HIM (Finnish band)

HIM

This article refers to the Finnish band. For the US group, see HiM (band).

For other uses, see HIM (disambiguation).

HIM is a band from Finland formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Linde, and bassist Mige Amour. They have released five full length albums to date.

As of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the United States. The band was originally called His Infernal Majesty, but they soon changed this to simply HIM. (see below). Also for a short time they were know as either "HER" or "HIM and HER", in the United States and Europe, respectively.

Album History

HIM started out as a cover band, covering songs of artists such as KISS, Type O Negative, Danzig, Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode. After many lineup changes and a hiatus from 1991 to 1995 caused by the members' military services, the band now consists of the three founding members plus keyboardist Janne Johannes "Burton" Puurtinen and drummer Mika Kristian "Gas" Karppinen.

666 Ways to love: Prologue

Released in 1996, solely in Finland, only 1000 copies of this album were sold. It was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, and was registered in Finnvox, MD and Peacemakers, Helsinki.

Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666

The band released their first full-length studio album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, on November 20, 1997. It features covers of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". Four singles were released from the album. The album was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, who also produced their EP 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. Like the EP, the album was recorded at Finnvox, MD and Peacemakers in Helsinki, Finland. Guest vocals were provided by Sanna-June Hyde and Asta Hannula on "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "For You", respectively. A special Digipak version was also released with "For You" moved to the first track. Another special edition was released in Germany with the bonus track "Stigmata Diaboli", taken from 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. In keeping with the theme of 666, the albums length is 66 minutes and 6 seconds. This album is also the only HIM album so far, to have hidden bonus tracks.

Razorblade Romance

After gaining popularity in Europe, particularly their homeland, HIM released their second album in 1999, titled Razorblade Romance. This is when the band's popularity began to rise, their single "Join Me in Death" from the album reached #1 on the German music charts, selling over 500,000 of this single in two months.

Following this German success they released two more Germany only singles from this album; "Right Here in My Arms" and "Gone With the Sin", which reached #20 and #19 on the charts respectively. Around this time they were also becoming more well known in other parts of Europe, such as the United Kingdom. The album itself reached #1 in both Germany and their native Finland.

Razorblade Romance in the United States

In 2002, Razorblade Romance was re-released and put into stores in the United States. HIM was not allowed to use their name for sales because of the American band, HiM, owned the rights to that name. Therefore, they changed the name to HER in the United States, and to HIM and HER in Europe, for this release. Eventually, full rights to the name HIM were bought, and copies of the album bearing the name HER were discontinued and replaced by the correctly titled HIM version. Of the alternatively titled album, only 1000 copies exist.

Daniel Lioneye

During 2001, before the group's third release, the members of HIM formed a new band, Daniel Lioneye, it was aimed to be a solo project of guitarist Linde, who took on the vocal spot and the stage name Daniel Lioneye for it.

The style of music played on the album falls between bluesy-hard rock, with sleaze rock themed such as sex and alcohol and rock 'n' roll. Migé Amour played bass, Ville Valo was on drums, with Hiili on keyboards, and Ike on sound effects. They released one album, The King of Rock'n Roll, in September of 2001. Although it was not a commercial success, it retains a cult following.

Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights

After the Daniel Lioneye project, HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights in August 2001. This was the band's first album with new keyboarder Emerson Burton, the final addition to the current line-up. Once again the album shot to #1 in their Finnish homeland, making them the most dominant homegrown band in their country since Hanoi Rocks in the 1980s, it also reached #2 in Germany. Three singles were released from it "Pretending" (which reached #10 in Germany), "In Joy and Sorrow" and a double single featuring both "Heartache Every Moment" and "Close to the Flame". Such success further facilitated their gradual emergence into the mainstream.

Love Metal

On April 14, 2003, HIM released Love Metal. This was the first album that did not feature singer/songwriter Ville Valo on the cover. Instead, it featured a gold heartagram, the band's well-known logo. The singles also featured sigils. "The Funeral of Hearts" was the first single and their first high appearance on the United Kingdom charts at #15, it also hit #3 in Germany. It was followed by "Buried Alive By Love" and "The Sacrament".

Around the time of the Love Metal album the group became more well-known in America and internationally when professional skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera began using the band's heartagram logo and promoting them extensively on his MTV series Viva La Bam. Margera produced their video for "Buried Alive By Love", which featured a guest appearance from Natural Born Killers actress Juliette Lewis. They played at Download Festival in 2003 on the second stage with The Hellacopters, the following year they would go on to headline the same stage.

And Love Said No-The Greatest Hits 1997-2004

And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits 1997-2004 is HIM's first greatest hits album. It contains two unreleased songs: "And Love Said No" and "Solitary Man", the latter of which is a Neil Diamond cover. It also had a rerecorded version of "When Love And Death Embrace" and the British version also had a rerecorded version of "It's All Tears (Drown In This Love)". The digipak version of this album came with a DVD with six songs live at Semifinal Club in Helsinki.

Dark Light

HIM's fifth studio album, 2005's Dark Light, became their full breakout in the United States, debuting in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 200 and spawning two major rock hits, "Wings of a Butterfly" and "Killing Loneliness", both of which have accompanying videos. In the summer of 2005 they played the mainstage of Download Festival with Black Sabbath and Velvet Revolver.

The success of Dark Light has also allowed a number of HIM's previous albums (including Love Metal) to chart in the United States. It was announced in October 2006 on their official website that Dark Light had been certified Gold by the RIAA in America. This made HIM the first band from Finland to sell over 500,000 records in the US. Some of the success of the Dark Light album was due to professional skateboarder and Jackass star, Bam Margera, who is an avid supporter of the band.

In addition to their studio albums, HIM has released several compilations. These include the Love Metal Archives DVD, the multi-disc Singles Collection, a greatest hits entitled, And Love Said No, and a DVD collection of their videos through 2003.

Uneasy Listening Vol.1

Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 is HIM's third compilation album. It contains special versions of various songs from their albums Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, Razorblade Romance, Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and Love Metal, most of which has already been released on various special limited editions of the maxi-singles. A second volume of this album (Uneasy Listening Vol. 2) will be released sometime in 2007.

Recent Events

HIM released their third compilation album titled Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 in November 2006. Valo announced in the UK magazine Kerrang! in an interview during 2006, that HIM will start recording their next studio album in the summer of the following year and that it would be released around September or October of 2007. It is also expected, before their new studio album is released, to release Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 on about April 25, 2007.

It was announced on January 17, 2007 that HIM will be one of the headliners at Give It A Name 2007. Ville Valo stated that the band will hopefully be playing new songs.

Heartagram

File:Heartagram.JPG

The Heartagram

Heartagram is the name of a trademarked symbol of HIM. It is a cross between a heart and an inverted pentagram. Valo created the Heartagram around the age of 21. The heartagram has been falsely associated with satanism, so some believe HIM is satanic, which is false according to Valo. The heartagram symbolizes the contrast or perfect balance between life and death, love and hatred, darkness and light, good and evil, or even love and death together. Vallo has said that "the heartagram stands for HIM as a band, as an entity, and for 'love metal' in general,".

Many fans of the band have heartagram tattoos or tattoos of other HIM emblems (such as the single heart on Valo's right wrist). Fan-submitted photos of such tattoos decorated the lyric booklet for the limited edition of Dark Light.

Ville Valo has allowed his close friend, Jackass star, professional skateboarder Bam Margera to share the license on the image and Margera is accordingly entitled to use it for his promotional purposes, for example most of his Adio shoes have the symbol. Because of that many people think it's Bam's logo, but even so it has been profitable for the band because it gives them a lot of publicity, and according to Ville in one of his interviews, more people know the band because of the symbol and Bam than because of their music.

Hudson FW hunter was a massive fan a HIM and signed them to their first contact.

Name confusion

Their first bandname was His Infernal Majesty (chosen spontaneously, as a complete joke). But as their popularity rose, they needed to change their name because:

• Finnish people were having difficulties pronouncing the name
• The band name was never actually serious
• The band started getting unwanted occult associations

Consequently, the band changed the name to HIM from the "Wicked Game" single (The "Your Sweet Six Six Six" single included a 'His Infernal Majesty' sticker) onwards. Some people, mainly American fans and journalists, incorrectly use "H.I.M.".

In the official HIM biography, Synnin Viemää, Ville Valo admitted to making things up and joking about the name during interviews, leading to conflicting accounts of the origin of the name and the confusion that exists today. During an interview, Valo has said:

"In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I can't even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot, we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesn't have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke. And it was our protest to Haile Selassie's rastafarian religion, he used to be called His Imperial Majesty. But nowadays because of Linde's hair, we actually might be supporting him."

Their second major US release, Razorblade Romance, was released under the name HER because a New York based post-rock band named HiM held the trademark on the name. While they toured Europe, primarily Germany, at this time, they used the name HIM and HER. HIM eventually bought the rights to the name "HIM" in the United States and used it worldwide from thereon.

Genre

HIM's genre is debated in some circles; their musical style is often referred to as "love metal" by Valo and by the group's fans. Musically the band mix influences from gothic rock, hard rock and early heavy metal. Ville Valo has stated that the band started as a "Black Sabbath tribute band of sorts", which further solidifies the band's heavy metal leanings. Valo stated in an interview on the 'Love Metal Archives' DVD, that he was fed up of journalists and interviewers asking him (Valo), and the rest of the band what the genre of HIM was. He said in answer to that question, they created the Love Metal album.

Critics commonly refer to them as gothic metal or gothic rock. However, their musical style varies between albums, and even between songs. Some of the more common genres applied (correctly or not) to their music include:

• Alternative rock
• Goth metal
• Goth rock
• Heavy metal

Members

• Ville Valo — Lead vocals (1991–Present)
• Linde — Guitar (1991-Present)
• Migé Amour — Bass Guitar, backing vocals (1991-Present)
• Emerson Burton — Keyboards, backing vocals (2001-Present)
• Gas Lipstick — Drums (1999-Present)

Former members

• Antto Einari Melasniemi — Keyboards (1995-1998)
• Zoltan Pluto — Keyboards (1998-2000)
• Juippi — Drums (1991-1992)
• Tarvonen — Drums (1991-1992)
• Pätkä — Drums (1995-1999)
• Oki — Rhythm Guitar (1992-1996)

Discography

Main article: HIM Discography

• "Witches and Other Night Fears" - (1992)
• "This is Only the Beginning" - (1995)
• "666 Ways to Love: Prologue" - (1996)
• "Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666" - (1997)
• "Razorblade Romance" - (2000)
• "Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights " - (2001)
• "The Single Collection" - (2002)
• "Love Metal" - (2003)
• "And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits 1997-2004" - (2004)
• "Dark Light" - (2005)
• "Uneasy Listening Vol. 1" - (2006)
• "Uneasy Listening Vol. 2" - (2007)

External links

• Heartagram.com
• HIM's Official MySpace
• HIM's official European Site
• Heartagram.org UK Club