HIM

About HIM

Fans of metal music know: when you want something really dark you have to head north. Once you hit a country that only has five months of daylight, you're probably in the right place. This helps to explain the talent and popularity of the Finnish rock band HIM. The name is an acronym for His Infernal Majesty, and the band is on a quest to bring all of the aggressive musicianship and sinister themes found in classic metal to a new generation. The band have made a name for themselves with their atmospheric sound and their darkly romantic lyricism, and singles like "Buried Alive By Love" and "The Funeral of Hearts" have endeared the band to sensitive, angry music fans all over, as well as those of Bam Margera. Often performing in front of their signature heartagram logo, which resembles a fusion between a pentagram and a heart, HIM certainly aren't concerned with offending the League of Decency. HIM's formative years are relatively undocumented, but the band did experience considerable European success before hitting it big with American rock fans. The band's earliest recordings were only released in Finland, and there only in very limited pressings, making these albums sought after by collectors all over the world. The band's first full-length studio album was the ironically titled Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, which included a thunderous cover of Blue Oyster Cult's classic "Don't Fear the Reaper", as well as Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games." The album was a hit all over Western Europe, and went through several different pressings in different countries. HIM's second European album, Razorblade Romance, solidified their rising popularity. The ensuring, country-spanning international tour proved that HIM could rock as hard in person as they did on their albums, and festival-goers who caught the band were highly impressed. As their popularity increased, HIM ran into trouble with the alternative American dub band HiM, who had copyrighted the name. Razorblade Romance was even released under the artist name HER in the USA. The Finns ultimately bought the name, leaving their American competition with the lower-case "i."