HIM (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country | Finland |
| Years active | 1991 – present |
| Genres | Love Metal |
| Labels | Sire Records |
| Members | Ville Valo (Vocals) Mikko Viljami Lindström (Guitar) Migé Amour (bass) Emerson Burton (keyboard) Gas Lipstick (drums) |
- This article refers to the Finnish band. For the New York group, see HiM (band).
- For other uses, see HIM (disambiguation).
HIM is a band from Finland formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström, and bassist Mikko Henrik Julius "Migé" Paananen. As of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the USA. The band's name was His Infernal Majesty at the beginning, but was changed to "HIM". They were also known as HER and HIM and HER for a brief time while in the in the United States and Germany, respectively.
HIM is not to be confused with thrash metal band "Infernäl Mäjesty".
Contents |
[edit] History
HIM started out as a cover band of artists such as Type O Negative, KISS, Danzig, Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode.
After many lineup changes and a hiatus from 1991 to 1995 caused by the members' military services, the band now consists of the three founding members plus keyboardist Janne Johannes "Burton" Puurtinen and drummer Mika Kristian "Gas" Karppinen.
The band released their first studio album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, on November 20, 1997. The album features covers of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". After gaining popularity in Europe, particularly their homeland, with the success of their second album, 1999's Razorblade Romance, HIM broke out into the mainstream in the UK in the early 2000s. The group became more well-known in America and internationally when professional skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera began using the band's heartagram logo and promoting them extensively on his MTV series Viva La Bam. Razorblade Romance reached some stores in the United States, but HIM was not allowed to use their name for sales in the U.S. because another American band owned the rights to that name. Therefore, they changed their name to HER only for the U.S. and Razorblade Romance. The full rights to HIM were finally bought, and copies of the album bearing the name HER were discontinued and replaced by a HIM version.
In 2001, before the group's third release, members of HIM formed a new band, Daniel Lioneye, as a side project. Daniel Lioneye produced hard rock/ sleaze rock music with blues-based guitar solos throughout. The band was composed of Linde Lindström as "Daniel Lioneye" on vocals and guitar, Paananen as "Migé Amour" on bass, Ville Valo on drums, Kai "Hiili" Hiilesmaa on keyboards, and Ike on sound effects. They released one album, The King of Rock'n Roll, in September of 2001.
In August 2001, HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights. This was the band's first album with new keyboarder Emerson Burton, the final addition to the current line-up. On April 14, 2003, HIM released Love Metal. This was the first album that did not feature singer/songwriter Ville Valo on the cover. Instead, it featured a gold heartagram, the band's well-known logo.
HIM's fifth studio album, 2005's Dark Light, became their breakout in the U.S., debuting in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 200 and spawning two major rock hits, "Wings Of A Butterfly" and "Killing Loneliness", both of which have accompanying videos. The success of Dark Light has also allowed a number of HIM's previous albums (including Love Metal) to chart in the U.S.; however, it has been given mixed reviews by critics [1].
In addition to their studio albums, HIM has released several compilations. These include the Love Metal Archives DVD, the many-disc Singles Collection, a greatest hits titled And Love Said No, and a DVD collection of their videos through 2003.
In May 2006, Valo announced in the UK magazine Kerrang! that HIM will start recording their next studio album in the summer of 2006 and release it around September or October of 2007. [2]
In October 2006, it was announced on their official website that Dark Light had been certified Gold by the RIAA in America. This made HIM the first band from Finland to sell over 500,000 records in the US.
[edit] Heartagram
Heartagram is the name of a trademarked symbol of HIM. It consists of a heart and a pentagram. The heartagram has been falsely associated with satanism, so some believe HIM is satanic, which is false according to Valo. The heartagram symbolizes the contrast or perfect balance between life and death or love and hatred, or even love and death together.[citation needed] Valo has said that "the heartagram stands for HIM as a band, as an entity, and for 'love metal' in general," and claims the band is a "love metal band".[citation needed]
Many fans of the band have heartagrams tattoos or tattoos of other HIM emblems (such as the single heart on Valo's right wrist). Fan-submitted photos of such tattoos decorated the lyric booklet for the limited edition of Dark Light.
Jackass star, Professional skateboarder and Ville Valo's close friend Bam Margera has agreed to share the license on the image and is accordingly entitled to use it for his promotional purposes.[citation needed] Because of that many people think it's Bam's logo, but even so that has been profitable for the band because it gives them a lot of publicity, and according to Ville in one of his interviews, more people know the band because of the symbol and Bam than because of their music.
[edit] Name confusion
Their first bandname was His Infernal Majesty (chosen spontaneously, almost as a joke). But as their popularity rose, they needed to change their name because:
- Finnish people were having difficulties pronouncing the name
- The band name was never actually serious
- The band started getting unwanted occult associations
Consequently, the band changed the name to HIM from the Wicked Game single (The "Your Sweet Six Six Six" single included a 'His Infernal Majesty' sticker) onwards. Some people, mainly American fans and journalists, incorrectly use "H.I.M.".
In the official HIM biography, Synnin Viemaa, Ville Valo admitted to making things up and joking about the name during interviews, leading to conflicting accounts of the origin of the name and the confusion that exists today. During an interview, Valo has said:
- "In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I can't even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot, we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesn't have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke. And it was our protest to Haile Selassie's rastafarian religion, he used to be called His Imperial Majesty. But nowadays because of Linde's hair, we actually might be supporting him."
Their first major US release, Razorblade Romance, was released under the name HER becuase a New York based post-rock band named HiM held the trademark on the name. HIM eventually bought the rights to the name "HIM" in the US.
[edit] Genre controversy
HIM's widely-debated musical style is often referred to as "love metal" by Valo and by the group's fans, while critics commonly refer to them as gothic metal or gothic rock. However, their musical style varies between albums, and even between songs. Ville Valo has stated that the band started as a "Black Sabbath tribute band of sorts"[3], which further solidifies the band's heavy metal leanings.
Some of the more common genres applied (correctly or not) to their music include:
[edit] Members
- Ville Hermanni Valo — vocals 1991–present
- Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström (also known as Lily Lazer and Daniel Lioneye) — guitar 1991-present
- Mikko Henrik Julius Paananen (also known as Migé Amour ir Bad bad Mizzee) — bass guitar 1991-present
- Janne Johannes Puurtinen (also known as Emerson Burton) — keyboards 2001-present
- Mika Kristian Karppinen (also known as Gas Lipstick) — drums 1999-present
[edit] Former members
- Antto Einari Melasniemi — keyboards (1995-1998)
- Jussi-Mikko Salminen (also known as Zoltan Pluto) — keyboards (1998-2000)
- Juippi — drums (1991-1992)
- Tarvonen — drums (1991-1992)
- Juhana Tuomas "Pätkä" Rantala — drums (1995-1999)
- Oki — rhythm guitar (1992-1996)
