a rant on HIM, a rant on mallgoth

[TopHaggardDoll]

Originally Posted by viscus

You know, it strikes me as a bit strange how goth came to be so associated with metal in the mainstream consciousness. Metalheads (at least the real ones) would never associate themselves with the term "goth."

Hah! I know me and my metalhead mates rip the shit out of eachother and they shout "FILTHY GOTH!" at me all the time. XD!

It goes like this though. According to the public, if you have black hair and have two arms.........you MUST be goth.

[KontanKarite]

Actually, I used to dig HIM so damned hard until after I noticed that just about every song they ever made was about the same exact thing.

[Lurcita]

I must be the only teen
nowadays that wears a Pink Floyd shirt
and actually listens to them.

[honeythorn]

Come to think of it, I have never ever seen " mallgoths " actually hanging around a mall . I have seen a few actually shopping for things in a mall as we all do, but never just hanging about in the recreational sense. They do hang out near a church/park/memorial type thing in the city, along with the enormous emo creche, but that's it.

Those I have seen at the aforementioned place in the city were decked out in possibly every piece of " goffik " clothing they owned. One girl was draped in a large and actually quite expensive dress ( I know where she got it because I occasionally shop there and it's about ten minutes away from the park ) complete with New rocks and terrible eyeliner, just to apparantly hang around in a park in the middle of the afternoon. I also saw a lad who was practically head to toe in PVC. Not attractive.

On the subject of HIM again, They have indeed stated that they are not a goth band, and Ville has actually said that to get into/ get a idea of goth you should start with bands like Siouxsie and the Sisters ect,( who he does listen to ) before plainly stating that their main musical influence is Black Sabbath.

I have been to a fair few HIM gigs, and although there were a lot of mallgoths and heartagram plastered teenagers, there were some older actual goths too, and not once did I hear anyone state/claim that HIM were a goth band. Certainly no-one I spoke to thought so, and most of them would be classed as mallgoths by most standards.

[Breathless Horror]

Originally Posted by Lurcita

I must be the only teen
nowadays that wears a Pink Floyd shirt
and actually listens to them.

Nope, me too! In fact, I just listened to "The Trial" a couple of hours ago.

[Slap Your Love]

[quote=honeythorn]I do like HIM ( and no, I do think they are in any way remotely goth before anyone has a spaz , clearly they are just a rock band. ) [quote]

I completely agree. I think they have good lyrics even though all of their songs are kinda the same which doesn't bother me because all that means is if you like one song you like them all.

I don't think they are true original gothic rock at all but what do they care? They're making millions now.

All I have to say about mallgoths is fuck them. Especially ICP fans because we have a ton of them come into our music venue constantly and trash the place with fucking icp logos everywhere. "Juggalo..." Shit music.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Hey, I'm looking for a music venue to play in!! I don't know if you'd like us though.

[Chazz]

I agree...

People ask me why I have a ming poster of ville valo on my wall, my answer... Good singer crappy band and the heartagram is an insult to the pentagram..

[Slap Your Love]

Well ask to be booked. My friend Matt King
does the booking. Myspace.com/thehangarvenue
and no, we have lots of kinds of bands play.
Come. ^.^

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Well I live in Minnesota, it might be a bit of a drive. We work for cheap!

[Slap Your Love]

Hey, we've had bands from New York come before lol.
We'd probably pay your gas or something. I dunoo how
Matt pays bands nowadays. I kn ow the more fans you bring the better for you.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Fans, yeah we've got loads of fans. (heavy sarcasm) We're not that good, really, but I've been practicing loads on guitar and bass, so we'll see.

[lostintranslation]

I like HIM a lot, but I don't recognise them as a goth band.

[Chazz]

Hell up until recently my mum knew more about Goth than me, I never claimed to be goth but I tried to be what I thought it was, little did I know I was playing into a trap set by the one and only goff king himself, mr manson

[DepthsofSpace]

I don't care much for HIM, and barely heard any of their stuff.

What's annoying is to be the blue suit don'd businessmen of the event and have to explain to the Tripp NYC, black clad individual, ten years your senior, that no, HIM, Evanescence, Slipknot and Cradle of Filth are not Goth.

That's annoying, especially when you've got a DcD cd playing in the background (okay, not quite original Goth; ethereal darkwave. =P).

[Darklight689]

I dont much care for HIM myself but i fucking HATE marylin mason. ever since i saw that guy i wanted to step on him. This guy who goes to my dojo was making fun of me for being goth and started saying stuff about marylin manson. I didnt get so pissed at anyone for a while even after i asked him to stop he kept doing it. Its okay though...come fighting time i made sure he knew i was still number 1 so he felt it big time. Where i am at i have only found 1 other true goth there are like 3 or 4 mall goths who apperently think bands like manson, cradle of filth, dimmu borgir, slipknot are goth.

[Dreggas]

Originally Posted by viscus

You know, it strikes me as a bit strange how goth came to be so associated with metal in the mainstream consciousness. Metalheads (at least the real ones) would never associate themselves with the term "goth."

I actually grew up listening to metal. I "regressed" so to speak about my senior year in High School and after when I moved out here to California and discovered the "goth scene".

[magickaykay]

Personally, I love HIM, and mostly because of their lyrics. I'm a lyrics type of guy, if a band/artist has wonderful(in my opinion), I will listen to him/her/them. But also, I do support your statement that they are mostly popular because of their "band symbol" and their look/style. I don't really care that much about their look, and the pentagram is ok, it's not the best symbol in the world(in my opinion as well).
P.S.-Pokemon rules!(well back in the 90's it did).It's becoming overdone.
Also, they aren't a goth band, their genre is called "Love Metal." That's what they are recongnized as and that's what they call themselves, which makes sense according to their sound and lyrics.

[magickaykay]

Originally Posted by KontanKarite

Actually, I used to dig HIM so damned hard until after I noticed that just about every song they ever made was about the same exact thing.

Yes, most of their songs are about love. Somepeople think it's extremely annoying to hear a song about the same thing. But I like the way they twist Love in so many ways, and show multiple views of love and about love (that's just me).

[honeythorn]

For all that they insist, "Love Metal" is not a genre of music, and has never been recognised as one by anyone other than fans. And it never will be. The whole thing was and is just a gimmick.

But for those who find HIM's music and lyrics to be repetetive, or dislike Ville Valo for doing only the same thing ( which he admittedly does sometimes ) I IMPLORE you to watch this. Ignore the video if you don't like looking at him, just listen to the song. It's in his native Finnish and has nothing to do with HIM as a band . He should do more of this IMO.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxZWiBYZPQ

[magickaykay]

Originally Posted by honeythorn

For all that they insist, "Love Metal" is not a genre of music, and has never been recognised as one by anyone other than fans. And it never will be. The whole thing was and is just a gimmick.

But for those who find HIM's music and lyrics to be repetetive, or dislike Ville Valo for doing only the same thing ( which he admittedly does sometimes ) I IMPLORE you to watch this. Ignore the video if you don't like looking at him, just listen to the song. It's in his native Finnish and has nothing to do with HIM as a band . He should do more of this IMO.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxZWiBYZPQ

That was a great video, it was very beautiful! But yes, I wonder why Ville Valo even started a band, he sounds pretty good by himself. Also, I did not know he did solo stuff, my eyes are more open now.

[honeythorn]

I drool when he sings in his native tongue. He really should do more. Perhaps with the band also. It would make a nice change for them to include some tracks like that .

[honeythorn]

You may also like this one Magickaykay

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8eID6o-qbK4&NR=1

[Tam Li Hua]

You know, I was tempted to pick up a HIM cd a few years ago before my official Goth days, when I was still overseas.

Now I sort of regret that I didn't, because I've no idea what they sound like [aside from the descriptions here] or why they are so hated. [Also, I'm a big fan of liking or disliking things simply because you like or dislike them rather than because everyone tells you they are absolutely fantastic or absolutely awful.]

I know I'm not gonna earn a lot of fans by saying that, but ah well.

[honeythorn]

Youtube is your friend. If you want to hear just Ville on his own ( and I reccomend you do ) then click the links I posted below. It is true that a lot of their songs sound the same, particularly the earlier stuff. It isn't goth in any form, but it is nice to listen to ( IMO ) and alright to put on when you're getting ready to go out or something I know I do.