HIM
Venus Doom
Sire


This is one of those moments I really do my best to avoid: where I must admit to once having a fondness for a band I now abhor. Epitomising the description "young and impressionable," I found HIM's first couple of albums to be a treat when they came out, but moved on considerably very soon after. It's from this somewhat red-faced vantage that I revisit the band and their latest offering 'Venus Doom'.

After a mildly encouraging opening, the appreciably heavy intro to the title track, the rest of the album plods along. The band appear to be 'honing' their style, cutting out anything and everything they deem extraneous, which seems to mean everything that might inspire interest or display some creativity. These songs could've been written by a ditty-shitting machine, its main dial set to 'dreary teenage melodrama'. Not even the nine-plus minutes of Sleepwalking Past Hope produces a moment worth waking up for.

Vallo's vocals are tame and restricted. There's little variation: no cheeky falsetto or sultry depths, and the music is just downright bland. It's all far too safe, as if each and every song's goal is to secure a brief moment's airplay before being promptly forgotten. Hell, in Europe and the USA, that's probably exactly what's happening, but here people are probably going to have to buy it to hear it, and I can only ask... why, oh why would they?

The band have clearly given up on anything other than keeping the sales figures ticking over (and maybe selling more of those fetching hoodies with their font on it). But unfortunately, one thing's for certain - little boys and little girls will continue to break one another's hearts, and HIM will continue to profit from it.

Mike Cross