VV - Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 - Single [Review]

HIM (Finnish rock band responsible for hits like "Join Me," "Buried Alive by Love," "The Funeral of Hearts," "Wings of a Butterfly," and many others) is back! Well, not really, but they might as well be because this three-track offering by frontman Ville Valo (going by VV for this release) brilliantly captures the essence of HIM so powerfully that you wouldn't really know the difference listening to it if you didn't know that it was a solo effort. The cover art even features HIM's signature heartagram. I hesitated on whether to refer to this as a single or an EP but settled on single for two reasons - (1) iTunes refers to it as such and (2) a single is technically 1-3 tracks whereas an EP is 4-7 tracks. The release is titled Gothica Fennica (Latin for Finnish Gothic) Vol. 1 and, as just mentioned, offers up three new tracks - starting with "Salute the Sanguine." I can't help but wonder who is playing guitar and drums on these tracks because they sound so much like HIM songs, this one reminding me a great deal of the band's 2005 album Dark Light (my favorite HIM album). "Salute the Sanguine" features HIM's signature heavy yet subdued guitar riffs along with Ville's velvety voice comparing love and death: "Death, come blow me a kiss," he opens. The softer second number "Run Away from the Sun" - featuring Ville rapidly showing off his impressive range - reminds me a bit of the aforementioned "The Funeral of Hearts." The song has a lot of upbeat energy, and Valo's voice is a bit electronically altered at the beginning of the song, making him sound almost like he's singing through a telephone. Lyrically speaking, I can't help but imagine the song being from the perspective of the Phantom, asking Christine to keep him company in his darkness. In the song from The Phantom of the Opera titled "The Music of the Night," the Phantom sings to Christine, "Turn your face away from the garish light of day. Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light, and listen to the music of the night." Similarly, Valo sings here, "Run away from the sun to me." It's interesting because there is sometimes comfort in darkness compared to light which can sometimes be harsh and stark. Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 then closes with the heaviest song on the single, "Saturnine Saturnalia." The grinding and pounding riffs remind me a great deal of HIM's 2007 album Venus Doom (arguably their heaviest album). It also reminds me melodically of Dark Light's title track. I absolutely adore the use of alliteration in the song's lyrics such as when Valo opens with, "Hearts haunted roar relentlessly." I absolutely adore this three-track offering and am hoping that it is a peek at a full-length album on the way, but given that the single is labeled as the first volume, that indicates that there will, at the very least, be another single or EP.