### H.I.M.: Venus doom

#### 27/09/07 || Euthanatos

Alright, boys and girls, let the fag-fest begin! All extremisms aside, I actually like H.I.M., so I’ll be taking cocks up my ass from now until the end of this review, thank you, drive-thru.

One of the most popular European bands of recent years, H.I.M., already a gothic powerhouse in Europe, became absurdly popular also in the U.S. thanks to endorsement from artists and jackasses alike.

Now for a bit of my personal history with H.I.M. “Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666” = Masterpiece. “Razorblade Romance” = good songs, but not as good as debut. “Deep Shadows & Brilliant Highlights” = what a gay-ass piece of crap. Featured a couple of good songs, maybe three. “Love Metal” = A bit more towards the heaviness, but still worse than “Razorblade Romance”. “Dark Light” = some good songs, but a step in the wrong direction. So, to sum it all up, I’ve basically been waiting for the level achieved in “Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666” to once again present itself. Well, what do you know? “Venus Doom” isn’t part II of the band’s debut, but it certainly is the best album since.

What I like about this album is that H.I.M. went back to being heavy without having to let go of the melody and, well, let’s face it, gayness that they have evolved into since their roots. The title-track has some fucking DOOMY parts, and that’s awesome. But I like all songs, here, and an album that has 9 good songs is always something special.

“Love in Cold Blood” has a great, really heavy riff, entwined with smooth vocals and catchy vocal lines. The album’s first single “Kiss of Dawn”, playing regularly in your average Hot Topic, while probably one of the more commercial tracks (oh, really? Why, thank you, Captain Obvious), is actually very entertaining and its bridge-to-chorus riff is quite nice.

Something I also enjoyed here was how H.I.M. finally went back to making fast songs, something we only caught glimpses of in the past, such as “Soul on Fire” in “Love Metal”. There’s a very beautiful acoustic song here, though, which also merits praise, “Song or Suicide”. Ville Valo, singing better than ever, always shines in these more mellow moments. Wow, that was a lot of words starting with M. So if you’re not afraid of dancing with eyeliner and lip-piercings, hooray, this is the album of the year for you.

Ouch, my ass hurts.

The cover: A painting of a face. Looks cool, and real different.

8 bisexual goth sluts out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Sire Records
- Website: www.heartagram.com
- Band
- Ville Valo: vocals
- Mikko “Linde” Lindström: guitars
- Mikko “Migé” Paananen : bass
- Janne “Burton” Puurtinen: keyboards
- Mika “Gas” Karppinen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Venus Doom
- 02. Love in Cold Blood
- 03. Passion’s Killing Floor
- 04. The Kiss of Dawn
- 05. Sleepwalking Past Hope
- 06. Dead Lover’s Lane
- 07. Song or Suicide
- 08. Bleed Well
- 09. Cyanide Sun