HIM – XX – Two Decades Of Love Metal – Sony Music
As a celebration of their twenty year career HIM have released a new best of album titled ‘XX – Two Decades Of Love Metal’. Unlike their previous best of album this is the first one that covers their whole career. Selling over five million albums to date worldwide has meds HIM the best-selling Finnish band of all time and they were the first Finnish band to get a gold album in America as well as platinum in Germany and silver here in the UK. The current line-up is Ville Valo on vocals, Mikko ‘Mige’ Paananen on bass, Mikko ‘Linde’ Lindstrom on guitar, Janne ‘Burton’ Puurtinen on keyboard, and Mika ‘Kassu’ Karppinen on drums. Originally called His Infernal Majesty when they first formed before the abbreviated name was adopted in 1996 they were first to coin the genre love metal and are still the best at it with a hard core following of fans all over the world.
As you would expect from a best of album it is filled with some of their best loved songs including ‘Wings Of A Butterfly’, ’The Funeral Of Hearts’, ‘The Sacrament’, ‘and ‘Killing Loneliness’. There is also a new track on there ‘Strange World’ which is a tantalising teaser for their next album which will be all new work and is due out this time next year.
In the meantime the band will be playing at various festivals and on tour next year and if you haven’t seen them live yet then they are well worth catching. They will also be bringing in the New Year once again at the Helldone festival in Finland where the band will be playing on the stage for four nights in a row. Tickets are available here: http://www.tiketti.fi/Helldone-Fest-i-val-Tavastia-klubi-Helsinki-lippuja/17219
With their new single ‘Strange World’ opening the album HIM have proven once again why they are the number one selling band from Finland and that they are back and on top form before the heavy metal instrumentals slide gracefully into the wistful chords of ‘Join Me (In Death)’. Flowing from the more well-known tracks into some of their slightly more obscure (unless you’re a fan like myself) songs. They have avoided the linear pitfalls of putting the tracks in date order and instead have created a fantastic album which ebbs and flows with all the skill and dark grace we have come to expect from HIM. For fans like myself this is a must have and for new comers it is a fine showcase of some of their best tracks. 8.9/10
Helen Todner