Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice is … very HIM: nothing unexpected. The band’s seventh album is true to love-metal form, with no hidden surprises or slap-in-the-face-drop-dead-awesome tracks. HIM fans will most likely be pleased but not ecstatically running down the street with new heartagram tattoos and Ville Valo face masks.

The 80s undertone present in HIM’s signature love-metal music matures in Screamworks, which presents poignant synth harmonies that contrast with the band’s familiar rock distortion and Valo’s melancholic vocals. Songs including Dying Song; In the Arms of Rain; Love, the Hardest Way and Heartkillers, which will most likely become the album’s most popular song, are reminiscent of the Bowie-inspired New Romantic movement of the early 80s. Screamworks says hello to androgyny, quiffs, eyeliner and lipstick.

HIM’s theme of tragic love persists and liebestod is expressed through Valo’s historical, mythological and religious references. The song master’s lyrics are sufficiently poetic and metaphoric to ensure that a sense of mystery remains. The irony in phrases like “little deaths to a dying song/ Sound a lot like life” (Dying Song) and “The promise of heaven pushed us right back to hell / Turned three sevens into three sixes again” (Disarm Me) entice listeners to explore Valo’s interpretation of life and love, and expression thereof through music.

From the new-agey vibe of The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness to the heavier In Venere Veritas and the catchy chorus of Like St. Valentine, the broad spectrum of HIM fans should be satisfied with Screamworks, and perhaps a couple of new fans won over.

The London stint of Lacuna Coil’s Shallow Life European tour satiated the appetite of hungry London fans at Shepherd’s Bush Empire this evening. It is always a pleasure to watch the gorgeous Cristina Scabbia strut her stuff on stage as her record perfect voice penetrates the enveloping air, and the Italian songstress did not disappoint. Of course, Lacuna Coil is more than Cristina and it is the power of the six that sparks the crowd’s excitement. Tonight the band successfully showcases its versatility with a mix of goth-rock ballads and heavier tracks with a metal kick. (more…)

Photos by Warren Zanin

Caliban, along with tour headliners Emmure, led a full metal assault on a handful of wildly devoted fans at the Relentless Garage in London tonight. The hardcore metallers from Germany played to a rather sparse crowd, most likely owing to poor tour promotion, but wrecked havoc nonetheless.

Vocalist Andreas Dörner’s beast of a voice put fans in a manic mood and the singer’s animated gesticulations so aptly reflect the aggression and intensity of his lyrics. New album Say Hello To Tragedy explores some dark (and tragic) topics inspired by Dörner’s personal experiences as well as the real life drama of the Josef Fritzle case. The album reflects an anger provoked by an unjustified evil that encompasses our world today and reflects on the sad reality of how, in many cases, tragedies could have been prevented. And there is no better place to thrash out anger and frustration than at a live metal show – for both fans and band. (more…)

Fans turned up in droves to see 30 Seconds To Mars perform a once-off show in London at Camden’s majestic live music venue Koko. The band’s second show in a year and a half oozed with a confidence that is earned through the hard work and dedication that it takes to achieve success. Gregarious front man Jared Leto controlled the crowd, the VIPs, the record label dignitaries and the venue with his unyielding charisma. Screeching girls were in abundance and playing ‘spot the dude’ from Koko’s grand balcony was a good way to prevent openers We Fell To Earth from yawning the audience into a coma. When the lights finally dimmed, heralding the arrival of the Californian rockers, screams reached a crescendo and cell phone and camera lights illuminated the venue as fans raised arms and recording devices in a bid to preserve the moment for all time. (more…)

Photos by Warren Zanin

Adept launches into tonight’s performance with an explosive command from singer Robert Ljung: “Let’s burn this fucker down!” Unbeknown to the crowd, the band has busted its ass to make it to the Underworld in Camden to play for its London fans, following some major dramas and delays in Paris. Over half an hour late, Robert thanks the crowd for waiting and cites the day as the most stressful ever but never once is the impression given that Adept is anything but totally excited to be there. The band makes the most of its twenty minutes by ripping through the crowd with four brutal songs including favourites Sound the Alarm and Shark! Shark! Shark! The audience is left shell-shocked, with the Adept’s metalcore sound burnt onto the soul of each and every member. (more…)

Photos by Warren Zanin

The cold, dark night outside the O2 Academy in Islington waits resignedly for an excited energy to accost its consciousness. Fans soon penetrate the evening’s calm with the precise intention of witnessing a great performance by metal masters of doom and gloom, Paradise Lost. And fans are not disappointed. The foreboding tone of the band’s ethos seems to suit London: an austere city that has witnessed centuries of life’s brutality and pain yet surrenders an unparalleled magnificence and wisdom that has come with age and experience. Tonight’s show proves that the twenty-year career of Paradise Lost has honed the band’s talent and creativity into a musical heritage of authority and significance. (more…)

Christian Lander is my hero. If you have not visited Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, get your ass online and do it NOW! It is the funniest shit in the history of ever! In fact, I love it so much that I spent last evening at the London School of Economics listening to a lecture given by Lander entitled, STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE – How to find social success with the urban-dwelling middle classes. And let me tell you, I was audience to an hour and a half long comedy session that I didn’t even have to pay for: awesome! Lander started his talk off by reading a piece of writing from his new book, Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions, which has just been released in the UK. His opening reading, #11 on the list of stuff white people like: Asian Girls, got him banned from delivering a lecture at Oxford University. A great start to an evening of raucous hilarity … and insight. (more…)

The Fall of Troy’s fourth studio album, In the Unlikely Event, is a cacophony of sound that makes no sense but, at the same time, makes perfect sense. The three-piece band from Mukilteo, Washington has progressed its experimental mathcore sound to the next level: the time signatures are all the more irregular and album’s erratic song format lends itself to the band’s lyrical exploration of life’s inconsistencies and ambiguities, on an experiential level. (more…)

Tonight, a thousand maniacs serve their lives up on a silver platter as they congregate at The Garage to participate in the metal onslaught of Malefice, Trigger the Bloodshed, Suicide Silence, Behemoth and DevilDriver. The bloodied faces that exit the venue post-performance testify to the fact that, on this night, the ‘safety in numbers’ tactic proves to be no protection against five of metal’s most brutal acts. (more…)

Papa Roach is touring up a frenzy this year but the band has made time, amidst its busy schedule, to return to London for tonight’s gig, just five months after performing at The Forum in April. The band’s charisma is a giant fan-magnet and the crowd gathered at Brixton Academy waits in anticipation for what it knows will be one heck of a show. The event is opened with the rock ‘n roll sound of UK-born Heaven’s Basement and Madina Lake have been allocated the all important task of pumping up the crowd before the Roaches hit the stage. (more…)