HIM - Screamworks: Love in Theory & Practice, Chapters 1-13 Review
Posted by Aaron Titan on 02.17.2010
Finnish love rockers HIM are back with their seventh album of material. Does the title live up to the music or does the music live up to the title? Confused? Read on...
Tracklisting
1. In Venere Veritas
2. Scared To Death
3. Heartkiller
4. Dying Song
5. Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness)
6. Love, The Hardest Way
7. Katherine Wheel
8. In The Arms Of Rain
9. Ode To Solitude
10. Shatter Me With Hope
11. Acoustic Funeral (For Love In Limbo)
12. Like St. Valentine
13. The Foreboding Sense Of Impending Happiness
The Players
Ville Valo - Vocals
Mikko "Linde" Lindström - Guitar
Mikko "Migé" Paananen - Bass
Janne "Burton" Puurtinen - Keyboards
Mika "Gas Lipstick" Karppinen - Drums
The Album
Well, I discovered HIM in my high school years. I had seen the heartagram logo on one of Bam Margera's MTV shows and hadn't really heard any of the band's music before. The cover and vibe of their album Razorblade Romance seemed OK and struck me in the record store, so I bought the album on a whim. Six years later and I'm glad I made the call to start listening to this Finnish band. I dig their moody music and enjoy how they can be heavy yet...lovely. That's not the right word, but it's as close as I can get.
When I heard that HIM was coming out with a new batch of material this year, I was pretty excited and a little wary. I own the majority of their catalog - still in the process of getting their first two releases - and my favorite was several albums ago: Love Metal. I liked Dark Light and Venus Doom, but I can't say that they blew me away completely. They both have their high moments, no doubt, but I can't say they were above average. Well, what to make of Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, Chapters 1-13? Was typing that longass title worth singing its praises with more keystrokes afterwards?
Sort of... Shortly before the album's release, I read an interview with frontman Ville Valo where he said he drew a lot of inspiration from 80s synth/pop type music such as Depeche Mode and the like for this jaunt.
"Cool," I said. That's not exactly one of the scenes I ever delved too deep into, but I was confident HIM could kick some ass shooting from that angle. And really, they kind of do on Screamworks. I think it's definitely the least heavy HIM has ever possibly sounded, but I think the title suits the album in respect to being about love and relationships. Each song is about love in some fashion, and not all of them are suicidal or death reminiscent, which is a little weird for a HIM album.
In fact, some of them are just plain vulnerable in spirit and lyrical content. The best example of this is "Scared to Death," which really sounds like the soundtrack in someone's head who is in love and can't bear to face the implications or possibility of it. Other songs where we see Ville Valo pull back on the gothic "love is death, death is love" act much more than in the past are "Dying Song" and "Shatter Me With Hope" (I know the song titles might not necessarily reflect this, but upon a listen and lyric read through, it's a bit more apparent).
What I like most about this album is that it works well as a collective opus rather than singles. "Heartkiller" is kind of a standout and I can understand why they filmed a music video for it, but overall, the album is paced really well and the sequence works. Taking the songs out of context feels a little weird for me. I'm listening to the album as I type this and while skipping ahead through the album to listen to other songs for reference points, I felt kind of weird. I didn't like breaking the sequence I had started at the front of the album. That's a quality I really look for in a release.
The major negative of this album is that it might as well be just one straight track. Nothing on it truly stands out and hooks you super hard. It's a very straight up record and besides the synth keyboard stuff on there, the frills, bells, and whistles are kept to a bare minimum. Valo does a lot of pitch and intensity shifting with his vocals in the front half of the album, especially on "Heartkiller," "Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness)," and "In Venere Veritas," but he doesn't really keep it up throughout the album, which could have made this record far greater than what it ended up being. Bottom line: It's pretty good, but not great. I'm not sure such a long title was justified given that it's quite a succinct in what it really grasps in the listener.
The 411: Honestly, this album ain't too shabby. I do have to say that while I enjoyed its predecessor, Venus Doom, a little bit more, I'm not exactly disappointed; however, I'm not floored just yet. After three listens through, I'm still feeling it out, which means it's good enough to bear repeated exposure, but nothing truly stands out. It's your standard HIM album with a smidge of 80s for good measure. If you like HIM, you'll probably like this. If you hadn't really dug on them before, let's just say this isn't going to do them any favors as far as you're concerned.
