HIM: 'Digital Versatile Doom' DVD Sneak Peek

Finnish "love metallers" HIM will release their new CD/DVD, "Digital Versatile Doom: Live at the Orpheum Theatre", on April 1 through Warner. The live portion of the DVD was recorded/filmed at the band's November 14-15, 2007 concerts at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. According to the HIM newsletter, "you'll go on stage and behind the scenes with Ville [Valo, HIM frontman] and the band as they give one of their most heartfelt shows to date. Also featured on the DVD, watch the journey of HIM's biggest fans as they go to Seattle to meet the band, see the heartagram photo gallery and watch as Ville recounts the journey that was 'Venus Doom'. 'Digital Versatile Doom' also features a second disc, with the full live performance from The Orpheum Theater and the package contains a 16-page booklet of original art and images."

An exclusive sneak peek at "Digital Versatile Doom: Live at the Orpheum Theatre" is available at this location.

HIM's latest video, "Bleed Well", which features footage for from the Los Angeles shows, can be viewed below.

HIM frontman Ville Valo recently spoke to Straight.com about his songwriting process. "It's very hard to sing about sunshine and ice cream and birds in fast cars . . . I'm a miserable bastard when it comes to writing music," he said. "I love melancholy music, and I love the darker aspects when it comes to, like, popular music. I've always been a big fan of [BLACK] SABBATH and all that, so obviously they've been a big influence on me, and I wanted to write music that would have a similar kind of gloomy atmosphere to it."

In 2003, HIM released an album called "Love Metal", which featured a gold "heartagram" — a cross between a heart and a pentagram — on the cover. The group has trademarked that yin-yang symbol, which Valo created the day after his 20th birthday, and has taken the "love metal" concept to heart.

"When we started out, a lot of people had a hard time deciding which category we belonged to, because we had the sort of SABBATH-y thing, but at the end of the day we're singing love songs," Ville said. "It wasn't goth and it wasn't rock and it wasn't metal–it was something in between. One of the first songs we ever played was 'Wicked Game' by CHRIS ISAAK, where we put all the really fuzzy, heavy guitars on it, so I guess love metal just sounded good. And you actually have to be a proper man to be able to say that you like love metal."