Revisited: Venus Doom ~ H.I.M

The low-key launch of this album meant that I almost missed it entirely. After the dismal "Dark Light" I wasn't terribly excited, still I had vouchers to spare so I check it out.

Kicking off with an oddly familiar hiss of a match being lit, VD (heh) sounded immediately more "HIMen" - a lot less Amerikkanized. The musical motif of that old English verse "Lavender Blue(?)" is used; very twee and a hint of ye old love metal.

There are no apparent HIM anthems so this album takes more than a couple of spins to digest. Well actually it took more than a month of spinning for me to latch onto VD. And it's quite good actually.

Cons? The album cover. Brown and uninspiring, miss the days of "Razor Blade Romance" Ville Valo, decked out in pink and smokin'.