Finnish Love Metal pioneer, Ville Valo (VV) of HIM, has released his new single ‘The Foreverlost‘. The track is the third glimpse into his upcoming debut solo album Neon Noir, due for release on 13th January 2023 via Heartagram Records, distributed by UMG/Spinefarm
Ville Valo comments: “The Foreverlost is yet another loud love song depicting the burlesque butoh between two world-weary souls. All my Carmina Buranas and could’ve should’ve would’ves rolled into a neat little Gordian knot of the gothic variety.”
Listen to ‘The Foreverlost’ HERE.
NEON NOIR TRACKLIST:
01: Echolocate Your Love
02: Run Away From the Sun
03: Neon Noir
04: Loveletting
05: The Foreverlost
06: Baby Lacrimarium
07: Salute the Sanguine
08: In Trenodia
09: Heartful of Ghosts
10: Saturnine Saturnalia
11: Zener Solitaire
12: Vertigo Eyes
Pre-orders for Neon Noir are now live, HERE.
Head to Kerrang.com to read their cover feature, in which Ville discusses the album making process in-depth.
VV’s headline tour – taking place next year across Europe, the UK and North America – has already sold-out across a number of cities. Get your tickets now to avoid disappointment. Tickets available HERE.
JAN – MAY 2023 ‘NEON NOIR TOUR’
EUROPE
13.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
14.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
15.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
14.01 – Stodola, Warsaw (sold out)
15.02 – Studio, Krakow
16.02 – LMB, Prague (sold out)
17.02 – Huxley’s Berlin (sold out)
18.02 – Fabrik, Hamburg (sold out)
20.02 – Paradiso, Amsterdam
21.02 – Batschkapp, Frankfurt (sold out)
22.02 – Komplex, Zurich
24.02 – Razzmatazz, Barcelona
25.02 – La Riviera, Madrid
26.02 – Cineteatro Capitolio, Lisbon
27.02 – Hard Club, Porto
02.03 – Alcatraz, Milan
03.03 – Backstage Werk, Munich (sold out)
04.03 – Barba Negra, Budapest
05.03 – Arena, Vienna (sold out)
07.03 – Rockhal, Esch-Sur-Alzette
08.03 – LMH, Cologne (sold out)
09.03 – Le Trabendo, Paris
UNITED KINGDOM
10.03 – O2 Academy, Bristol
11.03 – Rock City, Nottingham (sold out)
13.03 – Garage, Glasgow (sold out)
14.03 – O2 Ritz, Manchester (sold out)
15.03 – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
NORTH AMERICA
31.03 – Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia
01.04 – Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia (sold out)
02.04 – Big Night Live, Boston
04.04 – Roxian Theater, Pittsburgh
05.04 – House of Blues, Cleveland
06.04 – St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit
08.04 – Bogart’s, Cincinnati
09.04 – House of Blues, Chicago (sold out)
10.04 – House of Blues, Chicago
11.04 – Varsity Theater, Minneapolis
13.04 – The Summit Music Hall, Denver
14.04 – The Depot, Salt Lake City
16.04 – Ace of Spaces, Sacramento
17.04 – The Fillmore, San Francisco
18.04 – The Belasco, Los Angeles (sold out)
19.04 – The Belasco, Los Angeles
21.04 – House of Blues, Las Vegas
22.04 – House of Blues, San Diego
23.04 – The Van Buren, Phoenix
25.04 – House of Blues, Dallas
26.04 – Aztec Theatre, San Antonio
17.04 – House of Blues, Houston
28.04 – House of Blues, New Orleans
30.04 – House of Blues, Orlando
01.05 – Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale
03.05 – Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta
04.05 – Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville
05.05 – The Underground, Charlotte
07.05 – The Fillmore, Silver Spring
08.05 – Irving Plaza, New York
09.05 – Irving Plaza, New York
In the annals of 21st century alternative rock history there are few artists who cast a longer or more peculiar shadow than Finnish Love Metal pioneer Ville Valo. After all, his band HIM were easily among the most iconic and idiosyncratic groups of the millenium. Zealously revered, gleefully reviled but impossible to ignore, their music left an indelible mark on a worldwide legion of fans. The scarlet letters stood for His Infernal Majesty. Their founder stood for something delightedly out of step with the status quo.
“We only hoped to temporarily redirect hard rock’s blood flow from the nether regions towards the heart”, reminisces Ville Valo, the singer, songwriter and primus motor of HIM. Judging by the monolithic presence of the Heartagram in any account of music this side of the millennium it’s apparent that he succeeded.
Inspired by everyone from Poe to Bukowski and tinged by a penchant for perfumed Sabbathian gloom, Valo’s creative lovechild would produce eight era-defining studio releases and over ten million record sales, not forgetting a Grammy nomination, countless magazine covers, critical acclaim, and the veneration of a generation. Thus it came as no surprise that the news of a farewell tour in 2017 was greeted with shock and disbelief among devotees and endless speculation as to what or who was to take up the velvet mantle.
“As fun as the funeral rites for HIM were, it took me more than a few moons to lick my wounds in the shadow of the Heartagram and come up with an excuse to strum and hum again. Eventually I decided to put a leash on my beloved black dog and we started howling together instead of barking at each other. That’s how the album Neon Noir was born”.
The answer came earlier this year with the melodious exsanguination of first single ‘Loveletting’, followed by the elegiac goth-optimism of ‘Echolocate Your Love’, which Valo described as, ‘a teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy, with a dash of hope.’ Now, with the glow of Neon Noir fast approaching comes the driving, nocturnal radiance of ‘The Foreverlost’, an uptempo paean to doomed romance and a confident affirmation of Valo’s peerless ability to imbue timeless songwriting and balladry with a whiff of roses and brimstone.
“’The Foreverlost’ is yet another loud love song depicting the burlesque butoh between two world-weary souls,” he says. “All my Carmina Buranas and could’ve would’ve rolled into a neat little Gordian knot of the gothic variety.”
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Photo By Juha Mustonen
