Nearly ten years after HIM brought their career to a close, frontman Ville Valo has opened the door—at least slightly—to the idea of playing together again.
In a new conversation with Metal Hammer, Valo looked back on the band’s farewell era and where things stand today between the members. While he admitted that he hasn’t stayed closely connected with his former bandmates in recent years, he made it clear that their split was far from bitter.
“I would love to play with the lads again someday,” he said. “But I miss those fellows. They are my brothers. But there’s also beauty in the fact we didn’t strangle each other at the end, or start travelling in separate limos. So there is that to be said. I felt it was the right way to bury the corpse. HIM was and is my life. It was very hard to let go of that.”
The band’s final performance took place on New Year’s Eve 2017 at Tavastia in Helsinki, marking the end of an era for one of Finland’s most internationally successful rock acts. Despite the emotional weight of that moment, Valo emphasized that the decision to call it quits had nothing to do with internal conflict.
“The bittersweet thing about it was that we were still good friends, we’d just grown apart,” he explained. “In regards to the farewell tour, it was nice to play when we had a finite date that it was going to end. By setting the end date first, you don’t have to have reserves. Every night felt like it was our last in a way.”
Formed in the early 1990s, HIM carved out a unique space in rock music with their signature “Love Metal” sound, blending gothic atmospheres with catchy melodies and heavy guitar work. Led by Valo’s unmistakable baritone, the band achieved global recognition, including becoming the first Finnish act to earn a gold certification in the United States with their 2005 album Dark Light. Their iconic Heartagram symbol became synonymous with their aesthetic, balancing themes of love, death, and melancholy.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.