HIM
Razorblade Romance

"Love and Death are the only beautiful things in the world, and the only, only ones worthy of being desired"
Giacomo Leopardi

I love thinking of this work as a splendid black rose.
Each single song is a petal expressing a different emotion, always sweetened by a distant, melancholic pain. Ville's voice winds sinuously like the fragrance from the fragile corolla, losing itself in harmonious and simultaneously sad sounds...
"Your Sweet 666" is melodiously desperate, drawing arabesques of nostalgia traveling on the notes of a keyboard and a bass in perfect, dark symbiosis, enriched by passionate, light choirs. An intense, gothic and dark beginning in the most sublime sense of the term, which splendidly ties with the following track.
"Poison Girl" offers a soft guitar, accompanying deep and suffering vocal insertions. In the chorus, Ville sings almost in a whisper, as if not to disturb the precious instrumental phrasing, embellished by almost imperceptible choral insertions.

And now let your eyes close, let the light around you fade into an ashen and silent twilight.
Six keyboard notes. Icy. Beautiful. "Join Me In Death".
The pained voice glides over a simple and emotional verse like a dewdrop on black velvet petals. The bass appears delicately, marking the singing that becomes pulsating, full of anticipation... the drums melodiously break in, introducing the magnificently wrenching chorus, where falsetto and choir intertwine, bringing a faint scent of tears. The second verse, deliberately short, resumes the first, framing the same magnificent chorus, but this time follows a duet between a deep, disillusioned voice and a cold, silvery keyboard. Again, a perfect choral insertion that responds passionately to Ville, who in turn breaks it preciously. The chorus fades out on three notes of which the last hesitates, vibrates, extinguishing in an icy silence.
But, it is known, every rose has its thorns, and here is "Right Here In My Arms", fast, cryptic, hard to understand, angrily dark. Perhaps a bit jarring in such an environment, but beautiful precisely for this.
"Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart" begins with a distant arpeggio, covered by drums that immediately fade away, giving way to a light, sobbing voice. The chorus is very simple but remarkably beautiful. The sixth track is a cover: "Wicked Game." Perhaps better than the original. "I Love You" is, on the other hand, a peculiar song, edging into dark punk without losing the hues that only His Infernal Majesty can provide.
Those hues take on the faded, pale color of memory in the wonderful "Gone With The Sin." The voice opens with no accompaniment, exhibiting stupefying depths. Introduced by Ville, the drums start a slow drumming, accompanied by a particular, nostalgic, dreamy, psychedelic choir. The singing becomes softer, sensual, in a monotonous, almost obsessive verse, yet enchanting. Again the chorus, structured on a surreal melody that fades almost hypnotically.
The journey reaches its final focal point in "Heaven Tonight," with an almost empty sound, where the bass duets with the voice, imbibing the atmosphere with a decadent charm. The particularly airy choir bases the chorus on Ville's delicate vocal interjections. The keyboard inserts itself, giving everything a touch of coldness and fragile staticity. Again the chorus in the concluding part, slowly decaying, until the boundary between music and silence blurs.

"…so before life tears us apart, let Death bless me with you…"