His Infernal Majesty ... Ville Valo! (Love Metal - Him)

Member Name: Roxie_228

Product:	Love Metal - Him
Date:	30/08/03 (778 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its not over-popular...yet!

Disadvantages: I dont have Chapter C!

***Intro***

Whilst on the German Exchange a good few months ago I made what I think was a decent swap with my partner, she had the HIM ? Love Metal which she didn?t care for, and for odd reasons I had Justin Timberlake?s album which I despise. So both now happy we leave each other with amongst other souvenirs a new cd each!

***Background Information***

Surprisingly not many fans of HIM even know what the 3 initials stand for!? I can never understand that, well anyway the answer is His Infernal Majesty, so far this year they have released only two songs, both regularly shown on Kerrang, Scuzz and what used to be P-Rock and Mtv2, but never on any other channels which owes to part of their not being so popular in my school.
As I have mentioned before my school is the definite worst in Yeovil, especially when it comes to prejudism between the individuality of others.
Anyone admitting to enjoy Rock / Heavy Metal or anything other than the usual senseless Pop Dance or Rap is labelled a Goth/Mosher/Punk, pointing immediately to the fact that all these people rarely even know what they are talking about. Now I?ve said my piece on that?
HIM originate from Finland, and Ville Valo is fast becoming an icon where I am.
Their two released songs from this album are Buried alive by love, and The Sacrament. Many of you will have heard the music of HIM without realising you have done so, my poor sad mother was listening to Orchard Fm in the car the other day, humming the words to ?I love you? (fair enough that does nothing to encourage recognition, how many millions of tracks are titled I love you?). This song is regularly played on Orchard and my mother had never even noticed she was infact listening to the music she calls my ?scary loud banging racket?. Stupid woman. I should actually point out now that if you don?t like a ?scary loud banging racket? then a lot of the tracks on Love Metal will not appeal to you and you would be better off

looking for an older HIM album.
Currently I know of Deep Shadows, Razorblade Romance, Love Vols 666 and Love Metal, and own only two of these, I?m sure there are more around!

***Love Metal***

The HIM songs are displayed in chapters, which can be annoying because you have to count down the list to find the number of the track you want!
The drawback to my having got my album from Germany is that I do not have the solo track of Chapter C which is ?Loves Requim? so having never heard it I couldn?t tell you if it is much of a loss! But then that could have been part of the Limited Edition album?.i don?t know!?

-Chapter A-

Buried Alive By Love
Funeral Of Hearts
Beyond Redemption
Sweet Pandemonium
Soul On Fire

-Chapter B-

The Sacrament
The Fortress Of Tears
Circle Of Fear
Endless Dark
The Path

(Chapter C ? Loves Requim)

Most, if not all of these songs are based on love, and the rest, but its not all romantic slosh..thank god! There is no swearing, so atleast that?s one thing to knock off the list my parents can draw up to their not liking my music!

The Love Metal album I own is a black case with slightly visible intertwining vines, and a gold heartagram symbol. The insert contains the lyrics on a gold page however they can only be seen in certain light which I suppose is darn annoying if you need the lyrics! But Ville Valo doesn?t scream and shout his words like Wednesday of MurderDolls or Chester of Linkin Park etc so you shouldn?t really need the lyrics anyhow!

Another compliment I would give to this band is that, as with Evanescence, I consider the lyrics to be very individual and well written, not the basic crap you can find in some of the albums I own. For example Inme, although I?ve no particular complaints with their album Overgrown Eden, the difference in complexity between the way their tracks were written is obvious.

***
My Re
commendations***

Being the first HIM song I ever heard (not including the strange broadcasting of ?I love you? on the radio) Buried Alive By Love is definitely a track that I would recommend.

?But a cold heart is a dead heart and it feels like I?ve been buried alive by love. If I should die before I wake pray no-one my soul to take, and if I wake before I die rescue me with your smile??

The second would be Sweet Pandemonium, whilst I was in Germany I kicked my personal cd player off the bed and broke it, and for extremely weird unknown reasons it would only play up to the fourth track of any album! Sweet Pandemonium being the fourth track it was singled out from the other 3 songs and so I constantly listened to it. It has a brilliant introduction which is basically repeated throughout the song and it hooked me.

?The truth that could set souls free, is buried within sweet pandemonium, concealed by disbelief the riddle stays veiled in sweet pandemonium??

The Path, the last song on my album I like for mostly the same reasons as Sweet Pandemonium, the recurring backing tune is brilliant and very individual both of these tracks are slower than the others which adds to the theme, they use a lot of dynamics and the involuntary changes in the volume add to the makings of the track.

?I walk through the gardens of dying light, and cross all the rivers deep and dark as the night, searching for a reason why time passed us by??

***Conclusion***

If I really was forced to choose the lowest of the 10 tracks on this album I would say that Endless Dark is least likely to match up to the quality of the rest of the album. But that?s only at a push, I think that this album is well worth owning and I haven?t so far tired of it.

-Bought in Germany for 17 Euro (cant find the euro sign!!!)

-Bought in V-Shop for £12.99

-Bought in Woolworths for £9.99 if your lucky?the prices are going
up!


-Bought in Acorn Music (if you have one of those!) for £10.99

If you can find the Limited Edition then lucky you?I can?t! There isn?t that much difference anyway but I expect the prices are higher.

Please tell me my capitals and punctuation aren?t going to wander?I apologise if they do I find it really irritating as it degrades everyone?s work..

~sigh~

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