 Freezing rain and the perils of rush-hour, city
centre traffic did little to dampen the excitement
of the die-hard fans waiting outside the O2 Academy
in Birmingham to see Finnish rockers HIM on Friday
night. Having staggered wearily through two below-par
albums, namely Dark Light (2005) and Venus Doom
(2007), the band have placed the allegiance of
their fans under considerable strain recently
and the release of their seventh studio album
Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice in February
this year and subsequent tour would prove to be
do-or-die for many a HIM devotee. And yet they
waited faithfully outside the venue like a mini,
black clad army huddled together under umbrellas
to give the band one more chance to prove their
undying loyalty.
The support band was an inspired choice and pitched
perfectly at the average HIM fan. I was unfamiliar
with Los Angeles-based goth rockers Dommin before
hearing their set, but they are certainly one
to watch out for. Their material was very accessible
and there is a richness to Gary Numan-eque vocalist
Kristofer Dommin’s voice that is almost
mesmerising. A cover of 80s hit I Just Died In
Your Arms Tonight was an immediate icebreaker
and the bouncy rhythms of Dark Holiday had the
crowd clapping along within mere seconds (I believe
that I witnessed an ordinarily aloof security
guard bobbing along with that one!). The incidental
music played between songs interrupted the flow
a little too much for my liking but they were
clearly intent on creating a romantic atmosphere
and endeared themselves with the many women in
the venue by sporadically throwing roses into
the crowd.
 Unfortunately judging by the number of women
pressed feverishly against the barrier and the
piercing screams that filled the air each time
a figure stirred in the shadows off-stage, even
Kew gardens could not have provided an adequate
supply of roses for the predominantly female crowd.
HIM clearly vehemently retain their reputation
of being a lady-killer outfit and this showed
from the very second that the lights went down.
The stage rapidly descended into a Santa’s
grotto with balloons, bras and all kind of paraphernalia
winging its way stagewards throughout the night
and it was difficult to hear vocalist Ville Valo’s
rumbling chatter over the myriad of marriage proposals
being screamed at the poor Finn. Fortunately Ville
was in a playful mood and locked horns with the
crowd with his tongue firmly in his cheek, babbling
nonsense in his typically delightful way and at
one point stopping to recite an extract from Tim
Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and
Other Stories . He is always at his best when
he has a swagger and mischievousness to his demeanour
and I must confess that even I felt my oestrogen
levels surge on those low baritone notes.
 Most bands with a large back catalogue have difficulty
selecting songs to accompany their singles, but
HIM fared pretty well with the set list. There
were the usual crowd pleasers scattered throughout
the set for the die-hard fans such as Right Here
In My Arms, Join Me, Poison Girl, Wicked Game,
Your Sweet 666, Buried Alive By Love and The Funeral
of Hearts. Soul On Fire was a last minute replacement
for The Sacrament in the encore, which suggested
that Ville was in the mood to rock-out rather
than fawn over a ballad. Wings of a Butterfly
was the only appearance from Dark Light and Killing
Loneliness surprisingly didn’t make the
cut. Kiss of Dawn, the only offering from Venus
Doom, was a mood killer and even Ville looked
bored as he painfully plodded through the lyrics
to the final chorus. Maybe Passion’s Killing
Floor or Bleed Well would have been a better choice.
Both Wings and Kiss seemed little more than an
obligatory nod to two albums that had been greeted
with general apathy from the fans. Thankfully,
material from the new album Screamworks punctuated
the set list and picked up the pace considerably.
Like St Valentine is a fantastic opener and it
is rapidly becoming my favourite track on the
album (but why so far down the track listing,
guys? Surely this is an album headliner?). Heartkiller,
Katherine Wheel and Love The Hardest Way will
hopefully become stalwarts of the live set and
Scared to Death and Disarm Me lulled everyone
into a meditative state when the barrier burn
got too intense. One voice in the crowd commented
that Screamworks is the album that Dark Light
should have been and I genuinely hope that it
signals the band’s resurrection from the
increasingly stifling quagmire of Ville’s
personal life over the past few years and heralds
a return to the dark, heavy riff driven Love Metal
days. Hallelujah, at last!
 Unfortunately I momentarily forgot my HIM stage
orientation and positioned myself at the front
‘stage-left’ barrier side which resulted
in spending the entire gig listening to the back
of Ville’s beanie (note to HIM noobs: Ville
always sings to ‘stage right’) and
catching only glimpses of Linde’s pained
concentration during the awesome guitar solos.
There were minor sound issues throughout the set
and twice during the final encore (The Funeral
of Hearts) Ville stopped singing to berate the
sound tech and insist that the hi-hat audio problems
were ironed out. It was heartening to see that
he cared so much about our enjoyment of the sound
quality, especially since it was the last song
of the night and the crowd were clearly oblivious
to any technical hitches. And it’s also
heartening to realise that Ville was sober enough
to notice the problem. It wasn’t that long
ago that he could barely remember the song lyrics
by the end of a set let alone pay attention to
the sound levels. However, although the vocalist
may well be winning the battle with on-stage sobriety,
I couldn’t help noticing that his usual
lean physique looked a little more emaciated than
usual. I can’t be the only person in the
venue who wanted to nip out and buy him a pizza…?
 But, my sense of direction and Ville’s
own techy criticisms aside, the gig was everything
that I had hoped it would be. Yes, it was the
same, carbon-copy set that we are subjected to
on every HIM tour, but what’s wrong with
that? The fans clearly still enjoy making the
pilgrimage out to see the live shows, the new
material is still flowing and I suspect that most
women in the audience would still book their ticket
if Ville Valo appeared on stage with a ventriloquism
act. Complacency is never a good thing, but why
change when you have found a winning formula?
Keep the albums coming guys, stay healthy and
we’ll see you from the pit the next time
round…
Oh and one more thing. I was slightly puzzled
by the fact that When Love and Death Embrace appeared
as ‘Mubbel’ on the set-list. Is this
some kind of weird acronym or a Finnish translation
of the song title? Curiouser and curiouser….
Dommin 4/5
HIM 5/5
Review By Helen Ingram
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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