Talk:Love Metal

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Tracklist????

[edit] genre?

yeah is a genere created for HIM.

[edit] HIM=LOVE METAL!!!!!!!!!

HIM, in its current incarnation, has been around since the mid-90s, when strapping young lads Ville Valo, Mikko Paananen (aka Migé Amour) and Mikko Lindström (aka Lily Lazer, Daniel Lioneye, or simply Linde) founded His Infernal Majesty. Along came Juhana Rantala, known to his friends as Pätkä (Finnish for 'shorty'), filling the roster. Initially, the band concentrated on rehearsing and writing their own material, a duty that to this day falls primarily on Ville Valo’s shoulders. There are demos in circulation from these early days, featuring songs like Stigmata Diaboli, The Phantom Gate and what was to become the band’s signature song, a cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game.

In 1996, the band signed with BMG Finland and released an EP entitled 666 Ways To Love: Prologue. It featured four tracks and Wicked Game began receiving radio airplay. Later, the other Nordic countries and Germany would follow suit. The soulful, melodic song had been transformed into a rock anthem with chugging guitars and banging drums. Many were surprised to discover that a Finnish group was behind the charismatic performance, since rock music - sung in English - was not especially big in Finland at the time.

Valo spent the following year writing new material, and the band decided to bolster their sound by adding keyboards. Antto Melasniemi, an old school friend, was recruited for the job. With this strengthened line-up, HIM headed into the studio to record their full-length debut Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666, which was released around Christmas '97. Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 might best be summed up by its cover art, incorporating all those characteristics which were to become their trademarks - the flirtation with love and death, the clichés, goth ’n’ roll at its best. Wicked Game was re-recorded, and also featured on the album was another song from the EP, The Heartless, which in its original form was a seven and a half minute progressive rock song. The first single from the album was the haunting ballad When Love And Death Embrace, that received considerable radio airplay. HIM added another cover, Blue Oyster Cult’s classic (Don’t Fear) The Reaper to the album, as the album would otherwise have been too short.

In the autumn of '98, Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 was released in Germany, a country that embraced the Finnish quintet’s melancholic sound, and HIM toured there, playing clubs and festivals. It was during this time that the original keyboarder Antto was replaced by Jussi-Mikko Salminen (aka Zoltan Pluto), known as Juska to his friends, as well as Mika Karppinen (Gas Lipstick), who inherited the drummer’s seat from Pätkä who wanted to concentrate on his family.

For a Finnish record, Razorblade Romance was a very expensive album, costing around 150,000€ to make. The price, however, was worth it. The album quickly went gold in Finland, and charted in a number of other countries as well (the single Join Me, for example, went to #1 in Germany). Many HIM fans believe Razorblade Romance is the best album the band has recorded to date, including such classics as Poison Girl, the obviously Billy Idol-inspired Right Here In My Arms, the melancholic ballad Gone With The Sin, and the rasping Razorblade Kiss, all of which are frequently included in the set list.

Following the release of Razorblade Romance, HIM became a coveted band in Europe. Consequently, the band was constantly on the road in 2000. However, Ville Valo also found time to write material for the next release, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights, which the band recorded and released in 2001. It was an album that found the band struggling with their record company and ultimately themselves. The result was an album that received mixed reviews, but spawned crowd favourites like the hip shaking Heartache Every Moment, In Joy And Sorrow and the first single, Pretending. This year also brought with it a significant change for the band - keyboardist Janne Puurtinen (Emerson Burton), a longtime friend of the band, was called in to replace Juska, who had left.

For their next endeavour, the band hoped to define what the love metal genre was all about. Released in 2003, Love Metal saw the band return to their heavier roots after the somewhat over-polished and poppy Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights. A good example of this is the first track on the album, Buried Alive By Love. On the other hand, the album also features slower tracks like Sweet Pandemonium and the catchy The Sacrament. As with the previous albums, Valo’s lyrics are an orgy of pseudo-religious metaphors and clichés, the perfect way to sum up their career so far.

In 2004, the band summed up their BMG career by releasing the greatest hits album, And Love Said No. The singles, Solitary Man (a Neil Diamond cover) and the title track charted in several countries.

HIM have been playing in the USA on and off since 2001. But it wasn’t until the autumn of 2005 that the band truly hit the American market. Having signed a worldwide record deal with Warner/Sire records, Dark Light made Finnish chart history by going in at #18 on the Billboard chart. As this is being written, the album has been on the TOP200 for 22 weeks and is climbing up the chart, current position being 77. The first single released, Wings Of A Butterfly, can be seen on MTV and heard on a number of radio stations. The apostles of love metal certainly have the wind in their sails. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.248.39.149 (talk) 01:46, 3 January 2007 (UTC).