HIM one of my favourite bands!!!

HIM is a band from Finland formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko Lindström, and bassist Mikko Paananen. They have released five full length albums to date. The band was originally called His Infernal Majesty, but they soon changed this to simply HIM. (see below). As of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the United States.

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 recorded at Finnvox Studios, MD and Peacemakers, Helsinki. Due to the few number of copies, this album is prized by fans.

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 album's length is 66 minutes and 6 seconds and contains a total of 66 tracks (56 of which are blank). 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 2000, 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.

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 themes 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, and have only performed together for four shows. 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.

Uneasy Listening Vol.1

Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 is HIM's second 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. The woman on the cover is supposed to resemble an angel from the "Underworld" who is joined in death by Valo, who is supposed to be pictured on Volume 2. The woman on the cover is from a lithograph by Alfons Mucha from 1902. The art is titled "perfecta cycles".

Uneasy Listening Vol. 2

Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 was released in Germany at 20th April 2007, in Finland and the rest of Europe on April 24th/25th 2007 and will be released in the United States on May 22nd. It will be a compilation album featuring many rare tracks such as "Hand of Doom" which was released on the Love Metal Archives DVD. The man on the cover is Valo dressed in an overcoat with a tall black hat.

Venus Doom

Venus Doom is scheduled for release on July 10, 2007. It is said that it will be HIM's heaviest material to date. Tracks that have been confirmed to be on the new album are: "The Kiss of Dawn", "Love in Cold Blood," "Bleed Well," "Passion's Killing Floor" and "Dead Lovers Lane". At the "Give It A Name Festival 07'" HIM played one of the songs off of "Venus Doom" called "Dead Lovers Lane" The video for this song is on youtube only to stream.

Recent events

HIM released their second 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. Working song titles for the new album are "Bleed Well" and "Passions Killing Floor". As of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the United States. The Band released Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 on April 20, 2007 in Germany and on April 24/25, in Finland and the rest of Europe.
Ville Valo recorded a duet with German actress Natalia Avelon for the movie "Das Wilde Leben"/"8 Miles High". The track, a cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's song "Summer Wine", was released as a single in January 2007.
HIM debuted the new song "Dead Lovers Lane" at the Give It A Name 07 festival on April 27th.
According to Linkin Park DJ Joseph Hahn, HIM will take the stage with Linkin Park and various other acts, such as Saosin, My Chemical Romance, and Taking Back Sunday for this year's Projekt: Revolution. Official dates are to be announced on Linkin Park's official site shortly. HIM has also been confirmed to support Metallica on a tour of Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Norway this summer. The band will be playing a special show with Metallica at the new Wembley Stadium in London on July 8, and HIM will be the main support act for Metallica above Mastodon and Bullet for My Valentine.

Heartagram

Heartagram is the name of a trademarked symbol of HIM. It is a cross between a heart and a triangle. Valo created the Heartagram himself the day after his 20th birthday. The heartagram has been falsely associated with satanism, leading some to believe HIM is satanic. Valo 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. The heartagram represents love and hate.

Ville Valo has allowed his close friend, Jackass star, and 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.

HIM is currently running a contest to design the new Heartagram.
The video game comedy troupe Mega64 parodied the Heartagram, and HIM, in the episode Ode To Sue on their 2nd DVD with the Horseagram, a combination of a horseshoe and a pentagram, in which one of the main characters, Dr. Poque, explains awkwardly about how he really likes the band, TIM, and what the horseagram on his beanie represents.
In the music video for the song DARE by Gorillaz, the Heartagram can be spotted in one of the band mate's rooms.

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 onwards, Though the single for "Your Sweet Six Six Six" included a His Infernal Majesty' sticker. Today many people, including many websites, still write the band's name incorrectly as "H.I.M.", even though it has been shown to be just HIM in many interviews and on the covers of many CD's.
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 there on.

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". 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 album entitled Love Metal.
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

Mikko "Migé" Paananen — Bass Guitar, backing vocals (1991-Present)
Mikko "Linde" Lindström — Guitar (1991-Present)
Ville Valo — Lead vocals (1991–Present)
Mika "Gas" Karppinen — Drums (1999-Present)
Janne "Burton" Puurtinen — Keyboards, backing vocals (2001-Present)

Former members

Juippi — Drums (1991-1992)
Tarvonen — Drums (1991-1992)
Oki — Rhythm Guitar (1992-1996)
Antto Melasniemi — Keyboards (1995-1998)
Sergei Ovalov — Keyboards (1999 touring only)
Juhana Tuomas "Pätkä" Rantala — Drums (1995-1999)
Jussi-Mikko "Juska" Salminen — Keyboards (1998-2000)