Finnish Love Metal pioneer, Ville Valo (VV) of HIM, has today released his debut solo album, Neon Noir. Available via Heartagram Records, distributed by UMG/Spinefarm, all digital and physical versions can be found here.
Ville Valo comments, "I firmly believe Neon Noir sprinkles some much-missed glitter all over modern day doom and gloom. It's 12 lessons in reckless abandon without spilling the red."
Watch VV's brand new video for album title track, "Neon Noir," below.
VV's headline tour of Europe, the UK, and North America has already sold out across a number of cities. Get tickets here.
ABOUT VILLE VALO/VV:
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 was 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 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 10 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 put a leash on my beloved black dog and we started howling together instead of barking at each other. That's how VV and the album Neon Noir was born."
The first omens of Valo’s return surfaced in 2022 with a trio of singles which formed an outline portrait of the greater musical picture yet to come. First came the confessional exsanguination of Loveletting, which followed by the elegiac goth-optimism of Echolocate Your Love. They were both powerful statements of intent, and combined with the driving, nocturnal radiance of The Foreverlost – an uptempo paean to doomed romance, confirmed that Ville’s heart still throbs to the beat of a different ECG. All threads in a new tapestry of Ville’s design, with the full picture due to be revealed on January 13th, 2023. More than just an album, it’s a rebirth, a resurrection, and nothing short of a long overdue return of a visionary artist to a world of his own creation.
"I firmly believe Neon Noir sprinkles some much-missed glitter all over modern day doom and gloom. Its 12 lessons in reckless abandon without spilling the red."
With a knowing nod to the past while striding confidently forward, Neon Noir is exuberant affirmation of Valo’s peerless ability to imbue timeless songwriting and balladry with a whiff of roses and brimstone – timeless, timely, and it’s about time.
"HIM were the Hobbit to my Lord of the Rings, and I'm still ferociously honouring my childhood dream of becoming the last vampire with a pulse standing on the smouldering remains of rock and roll."