by Dave Franklin

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

HIM's fourth album Love Metal has restored my faith somewhat in the Gothic scene of the early 21st century. Being old enough to remember the first stirrings of the that dark musical beast, my definition of what is Gothic and what isn't probably sits at odds with the average Marilyn Manson fan, just as someone who followed, say, The Clash around in the late seventies isn't going to be convinced of the validity of the likes of Sum 41 as punk icons. Although the die-hards from those dry ice shrouded days of the early eighties placed all their faith in the clinical and cold works of the Sisters of Mercy and March Violets, for me there was a side to the scene that summed up better what gothic meant to me. Bands such as the Mission managed to harness the dark and razor edged sound of the earlier bands and mix it with rock music to create a richer and more sweeping array of sounds. The Sisters may have made a perfect sound track for a post apocalyptic future, but the Mission made the perfect accompaniment to the works of Jane Austin and Bram Stoker, and the legacy of that feeling lives on in this album.

All music scenes and styles evolve over time and the gothic scene of today looks more to rock and metal than the punk and dance of its forebears. Along with such bands as Evanescence and Nightwish, HIM seem to have retained the best of past and present, the drive and power of hard rock and the emotive passion of old school goth. Buried Alive by Love fires up the album with a full on metal guitar riff, powered on by a hard drum attack and solid bass. What is refreshing and obvious almost immediately is that every player has space in the production to be heard and the vocals come over clearly. Too man albums today seem to be a free for all and the result is a lack of clarity in the production. The singer, Ville, seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet as the likes of Wayne Hussey and Julianne Regan from all those years ago. The subject matter is all very windswept and romantic, its fantasy in the extreme, a modern take on the language of the gothic romances of regency England, but give me escapism over the realities of life any day, who wants to hear about cars and girls, guns and attitude when you can be swept into a lost world for the duration of the album. As this power house of an opening number dies its replaced with the gentle strumming of a guitar, which on closer inspection might even be a Mandolin (hurrah from me) and the singers dulcet tones waxing whimsical

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