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Venus doom
/2007/

Finnish rockers HIM. return in 2007 with their latest brand of love metal on Venus Doom.
The first thing I noticed is that record seems to be a little bit heavier than the last couple of HIM releases.
On the opening track Venus Doom singer Ville Vallo sings in a much lower range than I am used to. The sound on this song reminds me of Type O Negative with a dash of Black Sabbath.
I actually like Love in Cold Blood a little better than Venus Doom. Valle goes back and forth between his normal vocal range, and the deeper bass parts on this song. The guitar work by Mikko “Linde” Lindstrom is excellent on this track.
Passion’s Killing Floor is another song has a little bit of a doom metal type of feel. The keyboards on this song by Janne “Burton” Puurtinen gives song a haunting almost eerie feel. Cool Stuff.
Kiss of Dawn is one of the more mainstream sounding tracks on Venus Doom. It is also one of my favorites off of this record. Check out the video below for this song.
Sleepwalking Past Hope is a song that you have to hear to fully appreciate. This song clocks in at over 10 minutes in length. The song has more stoner rock elements, but the keyboards turns this song into something completely different.
Dead Lovers’ Lane is a song that could easily be a radio hit for the band. The chugging guitar riffs really drive this song home. Hopefully rock radio won’t be scared off by the layer of keyboards on this track. I think it is totally cool.
Song or Suicide is a short little throw away track, that is only a little over a minute long.
Bleed Well is the third song on Venus Doom with major hit potential. The snippet below gives you a taste of this great song.
Cyanide Sun is a low tempo, moody sounding number. It is a very strong track, and a good way to close out this record.
Bottom line, Venus Doom is one cool sounding record. Although their are some elements that remind me of other bands that I listen to, Venus Doom is a unique sounding record. It debuted at #12 on the Billboard Top 200 charts with 38,637 units sold. I expect that this record could give HIM, their first platinum record with a little bit of luck. If you like the songs in the videos above, go get this!