PiercingMetal.com has been into the band HIM for a couple of years and this was even before we began our own adventures on the site so they became a logical choice for the next Artist Focus that we would do. We’ve been able to watch them from the first concert done in the region at a small venue to seeing them headline a number of dates at the larger ones. Formed in 1991 over in Helsinki, Finland, the group became one of the countries most popular musical exports. A good chunk of the band’s catalog of releases has been reviewed on the site so just click the logo below to see any items relating to the band that we’ve posted. Enjoy and “Kippis” (that’s Finnish for “cheers”).
You can check out the music of H.I.M. for yourself using one or many of these provided codes to their catalog via Amazon.com – I personally recommend “Razorblade Romance”, “Dark Light” and “Love Metal” as your first tries. Of course its also great to head to the bands official page to monitor their activities. Remember that its never too late to get into new bands that you didn’t yet give a chance.
Artist: The 69 Eyes Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Dommin, The Becoming Date: 10/20/2009 Label: The End Records
We had not heard from The Helsinki Vampires for a couple of years after they did a bunch of consecutive tours in the region and that made their return this evening all the more special since it found them anxiously delivering a hot new album for their acolytes with “Back In Blood”. The smoking CD has been generating a lot of positive buzz for the band and shows to be one of their best in years and one could hope with the tour for it that more people would be coming on board and giving them the support that they so richly deserve. Continuing the aspect of interesting support bands for their tours the band would bring along for this one The Becoming and Dommin who were each guaranteed to kick up the opening band task a few notches. I’ve managed to catch The 69 Eyes on every tour they have made to NYC over the years and I’ve always gotten a satisfying dose of Goth & Roll when they play and having caught and enjoyed what Dommin did when he opened up for The Birthday Massacre some months ago I made sure to be inside the venue early enough to see the whole night. Here is how the night transpired. Continue reading The 69 Eyes @ Gramercy Theatre (10/20/2009)→
Artist: Type-O-Negative Title: “World Coming Down” Label: Roadrunner Records Release Date: 9/21/1999 Genre: Gothic Metal Rating: 4.5/5
Released about three years after “October Rust”, the “World Coming Down” album by Brooklyn’s own Type O Negative finds the band getting back to a heavier line of business and doing so with a much darker sense of purpose than was found on the previous effort. I will touch upon this a little later but first the bands dry sense of humor comes into play as soon as you put the album into your CD changer with “Skip It”, this is a quick “song” or soundscape that sounds exactly like your CD laser skipping and hence likely unusable. Peter (or is it Kenny) yells “sucker” before the solemn and almost funeral droning Sabbathian riffs of “White Slavery” kick us into the album’s first official music. The song appears to deal with cocaine addiction and while a powerfully driven musical piece is not a happy one at all. The lyrics of “I’ve lost myself again, it’s a nightmare but it’s real” speak volumes to the pains of addiction and despair from such practices. There are three unique soundscapes that reflect the various themes of the album and they are “S.I.N.U.S.”, “Liver” and “Lung”; the first one “S.I.N.U.S.” is probably the eeriest of them all as it’s the most realistic. “Everyone I Love Is Dead” is a kick ass riff monster with crunching grooves that get layered with a bright overlay of keyboards but again a not too happy message as Peter muses aloud how those who matter most in his day are now gone. While “Who Will Save The Sane” is not as morose, “World Coming Down” finds the man of Steele lining out how he feels more pain than he speaks of. This is the most epic of the albums output as well and runs almost eleven minutes. It always surprised me at how often they would play this one live when one considers its overall length. I love the use of the chanting Monks in it as it adds to the atmosphere for sure. Continue reading “World Coming Down” by Type O Negative→
While I cannot claim to have supported The 69 Eyes since their humble beginnings some twenty years ago, I have to say that I have been a fan for more than three quarters of the time that I have been a Metal Media adventurer and photographer. I began my own support of the band with their seminal release “Blessed Be” and have continued on with each consecutive album all the way up until their latest studio recording “Angels” which was released in 2007. They released the tour for that album with the live “Hollywood Kills” recording and around this time we also saw their entire back catalog being delivered by Cleopatra Records. This fact allowed many of the fans of the band to catch up to what they might have been missing or holding back from purchasing based on pricy imports. The band is now signed in the USA to The End Records, a label that has already given us the Monster Madness of Lordi, the Symphonic Gothic Virgin Black and the ever unpredictable Unexpect, so I am sure that great things are at the ready for our favorite Goth Rockers. The band was back in the New York Groove to celebrate this new signing and to treat both media allies and fans alike to an advance listening of their latest release entitled “Back In Blood”. The advance press emails about the album lined out that the band was planning on delivering their heaviest and darkest album to date and moving steadily away from the Hollywood Glam vibe that they had recently adopted. I was afforded a little more time with the guys before the listening and bring those who might have missed the event the full scoop.
I caught up with Jyrki 69 and Bazie along with some of their record company people in a comfortable Thai restaurant on 2nd avenue and about 12th street. “Thai On Two” I believe it was called. The food was good and while you might be wondering what these day walking vampires might have dined upon, I will leave that to your own imagination and just tell you that I personally can recommend the chicken pad Thai. After some catching up and fine food I learned that the other guys, Timo-Timo and Jussi 69 were somewhere down on St. Mark’s Place shopping and causing the tourists heads to turn while bassist Archzie was not in town for the fun. We wandered down second avenue catching the curious eye of passerby who wondered just who they were seeing and sparking some excitement in the fans of the Gothic Rockers who recognized them.
Artist: Type-O-Negative Title: “Bloody Kisses” (limited edition) Label: Roadrunner Records Release Date: 11/22/1994 Genre: Gothic/Heavy Metal Rating: 4/5
Type-O-Negative had really delivered a good one with “Bloody Kisses” and when it was originally released in 1993, it showcased the band as a powerhouse of the relatively new Gothic Metal genre. It was an interesting change of pace from the deluge of Seattle bands that were dominating the airwaves at the time. The band re-issued the album in 1994 as a limited edition that came packaged with a VHS tape of two of the bands videos depending on where you found it and would also come now in a digipak cardboard case as opposed to the conventional jewel case. This was rather new at the time and has since become common place. There are a number of differences between this and the original release and the first one would be the removal of the soundscape tracks. Gone are “Machine Screw”, “Fay Wray Come Out And Play” and the other two along with the songs “We Hate Everyone” and “Kill All The White People”. It seemed that not long after the album was released that the band faced a number of criticisms based on the nature implied in these songs even though lyrically they were very tongue in cheek and an obvious inside joke from the band to their fans. I admit not being too crazy about the “KATWP” tune since it was too hard core for me, but I did like “We Hate Everyone” quite a bit. To make up for the subtracted tunes they added a new track called “Suspended In Dusk” which played upon the whole vampire mystique and was a solemn and brooding tune. Continue reading “Bloody Kisses” (Limited Edition) by Type O Negative→
