HIM is a Finnish rock band from Helsinki, formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko Lindström, and bassist Mikko Paananen.[1] They have released six full length albums to date, with their seventh, Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, scheduled to be released on February 9, 2010. On September 5, 2006, HIM's fifth studio album Dark Light was certified gold by the RIAA, making HIM the first Finnish band to have a gold album in the United States. HIM had five of their studio albums certified platinum in Finland with Razorblade Romance being certified double platinum in Finland and platinum in Germany. After gaining popularity in Europe, particularly in their homeland, HIM released its second album in 1999, titled Razorblade Romance. This is when the band's popularity began to rise, their single "Join Me in Death" from the album reached #1 on the German music charts, selling over 500,000 of this single in two months. Join Me in Death was used as the soundtrack of European version of sci-fi movie 'The 13th Floor', thus making it more popular worldwide. HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights in August 2001. This was the band's first album with new keyboardist Emerson Burton, the final addition to the current line-up. Once again the album shot to #1 in their Finnish homeland. It also reached #2 in Germany. On April 14, 2003, HIM released Love Metal. This was the first album that did not feature singer/songwriter Ville Valo on the cover. Instead, it featured a gold heartagram, the band's well-known logo. "The Funeral of Hearts" was the first single and their first high appearance on the United Kingdom charts at #14, it also hit #3 in Germany. It was followed by "Buried Alive By Love" and "The Sacrament". (The Sacrament was recently used as the ending for the anime film Highlander: The Search for Vengeance.) HIM's fifth studio album, 2005's Dark Light, became the band's full breakthrough in the US, debuting in the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and spawning two major rock hits, "Wings of a Butterfly" and "Killing Loneliness", both of which have accompanying videos. Kat Von D appears in the video for "Killing Loneliness" tattooing the eyes Ville Valo has on his back as well as throughout in small glimpses of foreshadowing. In the summer of 2005 they played the mainstage of Download Festival with Black Sabbath and Velvet Revolver. The success of Dark Light has also allowed a number of HIM's previous albums (including Love Metal) to chart in the United States. In October 2006, the band's official website announced that Dark Light had been certified Gold in the U.S. by the RIAA. This made HIM the first band from Finland to sell over 500,000 records in the US. Venus Doom was released on September 14, 2007 in Finland, Ireland and Germany, September 17, 2007 internationally and September 18, 2007 in the US. In support of the new album HIM toured North America with Bleeding Through in the fall of 07. On June 9th 2009, HIM announced in a phone interview with Euro-Rock Radio that they will be recording their new album in August 2009 with producer Matt Squire in Los Angeles, California. Ville Valo has described the sound of the album as "Guns 'N Roses meeting Depeche Mode on a good day." The title of the album is Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice. The recording of the album began on August 3, 2009 and finished on October 8, 2009. On November 17, the band's official website released the track list and in the official order. On November 22, lead singer Ville Valo's birthday, the album art was released on the band's website. Recently the track Shatter me with Hope was posted on youtube in three different versions by different users, two are similar but with a difference in parts of the song and the other one is a remix [by Hiili H.] and is called Shatter me with Hope(The sword of Damocles) it can be find in the "Heartkiller single". On January 28 amazon posted the previews of 30 seconds of each song on the album plus two live songs for "Heartkiller" and "Love The Hardest Way". The sound of the new music has caused much controversy among fans, due to the band's departure from a unique and mystical rock style which managed to melodically and lyrically capture the essence of the songs' love stories. The conflicts have even gone to discuss the seemingly changing image portrayed by Valo and the rest of the band (however such accusations have persisted since the launching of Dark Light.) A common argument states that the new sound is "not HIM," and "not Love Metal," and that it gives new listeners the wrong impression about HIM's music and status as a band, while in fact HIM is one of the most successful and well-known European rock bands and has influenced many modern-day artists.