Okay! So I know that HIM are obviously a controversial band to throw in the shade on this site and I realize that most can argue that HIM is not a metal band. Here's the thing, as a fan of HIM I start to realize that HIM has gone back and forth between sounding gothic metal and gothic rock. HIM's heaviest album is "Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666" containing some of the band's most rawest sound in their career.

Come on! How can a song like this not be considered metal enough to be on this site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax34mzkmjCw

As proved in it's heavy guitar delivery, the dark atmospheric keyboards... This album is obviously gothic metal and "Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666" is a metal album. I don't understand why that can't be metal. Is it lyrics? The aesthetics of the band? You would probably think "Oh Gothic! That's just one album they were never metal at all anyway!."

I beg to differ.

They've definitely did heavy stuff/gothic metal stuff throughout their career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEcFVc9CCRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv2pmbcoDt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhImaTdahzI

HIM is still a rock band at the end of the day, but I think they deserve to be considered as heavy enough to be part of the metal archives. Sure, you may all disagree with me because of the rock albums they made like "Razorblade Romance," and "Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights" and of course my biased point of view since they are one of my favorites, but I am interested to know why HIM is not part of the metal archives. Hell if you can put The Third and the Mortal on the archives (Who had only one metal album in their career) then why shouldn't HIM be?

HIM actually almost got in not too long ago based on Venus Doom, but it was still considered too borderline. That was a multi-mod decision. Unless there are any albums more metal than that (and it is my understanding that there are not) then the answer is gonna be no, there is no predominantly metal release.


One's all you need. Doesn't look like HIM have that.

Well Venus Doom is definitely one of their heavy ones, but Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 is their heaviest album which is their debut. Just by listening to that album front to back it had the heavy metal inspired guitars, keyboards that almost sounds similar to sentenced which sound like macabre depression, and dark romantic lyrics. So for my rebuttal they've had not just Venus Doom, but the obvious metal album is Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 and even Love Metal had some gothic metal moments. Those albums are their heaviest metal sounding albums.

The debut was already assessed (probably multiple times?)
viewtopic.php?p=2537982#p2537982
And you describing it as "heavy metal inspired guitars" doesn't look very convinced either. There sure are some metallic leanings, but being heavy doesn't make you metal.

Hi,

I know that this band has already been discussed multiple times, but I couldn't find any mention of their debut EP or demos so I was wondering if they had been evaluated before. They sound more metallic to me than their full length albums. I'll link them below.

Demo A from 1995:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abtjNHbS_kI
https://www.discogs.com/His-Infernal-Ma ... e/13473216

Demo B from 1995:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo8tworXwfI
https://www.discogs.com/His-Infernal-Ma ... e/10169138

666 Ways To Love: Prologue Ep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDQlRLHmm4
https://www.discogs.com/His-Infernal-Ma ... er/1048475

Removing the red mark for now

Bumping this back from the third page, so it doesn't get forgotten.

No.

I think HIM under their previous moniker sound acceptable for MA. Gothic metal with heavy and doom influences.

Demos: https://youtu.be/8a-h2jPjcHk?si=lkyovsSLybqe-Q3j
Prologue EP: https://youtu.be/v81holtUyeE?si=1h-7UuY0K36Brhjl

Topics merged.

The answer still remains a no.

Since it popped up, and I appealed elsewhere for some kind of option for hard rock, and the kinds of metal that blur into other genres, I will pointlessly add my enthusiasm for HIM. They were in most of the metal and rock magazines all through the 00s, they were all over MTV at a time when MTV had abandoned metal, and then abandoned music generally, or put guitar based music into specialised parallel channels. They were present in every rock and metal club night, all the DJs played them along with Korn and Rammstein, and Limp Bizkit.

Their members played in other projects which were pretty metal, their members were also really good musicians. In the late 90s and 00s HIM offered a gateway into heavier more niche music for lots of people who might not have made that journey otherwise, and made a form of metal music that drew the interest of girl music fans.

They even made their own band logo, all satanic and pretty as it is.

There are many ways to be relevant to music, and to be connected to metal, and being sociologically relevant should count for something, as well as being a moderately heavy guitar band.

Yes, they are a great band but not predominantly metal. End of story.