CoC : HIM - Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 : Review

HIM - _Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666_
(Supersonic, 1998)
by: Matthias Noll (7 out of 10)

Need a shower that unfortunately will wash away the corpse paint? Tired of wearing 50 kg chains, spikes and leather? Looking for a record your girlfriend might be able to enjoy? Well, if you can stand a vocalist that sounds more like U2's Bono than like Fenriz and songs that mostly are just a bit heavier than Paradise Lost on _One Second_, then _Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666_ by HIM from Finland might be something for you. Now for the minority that hasn't already stopped reading this review: There are a couple of mellow songs, but this record definitely has its heavy moments too. Like the slow and doomy "Our Diabolical Rapture", with brutal, downtuned but original sounding guitar riffing. There are also some heavy uptempo songs with great melancholic melody lines. The guitars dominate the sound most of the time, while keyboards stay in the background, with female vocals supporting singer Valo on two songs. This album mostly features verse/chorus/verse/chorus standard song structures, but still doesn't get repetitive due to the diversity of songs. Surprisingly, a cover version like BOC's "Don't Fear the Reaper" sounds pretty good and is hard to identify as not being original HIM material. This is a decent album if you ever have the desire to chill out -- don't worry, sometimes it's OK to be a wimp.

(article published 1/10/1998)