The HIM team was founded in 1991 in Finland. Its original name was His Infernal Majesty. Initially, the group consisted of such three musicians as: Ville Valo, Mikko Lindström and Mikko Paananen.
The band's debut recording took place in 1992 with the release of the demo track Witches and Other Night Fears.
At the moment, the only existing copy of this song is in the possession of the leader of the Finnish band. Three years after its founding, Paananen temporarily left the HIM team. He was called to serve in the Armed Forces.
A year later, the debut recording This is Only the Beginning was released. This EP subsequently attracted the attention of the Sony BMG recording studio.
By 1996, the team reunited, then the guys created another album, 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. At the same time, the original name of the group was shortened to the usual public HIM.
HIM team's path to popularity
The first record Greatest Love songs Vol. 666 was introduced at the end of 1997. The permanent trio of the collective, which has been in it since the beginning of the group's creation, took part in the recording.
Also Rantala and Melasniemi, who played the role of drummer and keyboardist, respectively. At the same time, the group developed a recognizable style, consisting of drive and melodic sound.
In the lyrics you can hear the meaning of love and death. Album Greatest Love songs Vol. 666 was the only one with hidden compositions.
After the initial 9 tracks, there were 56 more tracks that did not have any sound accompaniment. Only the last record contained a clipping from the band's first mini-album.
Thus, the team managed to ensure that all tracks occupied 666 MB on disk. It is this fact that led to accusations of Satanism.
The group's first album gained extraordinary popularity in Europe, but it cannot be compared with the excitement that took place in the homeland of the artists.
In the second half of 1999, another disc, Razorblade Romance, was released. When recording it, Melasniemi was replaced by Jussi Salminen, while Rantala was replaced by Karppinen, who stayed in the group until the end of 2015.
When the studio brainchild of Razorblade Romance was released in the United States, it turned out that a band with that name already exists.
For this reason, in America, the team was originally known as HER, but soon the rights to the name were bought out.
At the moment, early copies with the name HER are very appreciated among fans. The record Razorblade Romance was at the top of the charts in Finland for a long seven months.
In 2004, the fact of the use of drum machines became known, as a result of which the "fans" considered that at that time there was no drummer in the group.
Line-up changes
In 2001, the third disc Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights was released. Not without another reshuffle - Puurtinen came to replace Salminen.
After that, the composition of the HIM team was finally completed. There were some changes in the style of the band's compositions, which not all "fans" liked.
Nevertheless, the album was also very popular in the homeland of the musicians, where it was on the 1st position of the national chart for more than two months.
At the same time, the band members took part in a lesser-known musical project. The next album had to wait another two years.
Ville Valo, who used to be the face of the group, was no longer on its cover. Thanks to the broadcast of video clips on MTV, the band gained wide popularity in the United States.
The record was on the 1st position of the Finnish chart for almost 5 months. As a result, the guys formed a collection of the best compositions based on the results of the release of four albums.
In the middle of 2005, the HIM team participated in the Download festival, where they performed with other world famous bands. A little later, the band's fifth studio album Dark Light was released, which ended up on Billboard.
After that, the group was at a new stage of popularity. At home, the disc was traditionally greeted with rave reviews.
Over the next two years, the band released 2 mini-collections of songs: Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 and Uneasy Listening Vol. 2, and announced a new album, Venus Doom, which was supposed to be much more complicated than the works released earlier.
Sunset group activities
The Venus Doom album was presented to the public in the fall of 2007. The album literally "blew up" the society of "fans" of rock, taking the 12th position in the Billboard 200 rating. Meanwhile, in Finland, the work was received coolly.
Only 2 years later the team announced the release of the next album Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (Chapters 1 to 13), which was released only in the winter of 2010.
From him they no longer saw the effect that was before. Even in the homeland of the musicians, their record could not take the 1st position in the chart.
Then there was a quiet period during which HIM had to change labels. The next album, Tears on Tape, appeared only in mid-2013, after which the group gradually began to be forgotten.
It was made by the team leader Ville Valo through a page in one of the social networks. According to the text of his statement, the group did everything in its power to develop rock music.
It's time to "clear the road" for new ideas and experiences. Then the musician said goodbye to the "fans", thanking for the support for a long time.
