1) HIM (sometimes stylize… Read Full Bio ↴There are multiple artists with this name;
1) HIM (sometimes stylized as H.I.M.) was a Finnish gothic rock band from Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo and bassist Mikko "Mige" Paananen under the name His Infernal Majesty, the band broke up in 1993, before being reformed in 1995 by Valo and guitarist Mikko "Linde" Lindström. After being rejoined by Mige, as well as new additions keyboardist Antto Melasniemi and drummer Juhana "Pätkä" Rantala, the band, now called HIM, released their debut album Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 in 1997. In 2000, now with drummer Mika "Gas Lipstick" Karppinen and keyboardist Juska Salminen, the band released the album Razorblade Romance, which reached the number one spot in Finland, Austria and Germany. Their first single, "Join Me in Death", also charted at number one in Finland and Germany, eventually going platinum and gold respectively. Following the addition of Janne "Burton" Puurtinen on keyboards, HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and Love Metal in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Both cracked the top ten in several countries, and allowed the band to tour the United Kingdom and the United States for the first time.
In 2005, HIM released Dark Light, which became the group's most commercially successful album to date, charting in fifteen countries. With Dark Light, HIM also became the first Finnish group to receive a gold record in the US. In 2007, HIM released Venus Doom, the making of which was marred by problems in Valo's personal life. Despite this, the album gave the band their highest chart position in the US at number twelve. After 2010's Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, HIM went on hiatus as drummer Gas Lipstick took medical leave. Following several months of uncertainty, the band regrouped and eventually released the album Tears on Tape in 2013. In 2015, Gas Lipstick announced his departure from the band to pursue other musical projects, and was subsequently replaced by Jukka "Kosmo" Kröger. On 5 March 2017, HIM announced that the band would be disbanding following a farewell tour in 2017. The band played their final show on New Year's Eve 2017 as a part of their annual Helldone Festival.
HIM is one of the most commercially successful Finnish bands of all time, with sales of over ten million records. The band have released eight studio albums, five compilations, three video releases, and two box sets, along with one live and one remix album. HIM has also received numerous accolades, including eight Emma Awards.
Critics have referred to the music of HIM as gothic rock, gothic metal, alternative rock, alternative metal, and dark rock. The band themselves have referred to their music as "love metal", the title of their fourth studio album. According to Ville Valo, the term "love metal" was coined as a response to people having difficulties categorizing their music.
A central of part of HIM's image has been the heartagram. The heartagram is the trademarked symbol of the band, which was created by vocalist Ville Valo on his twentieth birthday in 1996. A combination of a heart and a pentagram, the heartagram is meant to represent the juxtaposition of "the soft and the hard, the male and the female, the yin and the yang" according to Valo. Musically the heart is also meant to represent the softer side of the band, while the pentagram symbolizes their heavier influences. This juxtaposition was also prevalent in the band's album titles. On their first album, HIM used a heart with "666" inside it as their logo, which Valo later felt was "a bit boring". The heartagram was first predominantly used on the cover of HIM's 2003 album Love Metal, and has since appeared on numerous releases from the band. Valo has later stated that the heartagram "is probably the best thing I've ever come-up with", and that it's "worth a lot more than money" and is "bigger than our band". The heartagram has also made several appearances on TV, including Charmed, LA Ink, Viva La Bam, and Criminal Minds.
2) HiM is a dub influenced post-rock group formed in 1995 by Doug Scharin, drummer for the bands Codeine, Rex and June of 44. Their first album, Egg, was their most dub-based effort. Each successive album has gone more in a quasi-world music direction. After some recording for Crooklyn Dub Consortium and Wordsound, "Interpretive Belief System", HiM settled on a lineup of Scharin with Bundy K. Brown, Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker, members or occasional members of Tortoise and Isotope 217. Their first album was the underground hit Sworn Eyes, produced by Doug Scharin. A few personnel changes followed, and the revamped lineup including members of June of 44. Golden released Our Point of Departure in 1999, which signified a very clear shift toward a more jazz-like sound, followed by a major American and European tour. In 2003, HiM released Many In High Places Are Not Well on Fat Cat Records, which was received as their most successful and fully realized release. Peoples was released in mid-2006, featuring a cleaner sound with more vocals than any of HiM's previous releases. Included in this line-up are Martin Perna and Jordan McLean from Antibalas, Griffin Rodriguez from Need New Body/Icy Demons, Adam Pierce (Mice Parade).
The latest HiM records, "1110" and ん,released in 2008 and 2009 on Afterhours in Tokyo, are collaborations between Doug Scharin, Josh Larue and the Tokyo-based group, Ultra Living.
3) The group was composed of the following main members:
* Shizuka Nakajima (vocals)
* Shungo Makihashi (vocals)
* Non (dancer)
* Yocco (dancer)
4) H.I.M. (Her in Mind) an r&b singer best known for his reply album to H.E.R.'s album in 2017.
Acoustic Funeral
Him Lyrics
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Where sun kissed the crimson footsteps in the melting snow
We are doing our best to disown the golden mean
By these acts of cruelty in the name of beauty to be free
[Chorus]
The acoustic funeral for love in limbo
We're dancing with tags on our toes
To write you this song
For the acoustic funeral
On the verge of a vow to kill all reason locking that door
To a nightmare within a nightmare we are bound to adore
Let the planchette in the shape of heart glide to you
And finally confirm all fears to be so real
It's so real.
[Chorus]
It's unreal underneath the ice so thin I am turning blue
The one last thing I know to be real is the shadow of you
Killing love with a kiss
[Chorus: x2]
Let's re-enact the fall for the acoustic funeral
The song "Acoustic Funeral" by HIM seems to be about the complexities of reality and love. The opening lines, "You missed the winter and it followed you back home, where sun kissed the crimson footsteps in the melting snow" can be interpreted as a metaphor for someone trying to escape the hardships of life but finding that they cannot escape and their problems have followed them home. The second part of the verse, "We are doing our best to disown the golden mean, by these acts of cruelty in the name of beauty to be free" seems to suggest that people try to deny the existence of a perfect midpoint between good and evil and instead believe in a fantasy that beauty can only be attained through cruelty.
The chorus, "The acoustic funeral for love in limbo, we're dancing with tags on our toes, I save my last breath for your window to write you this song for the acoustic funeral" is both beautiful and haunting. The funeral imagery evokes the feeling of life being ephemeral, and the 'tags on our toes' is likely a reference to the wristbands worn by corpses before they are buried. The singer saves their last breath to write a song for their lost love, who is now nothing but a memory.
The second verse, "On the verge of a vow to kill all reason locking that door to a nightmare within a nightmare we are bound to adore. Let the planchette in the shape of heart glide to you and finally confirm all fears to be so real" is even more cryptic. The vow to kill all reason suggests the singer is willing to give up logic in order to pursue something irrational, and this irrational path leads them to a nightmare they can't resist. The planchette in the shape of a heart might be a reference to a Ouija board, which suggests that something supernatural or occult is at play. Whatever it is, it confirms all the singer's fears to be true.
Overall, "Acoustic Funeral" is a beautifully dark song that defies easy interpretation. It touches on themes of love, loss, irrationality, and the beauty that lies hidden in pain and sadness.
Line by Line Meaning
You missed the winter and it followed you back home
You were absent during the time of loss but the devastation still reached you when you returned to your comfort zone.
Where sun kissed the crimson footsteps in the melting snow
The aftermath of tragedy is evident with the sun melting the bloody trails on the snow-covered ground.
We are doing our best to disown the golden mean
We are trying to reject the norm of mediocrity and average by being cruel in order to achieve beauty and freedom.
By these acts of cruelty in the name of beauty to be free
Cruelty is the chosen path in the pursuit of personal beauty and liberation.
The acoustic funeral for love in limbo
We mourn the loss of love that has been trapped in an uncertain state.
We're dancing with tags on our toes
We dance with the weight of labels and expectations placed upon us, restraining our movements.
I save my last breath for your window
I keep my last bit of energy to perform for you and show my love.
To write you this song
I express my emotions and feelings towards you through the creation of music.
For the acoustic funeral
This song is a tribute to the loss of love and the pain that comes with it.
On the verge of a vow to kill all reason locking that door
I am close to making a decision to abandon logic and barricade myself in despair.
To a nightmare within a nightmare we are bound to adore
We are willingly trapped in a cycle of misery that we have grown fond of.
Let the planchette in the shape of heart glide to you
May the tool used for communicating with the afterlife in the form of a heart reach and touch you.
And finally confirm all fears to be so real
May this communication confirm all our worst fears and solidify their existence.
It's so real.
The pain and fears are tangible and undeniable.
It's unreal underneath the ice so thin I am turning blue
The thin layer of ice that covers the unrest within me is almost transparent, causing me to suffocate and lose color from the lack of air.
The one last thing I know to be real is the shadow of you
The only thing that seems to remain real to me is the memory of you and your presence.
Killing love with a kiss
Destroying love through the acts of passion and intimacy.
Let's re-enact the fall for the acoustic funeral
We will replay and mourn the loss of love and the pain that comes with it through this musical performance.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Ville Hermanni Valo
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind