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H.I.M.: Venus Doom Gothic Rock, Hard Rock Sire/London/Rhino Records September 18. 2007
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Review
Venus Doom, the last album by H.I.M., had the hopes to be as big an album as Dark Light. Some of the songs on here do retain qualities of the past album, such as the title track and "The Kiss Of Dawn", but there's too many terrible elements of this release to ignore. Given the success of Dark Light, it was going to be clear that the band would continue using the sound they produced on that album. But much of the material on this one sounds as if they just took the album and altered a few notes here and there and threw some new somewhat unimaginative love lyrics in. The album also has a bit of a slower feel, perhaps to pull of a more funeral feel considering some of the song titles and lyrical themes. While some slower paced songs aren't really that bad, it's clear they are trying to bring in some of the elements of their older material, which causes a clash. Take "Sleepwalking Past Hope" for instance. A really slow paced song blended of both styles that is just way to freakin' long and drawn out that utilizes pointless instrumental moments, and pretty much the same "bridging riff" that sounds like a gothic rock band's version of a breakdown. This "breakdown", by the way, appears randomly throughout the CD, like on "Venus Doom" and "Passion's Killing Floor". It is also often accompanied by really low, wretched singing that sounds like a failed romantic's gutteral vocal style. And let's not forget it's basically the same exact every time too. And oh boy is the over acting abound on this release! One thing the band is notable for is keeping the vocalist's inhalations on the recordings, but some songs, such as "Love In Cold Blood", that simply goes overboard. There's some shouting too, which isn't too bad and adds a hint of difference to this release as well. But, the roughly one minute long song "Song Or Suicide" is easily skippable, as it features terrible low singing with the most simplistic acoustic guitar work one could ever hear. And, speaking of simplistic, most of the music is insanely bland and typical of anything you would hear on a top rock radio program or channel that it will seriously bore you to no end. All in all, this album is a simple rehash of the last. While it has it's moments, like the catchy track "Dead Lovers' Lane" and the sadly ruined by a "breakdown" song "Venus Doom", the album is really just mediocre garbage that was probably just on the cutting room floor from the sessions for the last album.
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