Venus Doom

Bipolar opinions

HIM is probably one of the most contradictory metal bands in the world – they are a goth icon for some people and simultaneously an incarnation of everything metal music shouldn't be for others. People either adore them or simply hate them and the main thing here is that the public doesn't have intermediate opinion - people rarely treat them indifferently. Actually, this situation can be hardly considered to be a bad one, this way or another the band's name became known all over the globe but HIM still strive for more. HIM's recent album released in 2005 became the first Finnish disc to sell gold in the United States, pay attention - the first and the only! You must admit that this is more than just good result for a band from not English-speaking country. The fact that the album was evidently shaped for the standards of American mainstream didn't look really attractive for some of their old fans but still, Dark Light, as a whole, turned out to be a pretty solid record. This year HIM decided to reinforce their positions in the world music market with their fresh album Venus Doom, which will probably shorten the distance between bipolar opinions about this band.

HIM's heaviest

According to the words of front man Ville Valo Venus Doom is the heaviest record his band ever done before and it combines the sound of My Bloody Valentine and even Metallica's Master Of Puppets. He stressed this aspect of the album more than once before the release of Venus Doom apparently to attract attention of those who loves heavy sounding stuff. But it turned out that Ville Valo was right only partly: the album sounds heavier than Dark Light indeed but comparisons with Metallica were evidently exaggerated. In its core, Venus Doom remains in the borders of Love Metal - that very style the band attaches itself to, the difference is that they sound more edgy this time around. There is an appreciable share of good guitar riffs in "metal" sense of this word, overall atmosphere looks darker, keyboards and different synthesized noses also sound good enough in the general mix. In addition Ville Valo endeavors to sing as diverse as it possible. In fact, vocals were always best part of HIM's music and this album is not exclusion. Of course, Valo generally sticks to his trademark crooning but in this case he demonstrates that he can sound not only romantically but also really dark.

A step in a right direction

All these things present almost on every song except Song Or Suicide – a short, one-minute composition where Valo sings along with unhurried acoustic strumming. As far as the album includes only 9 tracks it almost has no filler songs, a percentage of qualitative content obviously dominates. In particular, such songs as Passion's Killing Floor and Love In Cold Blood turned out to be really good ones – these are the most exemplifying tracks of the album because HIM's trademark style lies on the surface here. On the other hand The Kiss Of Dawn and title track Venus Doom may play the role of appropriate examples even better especially when speaking about new sound of the band. It doesn't mean that these songs are something absolutely unpredictable – HIM's melodies remain fairly recognizable, but you can find here lots of interesting moves that reflect the band's new face. Another highlight of this record is the final Cyanide Sun; this is the slowest song on Venus Doom and probably the most melancholic. It could be a ballad but musicians decided to perform it in a heavy variant, which adds a very peculiar mysteriousness to its atmosphere. The final conclusion for the album may be as follows: Venus Doom is a step in a right direction. If HIM would have continued making copies of their own hooks from Dark Light and Love Metal than many of their potential admirers could simply give up this band forever. The only disappointing thing Venus Doom has is a picture on the cover; everything else is done on a very high professional level. HIM are still one of the best mainstream bands playing great gothic rock.