HIM

From the outset, HIM's 2007 offering of “love metal,” as they call it, rumbles and trudges with no small amount of classic doom metal thud (think both early and late My Dying Bride), so purists may not turn their nose up here. The difference between HIM and their many forebears is that no one has delivered such a a full package of melody, metal and slight amounts of gloom to the masses in years, or really ever, by the simple fact that they represent actual modern goth, a nearly lost art these days. Another thing working in HIM's favor is that their gloom is not melodramatic, it's way darker.

As doom merchants go, HIM are pretty easy to take. On their sixth album, the long-running
Finnish quintet tops Black Sabbath riffs and grinding, tightly wound grooves with Ville
Valo’s lovesick crooning, all of which adds up to a dark, sexy sound the band once
dubbed “love metal.”(Its logo is a pentagram mashed up with a heart.) Valo keeps his
bleeding heart on his sleeve, yowling about dead lovers and dropping creepy p... More >