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| Ville Hermanni Valo formed His Infernal Majesty, together with some friends, in 1995. Because the band had difficulties to find a singer, Ville, who originally played the bass, took the microphone. Before forming the band, Valo was already seen as one of the best finnish bass players in Jazz and Fusion. By that time, the members of H.I.M are frontman and singer Ville Valo, bass player Mikko Paananen, guitar player Mikko Lindstr�m, Keyboard player Antto Melasniemi and drummer Juhana Rantola. The first EP, "666 Ways To Love" was released in 1996 only in Finland. The debut album, "Greatest Lovesongs Vol.666" followed in autumn 1997, went gold in Finland and reached place 56 in the German charts. In the media, the H.I.M music was described as Goth Metal, but Ville didn't like this expression for the HIM sound : "I see it as Rock 'n' Roll with pop, gothic, metal and all other possible elements...I prefer the expression 'Love Metal' " The H.I.M sound also lived of contrasts and the deliberated playing with stereotypes. Ville: "We definitely wanted to provocate! That's one more reason why we called our LP "Greatest Lovesongs Vol.666". It's like "Love Metal"- because of all those contrasts, which make the whole thing more interesting. In 1999, the HIM song "Join Me (In Death)" was used as a soundtrack for Roland Emmerich's new Science Fiction movie "The 13th Floor". The film flopped, but "Join Me" landed on place 1 of the German Single charts, stayed there for four weeks, sold over 100 000 copies and reached Platin in Finland. But the band wasn't the same any more: Antto Melasniemi and Juhana Rantola had left the band and were replaced by Zoltan Pluto and Gas Lipstick. Also the band name has now changed from "His Infernal Majesty" to "HIM" and if a journalist used the "old" band name, he was politely corrected. The second album "Razorblade Romance" was recorded two times: the first time in the Finvox Studios in Helsinki, with the producer Hiili (who also produced GLS666). But the band didn't like the result, so the whole LP was recorded again at the Rockfield Studios in Wales with the producer John Fryer (he also produced White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Paradise Lost). "Razorblade Romance" was finally released on 24th January 2000. It went to place 1 of the German Single Charts, went platinum in Finland and Germany. The LP stayed in the German Top 100 for over a year, and by the middle of 2001 even went TRIPLE GOLD. Of course, also the mainstream and teeny press was now interessted in the band. Ville was compared to the "Doors" legend Jim Morrison, and some people saw HIM as the new Sisters Of Mercy. The whole promotion was done only by Ville and Mig�. There was a huge interesst to Ville's private live, but Ville kept (and keeps it now) as hidden as possible. Ville: "I just don't want, that some TV channels or Boulevard magazines come to my parents to fabricate an exlusive revelation story. There is nothing to discover anyway, because I wasn't grown up by some freaks. My parents are open, funny people - not conservative at all, but also not excentric. (...) So much regularity is really not worth a revelation story, is it?" No, I think, it's not! The Germany tour 2000 was sold out, and the other singles of "Razorblade Romance" got all great chart positions. After the release of "Gone With The Sin", the fourth single of RR on October 25th 2000, the band disappeared for over half a year to record the third studio album and to take a few holydays Nearly hidden from the publicity, there was another change in the band: on December 31th 2000, Zoltan played his last gig with HIM. Why he left, nobody really knows. Jussi was replaced by Emerson Burton, who was a friend of Lily, Mig� and Ville for since years. JUSSI WE MISS YOU! On July 2nd 2001 the band finally released the first single of the 3rd album. In Finland, "Pretending" went straight to No.1 and went gold on Friday after the release (only 4 days !!!) . In Spain the song entered the charts on place 4, and in Germany on place 10. Finally the third album �Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights� was released August 27th and reached good chart positions in the whole of Europe. The release was followed by a series of signing sessions in Germany and another tour through Europe. In Joy And Sorrow and Heartache Every Moment/Close To The Flame were the further single releases. On their traditional New Years Eve gig 2001/2002 in the Tavastia Klubi the band announced a longer �creative break�. But however, the break lasted only a couple of month. In the end of February/beginning of March the guys played 2 gigs in London, this was followed by big Finland and Great Britain tours. A HIM DVD and a HIM book should be released by the end of 2002 and after playing the summer festivals (and even one in Mexico City), the guys are planning to go to studio to record a 4th album. In Summer 2002, the band had to change their name to HER for their US releases. Reason: another band called HIM already exists is the USA. A �war� started, because the American HIM acted quite aggressively against the Finnish HIM. That�s what Doug Sharin, US HIM�s singer said in an interview: "However, when I meet him in London during his recent visit to the UK, he is preoccupied by the existence of a very different HIM, who are due to play the city the following week. "I'm about to get embattled with the evil HIM - from Finland," he informs me. "They're sort of a Death Metal band, but it's a little more glam - they have songs like "Love Affair 666" and "Join Me In Death" and all this shit. And they're apparently really big in Germany. Their HIM stands for His Infernal Majesty. I'm seriously opposed to it, man, and as far as I can make out, we had the name first." As an answer on that, HIM/HER have registered their name in Europe. However, in July 2002 �Join Me� was served to US radio stations under the name HER, although due to a poll on Heartagram.com, most of the fans dislike that name. At the M'era Luna Festival on August 11th 2002, HIM playd a first new song called Soul On Fire. Ville announced that the 4th album is going to be called "Love Metal". Soul On Fire made a brilliant first impression of the forthcoming ( "plan a": spring 02) new album. It sounded heavier again and reminded of the "good old times On September 16th, the guys dissapeared into the Finnvox studios to record Love Metal. But the record company didn't sleep, and released a "Singles Collection" first in Germany, then also in Finland and in the UK. The first HIM book "Synnin Viem��" was released in Finland also in October. The book was written in a very honest way. For the first time, Valo talked about his childhood, and abour good and bad times in the bandlife. The book caused some "scandals" in Finland, because some boulevard newspapers made big stories of small things. In December 2002 the video for "Buried Alive By Love", the 2nd single of the forthcoming album was shot in LA under the direction of "US HIM fan Nr.1" Bam Margera from Jackass. The female role in the video was given to the actress Juliette Lewis. Right in January 2003 a second video was shot. This time in Finland for "Funeral Of Hearts". All the fans were curious about this one, as the photos from the shoot show horses and some native costumed (and even naked ;) ) Finns. The release of the single "Funeral Of Hearts" was set to March 17th, The new album "Love Metal" was planned to be released on April 14th. "Funeral Of Hearts" was played the first time by Ylex Radio (Finland) in the beginning of February. HIM announced 2 live dates for next year (though they said before that they won't play before summer): A "Love Metal prelaunch show" on March 8th in Hamburg and a "special show" on May 3rd in London. The prelaunch show was FREE. 600 tickets were available through Heartagram.com. After 5 days and 1000 registrations from 34 countries, Heartagram.com closed the registration. 400 people were on the waiting list. written and (c) by vicky |
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