Music Review: HIM Halloween Tribute
- Oct 26, 2018
- 6 min read
by Claudia Maúrtua
I remember surfing the Internet that morning of March 2017, scrolling down on Facebook as I did every regular weekday getting down to the office. I then stopped to read the sad and shocking, yet somehow expected, news. One of my favorite bands ever was coming to an end. HIM, earlier known as His Infernal Majesty, had made a disband and farewell tour dates announcement through their Facebook page, which read the band had run its unnatural course and it was time for goodbye to make way for new sights, scents and sounds.
It did shock me. One of my favorite bands for many years was disbanding; however, I somehow expected the news at some point. It had been a 25-year run. I know what you’re thinking: there’s much older bands still out there putting out new music, my own band for instance. But when you follow a band’s work so closely, you may tell through the music and through the band members’ expressions and quotes in interviews when it is time to call it quits.
A little history: The band formed in Finland in 1991 first under the name His Infernal Majesty, which was later shortened to just HIM in 1996. It was founded by lead vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko “Linde” Lindström, and bassist Mikko “Migué” Paananen. Also part of the band were keyboardist Jannen “Burton” Puurtinen and drummer Mika “Gas Lipstick” Karppinen, who was replaced in 2015 by Jukka “Kosmo” Kröger. Their music is a blend of metal, goth, and hard rock. Lyrics focus on the extremes of pretty much every human situation and feeling: love & hate, life and death, pain and sorrow vs. happiness, the dark and the bright. All of this is partly represented in the band’s symbol, created by Valo himself, the Heartagram, which is the combination of a heart and an inverted pentagram. HIM’s image during their early days was pretty much influenced by the occult and satanic stuff. Most members of the band were black metal fans too; they would use the number “666” in many of their lyrics and song titles — kind of the reason I picked this subject for our Halloween issue — although they lowered the satanic tone as new albums came out. Their music was later labeled as a metal subgenre called love metal, which is also the name of their fourth studio album.
I discovered them around 2005 after their most commercially successful album, Dark Light, had just been released in the U.S. My husband had just been there on a business trip and while looking for new stuff to listen to at his favorite record store, FYE, on his time off, he found this album and brought it back. I praised their vocal arrangements, riffs and melodies the most; it was an awesome work and what basically pulled me towards listening to more of their stuff. I began to investigate previously released albums and got to Razorblade Romance (2000), an A+ album beginning to end, Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (2001), a softer sound keeping their essence, and Love Metal (2003), perhaps the greatest album they ever put out.
So back to the terrible news on the disbanding; these guys, at least the three founding members, had known each other for years, since their school days when they were 9–10-year-old kids. Valo later explained in an interview in early 2018 that they had reached their creative peak together. He said he had started working on new music material and when they joined for rehearsal it just didn’t sound great; it did not have the same teenage buzz it did in the past, and these guys had been together for such a long time. That’s when you realize it might be time to make a change. Looking at it through the eyes of a musician, I totally get it. It’s like a relationship growing distant as it grows old and not feeling half of what it used to feel like back then.
Although I like and enjoy all of the eight studio albums they have out, I felt a change of path right after album no. 7, Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (2010). I had to give it a few chances; it didn’t get me at first, as had happened with previous albums. Although I must mention a few good pieces such as “In Venere Veritas,” “Katherine Wheel,” and “In the Arms of Rain,” it is probably the weakest and most uneven album of them all. I recall an interview a few months after the release where Valo said he was really not satisfied with the result; later the band went on hiatus due to drummer Gas Lipstick’s medical leave. That’s when I, using that musician’s vibe, felt something had cracked within.
HIM eventually came back from hiatus in 2013 with Tears on Tape, their last album. It did sound more even and stronger. I remember downloading “Tears on Tape,” the first single on Apple Music, and getting a calm vibe when I listened. That’s what I do with new music: I listen and analyze musically first. Then I started breaking down the lyrics and the meaning of the song and I understood what was coming next. If you go back to the first paragraph, you will remember I mentioned the news on disbanding was shocking but somehow expected. This song was the whole reason to it. The song’s about putting something to an end. It might read as someone’s life at first look, but it could also translate into putting an era, a time, or a human relationship to an end. The bridge goes, “And for a moment there’s no pain, for once there’s no more pain in your eyes, and maybe we’ll love just enough to convince us to keep breathing on.” That phrase right there got me, and I somehow understood an era had been completed. Tears on Tape Latin American Tour never got to Lima, but they did include Santiago, Chile. I didn’t think twice and spent those extra miles on a couple air tickets and a great weekend down south. Watching them live at Caupolican Theater was a great experience. I had a feeling it would be the only chance I’d have, and I wasn’t wrong.
Just a few months after the tour ended, in early 2015, drummer Gas Lipstick announced his departure from the band after sixteen years. Another bad sign? His statement read although he had recovered from a nervous medical condition compromising his hands and arms which led the band into hiatus a few years earlier, he had started feeling towards the last leg of their tour that his heart was not 100 percent with the band. He also mentioned he missed songwriting. I know the feeling. Some musicians are not just performers but songwriters too. I guess songwriting was pretty much monopolized within the band, not that he would complain about it, but he felt it was time to move on. Jukka “Kosmo” Kröger would replace him for a couple more years.
So it brings us back to the sad day in March 2017 when HIM announced they were disbanding. Shocked as I was, I also felt it was the natural path they should have gone. I did pull out my phone and press random on artist HIM. I did have them on my mind the whole day, and although they won’t be playing together anymore, putting out more albums or any more concerts, we, the fans, have eight great albums left to keep on loving their music. In the meantime, Valo has been working on a new musical project, Ville Valo & Agents, who released their first single, “Orpolapsi kiurun,” last September. They are getting ready to launch a full album early 2019. On the other hand, Gas Lipstick and Linde got together with ex-Amorphis (another great Finnish band) bassist Niclas Etelävuori and Polanski’s vocalist, Anthony Pikkarainen. The result: Flat Earth, a new band. Their new single “Cyanide” just came out and the full album’s release date is November 9.
Here’s my recommended HIM essentials for all of you this Halloween:
Razorblade Romance
“Your Sweet 666”
“Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart”
“Join me in Death”
“Gone with the Sin”
Deep Shadows & Brilliant Highlights
“Heartache Every Moment”
“In Joy and Sorrow”
“Close to the flame”
Love Metal
“Buried Alive By Love”
“The Funeral of Hearts”
“Beyond Redemption”
“Soul on Fire”
Dark Light
“Vampire Heart”
“Killing Loneliness”
Venus Doom
“Passion’s Killing Floor”
“Kiss of Dawn”
“Bleed Well”
Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice
“In Venere Veritas”
“Disarm Me (with your loneliness)”
“Katherine Wheel”
“In the Arms of Rain”
Tears on Tape
“All Lips Go Blue”
“Tears on Tape”
“Hearts at War”
“Into the Night”
Claudia Maúrtua is a Peruvian singer-songwriter and guitarist. She’s the front woman of Lima-based rock band Ni Voz Ni Voto and a member of the female ensemble Cantautoras Peruanas. Follow her on Twitter @ClaudiaNvNv
