Review Summary: Here's HIM's attempt at 'killing loneliness'.
’I am scared to death to fall in love,’ admits HIM's front man Ville Valo on second track “Scared To Death”. To understand the irony of that statement, one must be familiar with HIM and have had listened to some of the band’s previous albums from the past. All throughout their career as a band, Finnish rockers HIM have crafted albums that all center around the lyrical subjects of darkness, vampires, and love. With varying ways as to how they approach each album musically, whether commercial or more aggressive in nature, the band have always held strong to their paradox blend of lyrical subjects, even if the type of hard rock they crafted made such inclusions sound strikingly out of place.
This year’s
Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice finds HIM retreating from the more distorted and aggressive sound of 2007’s
Venus Doom. In its place, the band have chosen to go down a commercial route that, while in places the album does recall the band’s breakout albums in the late 90s, happens to be their most marketable effort yet. The first thing that listeners will come up against when listening to
Screamworks…, or all of HIM’s albums for that matter, is Ville Valo’s distinctive, smokey-esque delivery. In some places the album sounds very pop-punk-ish, and, as unfortunate as it may be, the front man’s vocals sound really awkward when placed over the music. Take for instance lead single “Heart Killer”: as the band transitions from poppy guitar riffs in the verses and then leads into a reasonably catchy chorus, Ville flaunts,
'Baby, baby, I’ll be a flatliner for a heart killer.’ In essence, the band sounds as if they're trying to reach into areas that are better left for bands like We The Kings or All Time Low.
Instrumentally, for music of this type anyway, HIM are very sound. The guitar riffs from Mikko Lindstrom and Mikko Paanenan, while distinctly Americanized, get the job done; every now and then, the duo even throw in a decent guitar solo on a few of the songs. The focus is definitely on Ville Valo, however, so don’t expect to be air drumming to any fantastic fills as you listen to
Screamworks…. The best parts of the album are when the front man lets loose a powerful vocal howl, such as in the guest vocal-assisted bridge of “Ode To Solitude” or dance-like “Like St. Valentine”. Ville’s harsher type of vocals is a great deal better than his singing voice; in fact, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Finnish singer could have had an excellent career in any form of extreme metal. Unfortunately, these harsher, exciting moments, unlike much of
Venus Doom, are very rare on
Screamworks…. Sadly, we are left with Ville’s often-times awkward, gruff approach that typically doesn’t fit very well with this album’s more commercial and light musical drive.
Highlights come in the way of the radio-rock “Scared To Death”, the acoustic balladry of “Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness)”, and the sampled-heavy, final track “The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness”. As previously stated, the level at which listeners will enjoy HIM’s albums largely depends on how well they take to Ville Valo’s vocal style, and, especially in relation to
Screamworks…, how well they can handle the paradoxes to be found in HIM’s hard rock style of music. It's reasonable to conclude that many fans of 2007's
Venus Doom may be very disappointed with this album as it lowers the level of aggression in the band’s sound; however, those that have been with the band for the majority of their career might actually enjoy how
Screamworks… blends many aspects of their past efforts together to create their most commercial-sounding album yet. Unfortunately, the transition from a hard to catchy sound doesn't work as well as the band might have planned, and as a result, HIM’s
Screamworks… will most likely fall to the wayside as an undeniably awkward and average effort.
