HIM (band) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search
Background information Origin Finland Genre(s) Alternative Rock (see below) Years active 1995 – present Label(s) Sire Records Warner Music Group Helsinki Music Company Members Ville Valo Mikko Lindström Mikko Paananen Janne "Burton" Puurtinen Mika "Gas" Karppinen Former members Juippi Tarvonen Oki Antto Melasniemi Sergei Ovalov Juhana "Pätkä" Rantala Jussi-Mikko "Juska" Salminen 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 1995 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko Lindström, and bassist Mikko Paananen.[1] 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.
Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Early career 1.2 Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 1.3 Razorblade Romance 1.4 Daniel Lioneye 1.5 Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights 1.6 Love Metal 1.7 And Love Said No 1.8 Dark Light 1.9 Uneasy Listening 1.10 Venus Doom 2 Tours 3 Heartagram 4 Name confusion 5 Genre 6 Discography 7 Current Members 7.1 Former members 8 References 9 External links
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[edit] Early career HIM started out as a cover band, covering songs of artists such as KISS, Type O Negative, Danzig, Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode.[2] 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.
In 1992, HIM made a demo tape called Witches and Other Night Fears, but Ville Valo is the only person to have a copy.[citation needed]
In late fall of 1995, HIM released This is Only the Beginning. This too was a demo tape, with only 100 copies made and sold in specially chosen stores on Helsinki. It featured the first version HIM had done of "Wicked Game" and "The Heartless". The tape also includes rare songs "Serpent Ride", "Borellus", "Stigmata Diaboli" and "The Phantom Gate". This album was done only with Ville singing and playing drums, while Linde was playing guitar and bass.
666 Ways to Love: Prologue was released in 1996 solely in Finland, and only 1,000 copies of this album were sold. The lady on the cover is said to be Valo's mother. It was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, and was recorded at Finnvox Studios, MD and Peacemakers, Helsinki.
[edit] 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). There is another track which starts at 6 minutes into the 66th track, called HIM 666. This album is also the only HIM album so far to have hidden bonus tracks.
[edit] 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.
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. Eventually, they were able to buy the full rights to the name HIM, and copies of the album began to be manufactured with their desired name on the packaging. Only 1000 copies exist of the album exist with the HER band name, which makes it a rare collectible among fans.
[edit] 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, 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 2001, and have only performed together for four shows. Although it was not a commercial success, it retains a cult following.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 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.
[edit] And Love Said No 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.
[edit] Dark Light
HIM performing live in 2005.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. In October 2006 the band's official website announced that Dark Light had been certified Gold in the U.S. by the RIAA. This made HIM the first band from Finland to sell over 500,000 records in the US.
Some time during their tour to promote Dark Light, Mige and Burton put a song together called "Plasma Mullet" that is completely different from their other work and is not on any official release of the band. The only time it has been released to the public is when it was played on skateboarder Bam Margera's half-hour radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio or at various concerts after their performance. Margera refers to it as their "jokey song".
[edit] Uneasy Listening In 2006/2007, HIM released their second and third compilation albums titled Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 and Uneasy Listening Vol. 2, respectively.
Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 was released in 2006 on October 27 in Germany, October 30 in the United Kingdom and November 14 in the United States. 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.
Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 was released in 2007 on April 20 in Germany, April 24 and 25 in rest of Europe, May 22 in the United States and May 25 in Australia. [3] It contains many rare tracks such as "Hand of Doom". (It actually was released in the Love Metal Archives DVD).
[edit] Venus Doom Venus Doom is scheduled for release on September 14, 2007 in Germany, September 17, 2007 internationally and September 18, 2007 in the US. It is said that it will be HIM's heaviest material to date. At the "Give It A Name Festival 07'" HIM played a song from Venus Doom named "Dead Lovers' Lane". In an interview with The Gauntlet[4], Ville stated that the longest song on the album is 10 - 11 minutes while the shortest song is 5 and a half minutes. Venus Doom will be guitar-oriented album with a pronounced lack of keyboards. The song "Passion's Killing Floor" is on the Transformers movie soundtrack. The first single will be "The Kiss of Dawn", which the band has already performed during several 2007 tour dates, and the video can be found on itunes.[5] Ville Valo recorded a duet with Polish actress Natalia Avelon for the movie "Das Wilde Leben"/"The Wild Life". The track, a cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's song "Summer Wine", was released as a single in January 2007. HIM have postponed their album Venus Doom until September of this year due to touring in America with Projekt Revolution.
[edit] Tours 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, Placebo and Taking Back Sunday for this year's Projekt: Revolution. HIM are currently supporting Metallica in a European tour. They have also announced a UK tour at the end of 2007.
[edit] Heartagram
The HeartagramThe heartagram is the name of a trademarked symbol of HIM. It is a combination of a heart and a pentagram. Valo created the heartagram the day after his twentieth birthday. The heartagram has been falsely associated with satanism. Valo has said that "the heartagram stands for HIM as a band, as an entity, and for 'love metal' in general." [6]
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 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 this, many people think it is Bam's logo. 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. [7]
The video game comedy troupe Mega64 parodied the Heartagram, and HIM, in the episode Ode To Sue on their second 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. [8]
At the end of the music video for the song DARE by Gorillaz, the Heartagram can be spotted on the wall of Murdoc's bedroom.
[edit] 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.
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 Chicago 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.
[edit] 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 hard rock and early heavy metal. Ville Valo has stated that the band started as a "Black Sabbath tribute band of sorts"[9]. 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 alternative rock, gothic rock or gothic metal. 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[10] Goth metal[11] Goth rock[12][10][13] Heavy metal[14]
[edit] Discography Main article: HIM discography
[edit] Current Members Mikko "Linde" Lindström — Guitar (1991-Present) Mikko "Migé" Paananen — Bass Guitar, backing vocals (1991-Present) Ville Valo — Lead vocals (1991–Present) Mika "Gas" Karppinen — Drums (1999-Present) Janne "Burton" Puurtinen — Keyboards, backing vocals (2001-Present)
[edit] Former members Juippi — Drums (1991-1992) Tarvonen — Drums (1991-1992) Oki — Rhythm Guitar (1992-1996) Antto "Zoltan" Melasniemi — Keyboards (1995-1998) Sergei Ovalov — Keyboards (1999 touring only) Juhana Tuomas "Pätkä" Rantala — Drums (1995-1999) Jussi-Mikko "Juska" Salminen — Keyboards (1998-2000)
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