Vinyl Record

HIM - Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666

HIM - Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 on LP vinyl. A 1997 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 1997

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 1997 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 is HIM finding their central contradiction almost immediately: romance treated like doom, death treated like seduction, and goth heaviness made strangely singable. Released in 1997, the debut does not yet have the sleek global force of Razorblade Romance, but the essentials of Ville Valo's world are already present. The band sound young, dramatic and completely committed to the idea that love songs can be both devotional and dangerous. For You and Your Sweet Six Six Six set the tone with heavy guitars, low light and theatrical desire. Wicked Game turns Chris Isaak's longing into something heavier and more nocturnal, while When Love and Death Embrace becomes the purest early statement of HIM's emotional grammar. The cover of Don't Fear the Reaper matters too, not as a novelty but as a clue to the band's taste for classic rock melodrama filtered through Finnish gothic atmosphere. What makes the album endure is its sincerity. It could easily have collapsed into pose, but Valo's voice gives the songs a wounded centre, and the band understand that slowness can be as powerful as attack. This is the first full bloom of love metal: excessive, melodic, shadowed and oddly tender.

The album matters because it establishes HIM's identity before the international breakthrough. Its mix of gothic rock, metal weight, doomed romance and pop melody became the foundation for a devoted fan culture and for the band's later use of the heartagram-era love-metal language.

This is the HIM debut to own for origins. Razorblade Romance may be the broader gateway, but Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 shows the mood forming in darker, heavier colours. It is especially important for collectors who want the band's gothic-metal roots rather than only the more polished later singles.

Gothic rock and doom-leaning metal with romantic despair, heavy low-tempo riffs, deep vocals and candlelit pop melodrama.

Recommended for: HIM fans collecting the band's early love-metal era; Listeners drawn to gothic rock with heavy guitars; Collectors who want the debut before Razorblade Romance.

Is Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 HIM's debut album? Yes. It is the band's first full studio album and the starting point for their love-metal identity. What are the key tracks? Your Sweet Six Six Six, Wicked Game, When Love and Death Embrace and For You are central early HIM songs. How does it compare with later HIM albums? It is darker and doomier than the more polished breakthrough records, but the romantic themes and melodic instincts are already clear.