Review by Tammy on March 6, 2002.

Him (His Infernal Majesty) has released yet another Metal/love CD. While it is hard for me to think that love is an accepted metal topic; I have an even harder time classifying this band as metal at all. This band has given themselves an evil name and written songs like ‘Your Sweet 666’, ‘Poison Girl’, and ‘Join Me In Death’ just to capture the consumer eye. The pink cover seems to be for the same reason. I mean who the hell has ever seen a pink CD in the metal section? However covers don’t classify the band; music and songs do.

The music in “Razorblade Romance” is actually quite well done. All the members compliment each others playing, which adds a kind of mysterious quality to the music. The music flows together in such a way that it is hard to define which instrument ends where. The overall effect of the music is good, but "Razorblade Romance" seems to sound the same in each song, both vocally and musically.

Vocalist Ville seems obsessed with women (maybe because he looks like one?), and all his songs follow that one desire. His voice however does have a nice tone, and I can see the possibility of a good metal career for him. The deep morbid quality of his voice weaves itself into the listener’s mind, and blends in perfectly with the music, which sometimes makes it hard to focus on the lyrics themselves. His voice does however, have one demeaning quality; he never really shows a large vocal range. His voice keeps it’s dark and dismal tone, which makes a lot of the songs on “Razorblade Romance” sound very similar, and can get on a person’s nerves quite easily.

The lyrical content on the varying tracks on “Razorblade Romance” are indecipherable from one another, which adds to the monotony that the listener will experience with the almost identical musical style present on all tracks. HIMs’ cover of ‘Wicked Game’ (originally by country music singer Chris Issac) proves to me that this band is anything but a pure metal band. Every song in “Razorblade Romance” has the same subject, which leads me to see that this band has no originality at all. While I know that many bands sing about women, and love especially in the doom genre of metal, HIMs’ previous CD’s seem very similar to this one. The band just hasn’t explored any other subjects or sounds.

I find that HIM has not done anything that really deserves a lot of merit at all. All the songs are simply Ville’s ranting about his love life. The lyrics are simple and could probably be written by that retard in the back of the class if he got put down by women enough, and while the music flows, it seems to flow exactly the same in each song.

Bottom Line: I can’t respect a guy who wears pink makeup and writes songs that could be played on the lite music radio station. To a metal fan this is blasphemy, but I can see it going far as a rock band.

Categorical Rating Breakdown:

Originality: 4
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 6
Overall: 5.5

Rating: 5.7 out of 10

Review by Tammy on March 6, 2002.

Him (His Infernal Majesty) has released yet another Metal/love CD. While it is hard for me to think that love is an accepted metal topic; I have an even harder time classifying this band as metal at all. This band has given themselves an evil name and written songs like ‘Your Sweet 666’, ‘Poison Girl’, and ‘Join Me In Death’ just to capture the consumer eye. The pink cover seems to be for the same reason. I mean who the hell has ever seen a pink CD in the metal section? However covers don’t classify the band; music and songs do.

The music in “Razorblade Romance” is actually quite well done. All the members compliment each others playing, which adds a kind of mysterious quality to the music. The music flows together in such a way that it is hard to define which instrument ends where. The overall effect of the music is good, but "Razorblade Romance" seems to sound the same in each song, both vocally and musically.

Vocalist Ville seems obsessed with women (maybe because he looks like one?), and all his songs follow that one desire. His voice however does have a nice tone, and I can see the possibility of a good metal career for him. The deep morbid quality of his voice weaves itself into the listener’s mind, and blends in perfectly with the music, which sometimes makes it hard to focus on the lyrics themselves. His voice does however, have one demeaning quality; he never really shows a large vocal range. His voice keeps it’s dark and dismal tone, which makes a lot of the songs on “Razorblade Romance” sound very similar, and can get on a person’s nerves quite easily.

The lyrical content on the varying tracks on “Razorblade Romance” are indecipherable from one another, which adds to the monotony that the listener will experience with the almost identical musical style present on all tracks. HIMs’ cover of ‘Wicked Game’ (originally by country music singer Chris Issac) proves to me that this band is anything but a pure metal band. Every song in “Razorblade Romance” has the same subject, which leads me to see that this band has no originality at all. While I know that many bands sing about women, and love especially in the doom genre of metal, HIMs’ previous CD’s seem very similar to this one. The band just hasn’t explored any other subjects or sounds.

I find that HIM has not done anything that really deserves a lot of merit at all. All the songs are simply Ville’s ranting about his love life. The lyrics are simple and could probably be written by that retard in the back of the class if he got put down by women enough, and while the music flows, it seems to flow exactly the same in each song.

Bottom Line: I can’t respect a guy who wears pink makeup and writes songs that could be played on the lite music radio station. To a metal fan this is blasphemy, but I can see it going far as a rock band.

Categorical Rating Breakdown:

Originality: 4
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 6
Overall: 5.5

Rating: 5.7 out of 10

Review by JD on January 27, 2009.

German headbangers Burden Of Life had came out with an album that some said would be a very damned good one... and yet I found myself caught in the middle of liking this album to a greater extent, and passing it off as something that is average or below. It really does makes reviewing the band rather... complicated at best.

Hard, heavy and full of angst, BOF does seem to really have it all. They have some very complex rhythms, above average lyrical content and very clearly some real great musicians in the band , also have a great person producing the album... but the flip side if it was I felt somewhat uninspired and flat at the same time. Same band, same music.

I dunno what it is there that makes this so damned hard to decide... after five complete listens to the album over two days, I come back to the same place with it that I had been the first listen. I hear some very interesting lyrics throughout and there is more than enough amazing guitar work that blazes through out the disk... but it just come to me as almost being listless. It feels to me as if the band was just going through their paces while they were recording the album.

Perhaps it is my own mindspace while I review it... possibly I see something in there that is not right in how it was made or recorded. What ever it is, I have to say that while I hear what I do through out 'Ashes of Existence'... is not really a bad album, but perhaps somehow it had been misguided along the way... or it is just me who might be misguided with the album? Dunno on that one.. All I can give, is the truth... I owe that to Burden Of Life.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 7
Originality: 5
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.4 out of 10