There's a lot to be suspicious about Finnish rock band H.I.M. There's that name for a start (it stands, rather ludicriously, for His Infernal Majesty), and then there's the fact that although they try their utmost to have a doomy, angst-filled image, the melodic hooks in their songs would fit quite happily into any daytime radio show.
Yet Killing Loneliness is, against all the odds, rather good. It's a mid-paced ballad enlivened by some crunching bursts of guitar and an impressive vocal performance from frontman Ville Valo. The lyrics may be rather self-important and portentous ("Nailed to the cross, together as solitude begs us to stay, Disappear in the lie forever and denounce the power of death over our souls") but at least they're bit more interesting than the usual sludge of emo rubbish we get nowadays.
It's nothing revolutionary, and it's not half as scary as the band think they look, but for a heartfelt power ballad you can't go far wrong with Killing Loneliness.
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