Accoustic track Song or Suicied is one of his best ever! Short (just over a minute), but breathtaking. Longest song of the album is Sleepwalking Past Hope, which lasts over 10 minutes, but never gets boring.
Venus Doom is the logical step ahead from Love Metal. The sound is a little different, but the feel is the same. It's full of powerfull tracks like Love In Cold Blood and Bleed Well and I can't wait to see the band perform these! The only thing I don't like is the cover art, but who cares, the songs are great! 7.5/10
With all Ville Valo’s promises that this album would sound more like Love Metal, I was still scared of getting disappointed again. Like I was with Dark Light in 2005, before which he told us it would be like Razorblade Romance and Love Metal. But this time it was true! Venus Doom does resemble Love Metal. I had to get used to most of the tracks, Ville still stays a bit whiney in most of the choruses but they are doing some new stuff. New riffs, new schemes, which makes it very interesting. After hearing Sleepwalking Past Hope several times I had to wonder: Will it become HIM’s November Rain? I absolutely love the guitars on this album. Although Linde’s playing is in my opinion the strongest feature of this album, with songs like Song or Suicide Ville seems to have found his muse again. 7.5/10
After being disappointed with the majority of songs on Dark Light, I was keen to see what HIM would come up with this time. In recent interviews, fans have been promised an album sounding like Metallica, My Bloody Valentine, and Black Sabbath; the band have stuck to their word and have created their heaviest album yet. Lyrically, not much has changed; but would you expect anything other than the themes of love, death and despair from the pioneers of love metal? Venus Doom will appeal mostly to European listeners. It’s raw, edgy, and hasn’t been subjected to the whims of the marketplace. HIM have definitely gone back to their roots on this album. However, I don’t see it having the commercial success in the US that Dark Light had; fans of the radio-friendly, poppier side of HIM won’t have much appreciation for this album. Venus Doom is the album that HIM have wanted to make for a long time, but despite this, I still haven’t warmed to it. It seems as if the band has tried almost too hard to make the songs sound as heavy as possible. HIM had their peak a long time ago, and I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top albums that are more naturally intense, such as Razorblade Romance. 5.5/10