Band:	HIM
Album:	Razorblade Romance
Style:	Suomi metal
Release date:	November 02, 1999
Guest review by:	Gothic Metalhead

Disc I
01. I Love You (Prelude To Tragedy)
02. Poison Girl
03. Join Me (In Death)
04. Right Here In My Arms
05. Gone With The Sin
06. Razorblade Kiss
07. Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart
08. Heaven Tonight
09. Death Is In Love With Us
10. Resurrection
11. One Last Time
12. Sigillum Diaboli [German bonus]
13. The 9th Cricle (OLT) [German bonus]

Disc II [Limited Edition bonus] [Live @ The Werchter Festival 2000]
01. Right Here In My Arms
02. Your Sweet 666
03. Poison Girl
04. Death Is In Love With Us
05. Wicked Game
06. Join Me

With most of the bands I have listened to in high school, many of them have drifted away from my ears as I grew older. I often crave for obscure and mainly gothic atmospheres, such that I sometimes dig deep into the realm of gothic metal to look for more obscurity from that period of my life. If there is a band that has remained a staple in my daily listening after all these years, it's HIM.

Like many fans of the Finnish outfit, I discovered their music through Bam Margera, more particularly with shows like Viva La Bam. The first song I got hooked on was "Heartkiller" off the Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice, Chapters 1-13 album, and since then I have loved almost every single album of this band. But, their position in the story of gothic metal has long been debated. Many have said the band is the furthest thing from metal, and it's understandable to see why. I even struggled to even call them a gothic metal band. Apart from Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666, and Venus Doom, which were heavy enough to be considered in such a category, they have gone back and forth between borderline gothic metal and straightforward rock music. If there is one thing that most can agree on, Razorbalde Romance is definitely a rock-sounding album.

After the heavy direction of their debut album, HIM decided to part ways with their producer Hiili Hiilesmaa and recruited English producer John Fryer, who is known for being a consistent member of ethereal Wave legends This Mortal Coil, as well as producing other legendary acts from the gothic rock/ethereal wave genre like Cocteau Twins, [band]Fields Of The Nephilim{/band] and Swans. This led to the production and the sound of music going in a different direction. The end result: it was HIM's most polished album, but became a breakthrough in their home country of Finland. Through the strength of the band's best-known songs, "Join Me In Death", "Right Here In My Arms", and "Poison Girl", it became HIM's first No. 1 album in the Finnish charts, with the group emerging as one of the leading bands in the Finnish rock movement. But how is the album from a retrospective standpoint?

Obviously, the music is polished and commercial sounding, lacking the heaviness of the previous album, but it's heavy enough to qualify as hard rock. While the music is still drenched in gothic influences in many of the songs, they were getting outside influences such as pop rock, making for a very sensitive experience. It's visible in "Join Me In Death", and "Poison Girl", which have strong melodies, catchy riffs, and atmospheric keyboards. Rock is not even heard in a few songs; the biggest examples are in "Gone With The Sin" and "One Last Time", which combines easy listening, gothic atmospheres, and the soothing bass vocals of Ville Valo. In a way, these songs are unique, because of how they still sound dark yet very pop-inspired. With this album, there's a lot of balance of rock heaviness and breaks for easy listening, and through it all most of the songs sound terrific, even though there are a few songs that are duds. Guitars have a variety of sounds for darkness, and the keyboards add romantic feelings to the songs. Though I felt the sleek production makes the songs sound too commercial, the production is an improvement over the previous album, erasing a lot of the raw aggression and loudness that seemed to plague the heavy guitars.

Then there's Ville Valo. Not only one of the best singers from Finland, but a singer with a great range, and he comes into his own on this album. He does soaring highs ("Razorblade Kiss") right down to deep bass notes ("Gone With The Sin"), but more than anything he sounds very delicate. His voice is one of the reasons that HIM brought in that female audience, and the dynamic range he has is outstanding. Compared to the last album, he doesn't just sing out the song, he can be soft-spoken and when the timing is right the soaring loudness comes into play. An overall fantastic performance filled with passion and confidence.

From a lyrical standpoint, Razorblade Romance gives you what you expect. It's highly sensitive, with the main themes of death and love being incredibly heavy throughout the album. It's solid to read through these songs and not think about how romantic each song sounds. Again, the album aims to reach that female audience in addition to the audience the band already achieved, and the lyrics, while solid, feel very limited and too simplistic.

Razorblade Romance is an album that reaches high school nostalgia such as mine. It's no doubt that it's one of HIM's best records and led the foundation for their success in Finland and eventually overseas. It has the band's best songs, best performances and established one of the best sounds in Finland. From a personal standpoint, this is not my favorite HIM, but still a good record to listen to whenever I listen to the entire album. I love the melodies, and a lot of the Type O Negative-esque influences, but it has flaws that limit it relative to the likes of Love Metal. Despite that, this is essential HIM, and essential Finnish music for anyone wanting to dip their feet into the suomi rock/metal sound.