Do You Love HIM? (Love Metal - Him)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Love Metal - Him
Date:	25/04/08 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some of the music is incredibly strong, the vocals are always excellent.

Disadvantages: Not a particularly adventurous album, the band plays it safe and this can be frustrating.

HIM (His Infernal Majesty) is a rock band from Finland that formed in 1991. To date the band has released a grand total of six studio albums of which 'Love Metal' was the fourth. The album contains ten tracks and comprises of a grand total of 53 minutes of music. It's a decent album, not hugely memorable and yet enjoyable to listen to nonetheless. Despite the albums misleading name of 'Love Metal', music of the metal genre can definitely not here be found. The music is not particularly hard hitting, 'Love Metal' is however pleasant to listen to and great to relax to.

The album begins with 'Buried Alive by Love', the most powerful track on this release I feel. This one begins the album brilliantly, the chorus is exceptional and everything about the track is just beautiful. 'Buried Alive by Love' is extremely well constructed and is put across perfectly by the band. The vocals are excellent, musically everything is spot on here and listening to this track is therefore an absolute pleasure. It's the ultimate opening track for this 'Love Metal' release, it could be seen that it's all downhill from here and yet the rest of the nine tracks here are by no means bad. 'Buried Alive by Love' appeals to me most of all ten tracks from this release, there's something really quite special about this one; something that makes the track stand out and stand tall as the strongest that 'Love Metal' has to offer.

Straight after 'Buried Alive by Love' is 'The Funeral of Hearts', another strong track but definitely not as hard hitting as the opener. This one is good in a different way; it's a powerful track in the way of emotional delivery and yet is not as instrumentally edgy. In truth I feel that 'The Funeral of Hearts' would perhaps benefit from being chopped in half as the track is four and a half minutes in length, and due to this becomes really quite repetitive roughly halfway through. It's pleasant, there's only so many times you can listen however before the yawn factor of it all really starts to kick in. The track takes a few interesting twists and turns, for the most part however the same lyrics are sung time and time again and the instrumental backing is repeated to an almost excessive extent. 'The Funeral of Hearts' is not a particularly adventurous track at all, it's interesting to listen to in part but also the music can be irritating to listen to at the same time as there is a lack of musical creativity on display here. On too many occasions HIM play it safe as a band on this album, 'Love Metal' is pleasant to listen to but at times the band keeps the music all a little too simplistic.

The track 'Soul On Fire' kicks into action with an absolutely excellent guitar riff, you really feel like it's about to build into something big and then nothing ever actually happens. The guitar excitement stops and the vocals slowly enter as the bands vocalist Ville Valo sings well but not particularly passionately or excitingly. The track possesses a catchy chorus, for much of the track however it's all very slow and the music of HIM makes little of a lasting impression. The 'Love Metal' album is quite odd in that it ranges between easy listening and hard hitting rock; you never know quite where the band will go next on this release and whether the music will be soft or heavy. The music of HIM sounds good both fast and slow, listening to 'Love Metal' is a strange experience however as you never quite know whether to relax or to get up and dance.

The 'Love Metal' album comes to a close with the track 'The Path'; an eight minute epic rock anthem which finishes the album fantastically. The voice of Ville Valo is as strong as ever, the musical backdrop is powerfully put across and never does this one disappoint. The band enters this album on a high, it's only right then that 'Love Metal' finishes with a strong track and this is certainly the case here. I'm not a huge fan of long tracks; I do however have a fond love for 'The Path'. I can listen to this track over and over and never do I tire of it; it's an exceptionally soothing track, the instrumental element is put across masterfully and never does the music of HIM here disappoint. I can think of few better closing tracks than this, it's a superb way for HIM to close this release and is one of the few tracks here that remains to be highly memorable for long after this album has come to an end.

Although 'Love Metal' is a fairly strong album, I'm not too sure whether I'd recommend listening to it or not. When the music is good it's great, many of the ten tracks here are not at all memorable however and not long after listening to this album I therefore struggle to recall much of the output of this release. Vocally the band is always brilliant; instrumentally on the other hand the music is more often than not extremely simplistic. There are occasions here where some real instrumental talent is shown, some exquisitely worked instrumental outbursts will come driving through and the band will really prove its worth. Unfortunately these moments just don't occur often enough for my liking. I like this 'Love Metal' album, it contains an interesting 53 minutes of music and yet a lot of the time the music just isn't particularly special. The album is pleasant to listen to, the vocals possess a great beauteous quality, often however I feel that this band could be a lot more adventurous with the sound and make it all come to life a lot more. There are times here when HIM puts across an exceptional talent as a band, the sound is exquisite and every element of the music comes together perfectly. This is not always the case though, none of the tracks here are bad but not enough for my liking are great. For fans of this band then 'Love Metal' is to be considered as essential listening, for all others however I'd say that this is one you should most definitely try before you buy.

Summary: 'Love Metal' contains some beautiful music, not hard hitting but certainly soothing to listen to.