HIM - Venus Doom

Leading goth-metallers show love for the Sabs and Vincent Furnier

The advance press disc might be marked “Walter Payton” in an attempt to throw would be thieves and uploaders off the scent, but all you have to do is listen to the opening title track to know that you are listening to Finnish goth metal band HIM. That said, this is actually a lot heavier than their fifth album, Dark Light, which saw them stampeding into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The quasi-classical strings were amped up, allowing them to become the first ever Finnish band to strike gold in the US, but thankfully have been stripped away to leave a band obviously in thrall to The Mission, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Kyuss, while still sounding exactly like themselves. The truth of the matter is, on tracks such as Kiss Of Dawn, enigmatic singer Ville Valo’s voice is so creamily smooth that it makes a fine foil for the tar-black guitar work on its own. Those in love with HIM’s grandiose style need not worry unnecessarily: Tim Palmer (U2, The Cure) is on hand to make sure nothing sounds anything less than pristine, and tracks such as Passion’s Killing Floor sound positively opulent.

Warners/Sire | 9362499890

Reviewed by John Doran
<< Back to Issue 342