Scandinavia is known for its metal bands. Some of the most brutal, heavy, uncompromising groups in the genre recently have come from the cold north of Europe. Bands like In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Entombed and the Haunted have been taking the metal scene by storm with their dark lyrics, pounding guitars and searing vocals.
"We're just trying to keep ourselves warm," jokes Ville Valo, singer of Scandinavian metal band HIM, about why so many metal acts come from his homeland. HIM are from Finland and are the latest act to translate their European popularity to the U.S., having just signed a major deal with American label Sire Records. Their name stands for His Infernal Majesty, a common nickname for heavy metal's best friend, Satan. But HIM differ from their Scandinavian peers in several key ways: They may be heavy, but they can hardly be described as pounding. Valo's vocals are more soaring than searing. And while their lyrics are dark, they aren't about death. They're about love.
Yes, HIM are the self-proclaimed progenitors of a genre they call "love metal," typified by the logo that represents the band and Valo himself—he has it tattooed on his stomach. It's called the heartagram, and it's shaped like the pentagram common to heavy metal, a five-pointed star inside a circle, except that the top two points are rounded to make a heart. This is the best representation of HIM's music, a freewheeling combination of the Satanic clichés, crunching guitars and dark menace of heavy metal with the exuberance, schmaltz and unabashed crooning of love songs. HIM songs have titles like "Buried Alive by Love," "The Funeral of Hearts," "Your Sweet 666" and "When Love and Death Embrace." They are, to put it mildly, a little silly.
But Valo and his growing legion of fans don't think so. Asked whether some of his lyrics are meant to be taken less than seriously, Valo balks. "I'd say that we take our music seriously but not ourselves," he equivocates, although he seems to have a healthy sense of modesty about the growing HIM cult. "We've always been a weird band in that we started playing in a band because of music, not because of titties and fast cars and loads of bling bling," he says, and it's not hard to believe in his genuine commitment to love above all else.
Clearly, that commitment has struck a chord because HIM have built a rabid underground following in America, despite the fact that most of their albums haven't even been released here. That will all change soon thanks to the Sire deal, but for now Ville is amazed at the way the word about his band has spread. "It's weird that the word of mouth, with the help of the Internet, all the kids seem to know all the lyrics to the songs and stuff like that," he says. Search for HIM online and you'll find tons of message-board posts with fans professing their undying devotion, but very little about the band in the mainstream music press.
Plenty of those fans profess their undying devotion to Valo, and with his lyrics about tragic love, it's no surprise that he gets plenty of female attention. But he's been in a stable relationship with a fellow Finn for a year and a half now, and he doesn't plan to indulge in the adulation from groupies. "I'm not trying to be the hottest bachelor. That's not my cup of tea," he says. He respects the fans for their minds, not the bodies they may be throwing at him. "I consider that the people who like us are a bit more intelligent than the people who love Manowar," he laughs, referring to the cartoonish extreme metal band. "And I love Manowar."
Valo's love for Manowar sits strangely alongside his love for Duran Duran, Neil Diamond and Finnish folk music, all of which inform HIM's unique sound. Disparate as those influences may be, they always converge on Valo's favorite theme of love, something he doesn't anticipate ever getting tired of singing about. "You can never say 'I love you' too many times in your lifetime," he says in all seriousness. Now that's heavy metal.