After my Hanoi Rocks post from last year, I suppose you
could have expected this. Well, who am I to challenge your expectations?
Now you wouldn't expect a lot from a band whose debut
album is entitled Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666, but H.I.M. surprises in a very
positive way. H.I.M.'s stigma of so-called "love metal" is actually
undeserved and relates only to Ville Valo's love-oriented lyrics; the music
itself combines metal with '80s rock and some goth influences, and the album as
a whole has a very diverse sound. Songs such as "The Beginning of the
End" and "It's All Tears" especially prove that H.I.M. can do a
lot better than their poor single track "When Love and Death
Embrace." Two cover songs on a nine-track debut album might be too much,
but Ville Valo seems to beg the difference. In fact, H.I.M.'s versions of Chris
Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the
Reaper" are very idiosyncratic and fit very well on Greatest Lovesongs,
Vol. 666. "Wicked Game," especially, is somehow even better than
Isaak's original version, or at least it proves that H.I.M. does have a sense
for dynamics instead of playing just quiet or loud, which is pretty typical of
H.I.M.'s contemporaries. "Don't Fear the Reaper" intriguingly reduces
the volume at the end of the album and the female vocals and piano add hopeful
tenderness. Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666 succeeds in pleasing everyone, whether
they're into rock or pop.