H.I.M
Venus Doom
4.5/5

Who It’s For: Vampires in love
Sounds Like: Depeche Mode, Ozzy Osbourne, and Type O Negative

Wow, another record in less than 2 years? Usually when this kind of thing happens, I get worried, mostly because it means that either they’re prolific songwriters or they’ve just had pressure put on them from their label to get another disc out.

Thankfully, HIM falls into the former category rather than the latter. This time around though, the band has opted to drop most of the atmospherics and shiny production that haunted their last release, 2005’s Dark Light, and just go with what they do best, which is writing dark, melancholy rock songs.

Easily their heaviest effort to date the riffs take center stage, keeping the layered keyboards more in the background; enhancing their trademark gloom rather than smothering it. The guitars are crunchy, almost jagged at times, but thankfully never get in the way of singer Ville Valo’s trademark gothic croon. Nothing about this record feels forced or stale, if anything, it feels new & refreshing, like a band coming together for the first time.

The bottom line here is this: if you’re already familiar with HIM, this record is only going to love em all the more. If somehow you’re new to it all, I’d say give this one a try, you just might find your new favorite album.

Track Listing:

1. Venus Doom
2. Love In Cold Blood
3. Passion’s Killing Floor
4. Kiss Of Dawn, The
5. Sleepwalking Past Hope
6. Dead Lover's Lane
7. Song Or Suicide
8. Bleed Well
9. Cyanide Sun

- Spencer Lavigne