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UNDER THE HEARTAGRAM MARK ( REVIEWS)
LET'S TALK ABOUT A CERTAIN DANIEL LIONEYE
In 2001 HIM are in the studio with Deeps shadows and brilliant highlights: dark and romantic tones which define the compositive line of the five finnish guys are softened in this album, surely more melodic than the previous ones.
The guitar underlines the rhythm and contributes to heavy it with its distortions , but perhaps that Gibson and the one who plays it would love to express something more, as like the energy enclosed in these six strings would feel the urge to free in more scratchy sounds, in faster riffs and different musical scales : rock n’roll, to say in mere words.
And naturally this is not the need of a single person, because when three people learnt to live and love music and to share dreams and passions since forever, perhaps they need just few words and some sight to understand each other; and seeing that Lindstrom is not a man of many words, I imagine it has really gone like this.
The three guys already tried, like in a game, to improvise some riff on Linde’s guitar, and without pressure, they understand to be a good trio and to be able to give life to a side project of HIM . Joined in the project even other members of less famous finnish bands: ita-Saska, Ravenstorm, New Rose and The Skreppers, the singer of which, Hiili Hiilesmaa have been the producer of Greatest Lovesongs vol.666 and will be, in the years to follow, producer of Love Metal, and co-producer, with Tim Palmer, of Venus Doom.
Daniel Lioneye comes to life, this way, with the desire to make music to have fun, to set free that Gibson like a crazy horse, free between the notes and the compositions, with a good dose of self-irony, without taking themselves too seriously; perhaps they still are playing like these three young guys with the idea for Kiss, Black Sabbath and rock music.
Three are the songs initially composed by Linde, but during the production six tracks are added, and here it is the complete material for the album “The king of rock n’roll”, the only released album of the band, edited by BMG Finland in the September of 2001, initially destined just for the finnish and german market.
The band doesn’t make any promotion for the album, the only one gig for the band is made at the III annual Tuska open air metal festival in 2001 in Helsinki, and no other will follow.
The people who are used to the sound of HIM’s love metal can’t find a single note of that in the album: the dirty and rude sound of Linde’s guitar is accompanied with the wildly played drums by Ville and the special sound effects, with the voices and sounds created for that particular purpose by Hiilesmaa.
Everything sounds so liberating, a cathartic moment with soft sound and more listenable than that Deep shadows that HIM were offering to the market; it’s a true homage to a rude and nervous rock n’roll with the evident blues influenced so beloved from Lindstrom himself, who uses the electric distortions of his guitar at its best.
The result is a direct sound deprived by stylish and baubles but really suggestive and involving for the strength it transmits.
“The king of rock n’roll” is the most famous track, remembered to be the start jingle of “Viva la Bam”, a tv program by Bam Margera: strong guitars and rock which echoes the beloved Black Sabbath.
Wild guitar riffs can be also found into Roller and Dope Danny, Never been in love presents a guitar intro where Lindstrom uses just the distorsion. On a chaotic rhythm and blues is added a wild and angry sound, pure and naked rock n’roll. A video is taken from this track, using private HIM material and some shot from Provinssirock of 2000.
The blues rhythm are back with Eldorado baby, a more relaxed track and with a simple and linear rhythm structure; we are back with the distortions with Lonely Road, perhaps the best track and with a really curious ending, where laughs are mixed with the sound of a sex scene.
The track is followed by International p-lover, really rock and with the same character of the album and We gonna rockin tonight, eight minutes long, during them we can hear weird melodies and hard rock rhythms are added electronic manipulations, solo deliriums which remember Jimi Hendrix; the album ends with a cover track, Knocking on heaven’s door, re arranged from the previous one by Guns n’roses, based most of the time on the electric sound.
This is the album; but we can’t hide what it is the true surprise which shocks the listener, even if used to HIM’s music: Linde’s voice with a bass tone, sometimes a little rough , defined sensual from someone, thing that he denied in a late interview some years after. He is surprisingly a good singer, with a vocal register which remembers a young elvis Presley more spontaneous and less constructed.
This is the past; recently Linde confessed in an interview with Ultimate Guitar that he’s working on a second Daniel Lioneye album with another version of the band with influences from the black metal.
Finally Daniel Lioneye comes back, with the other side of HIM, privated by these dark and Baudelaire decadent influences , but anyway not less captivating and involving, with the knowledge that mr. Lindstrom now presents himself like a complete musician and like a complete figure in the Finnish band.
Mrs.Lindstrom (translates by Nailedtoacross)
17.05.2007- 17.05.2008 : A YEAR TO REMEMBER
A year ago in this date Ville was entering the gates of the Promises clinic in Malibu to wash away from him everything that was hurting and ruining his wonderful life, everything that was leading him to something by himself defined “not a good way to go, everybody can do that, i’d rather be electrocuted on stage while i’m singing”.
In an imaginary encounter with him, in front of a coffee cup, sitting in a bar in the meanwhile he wraps himself into a smoky cloud of his Marlboro Light, his eyes perhaps a little sleepy because he’s been up till late at Lost&Found, what would we say to him in this anniversary?
Cold thoughts, after a year wonderfully lived, again.
I would tell him: “You don’t know how much I admire you. For you will , for your work…fr the fact you had the ability to maintain a certain poetry in your way of life. I think you needed more courage to decide to challenge a difficult and whirly life as yours and being sober instead of running towards a really evident decline. You are the living example that art is not always a disrupting force. Go on like this!”
Legolas_Di_Mirkwood-Alessandra
I am with Ville at Robert’s Café in Alexanderinkatu and I am drinking my express coffee sitting at the little table with him.
This is what I could say to him: “Thanks for doing it; thanks because a year ago, while someone was confirming that my fears were real you decided to turn the page; thanks for understanding that, once you are at the bottom of everything, you could have a great will like the one you had and find the strength to come back to top and start living again. Thanks because you gave me back a real band, you gave me a Linde with new strength and will to play which give me a heartache every time; thanks for what I’ve seen and what I’ve felt from last july till today, thanks because now and forever you and the guys are able to give me emotions, smiles and tears of joy”
Mrs.Lindstrom-Rosanna
“Thanks Ville, thanks for making the right thing…Thanks for not becoming a wandering sponge. You had the courage to come out from all that shit, as always you revealed a great soul will and a behaviour which sometimes is on the background against some other aspects of you. Since you are okay the band is wonderful: and us fans can do nothing else than thank you to give us back a band like that.
I admire you because you are a great man , never bending you dignity in front of the press always ready to bury you under a ton of shit.
C’mon Ville you made it, Your battle is won with success and it will be really nice if you would understand what you gave us back in this intense year”
Dark Villina-Ludovica
“I will simply say thanks to him..i think this is the right word to express my gratitude and love towards him and towards the whole band, and thanks for all the wonderful emotions I’ve passed in this year.”
Venus_Doom-Emanuela
I am on the outside, on the tables in a bar of Esplanadi, in front of us these wonderful gardens…not that far these endless works for the underground… a thin sound of the drifter sometimes brings me back to reality that I am sitting at a table with him and in front of us, on the table, there is just a coffee and my fruit juice.
“Hermanni…probably you’ve heard the words I’m going to say to you a thousand times, or perhaps just once, twice, ten…but I have the need to tell you this. That night, it was april 27th, when I saw you coming out from the backstage and enter the Give it a name stage I hated you, hiding it in the tears of a night passed without sleeping… I deeply hated you, because for you I took an airplane, I won my fears, while you were still drowning in them.
I hated that silence then, tired and insecure, of tomorrow which precedes tomorrow, the absence of words and thoughts, the remember of these few notes sang in the right way, that thin smile between a drink and another of that damn beer bottle, and I hated the silly comments of the ones who don’t understand that love can be shown even this way...love is a stair, on top there is the love of God, and then everyone of us are on a step, one for the other, who is on the bottom, someone is in the middle, but we love, we love to live, we love to survive.
And I hated you with all my life, despite there are few steps left to watch the top when I watch you in my stair…you can’t throw away everything like this.
It is difficult to come back to love when you hated…hated so deeply to think about ending it all because it hurts more than it’s nice.
Now I came back to love, forgetting the hate I felt, perhaps it helped to let you survive, perhaps I overrate that love which is on top of the stairs, perhaps it was just a case that you had the will to come back to love, to love yourself, to survive…perhaps not, the stair went upside down and you felt drowning, run away from the light means the darkness.
I came back to love...
And now you could even pay my fruit juice, next time it’s my turn, don’t bother anyway!”.
Nailedtoacross-Monica
“What a shame! I can’t even drink a beer with you now! Anyway I admire you so much because it is difficult to come out from an addiction and you had a great determination which is shown even with your band despite all the bad opinions which have been given to you. You are a great man!”
Ladymagdalene
“My old friend! I’ve never thought to see you such in a good shape. If only I had time I would thank you to infinity, for so many things. You had the ability to take back your place in a band, even if strong of a great personality was let down from you talent. You can’t even imagine all the emotions you gave me in that magic night in Modena when I finally saw you smiling. You came back on your feet from a horrible period with the only help of your strength and your dignity, and now more than ever you have been able to be a honest man, who never had the fear to admit your fears and flaws with yourself and the others.
Just humanity, prudence and good sense you show to have in every little thing you do make me melt like snow in the sun.
Thanks with all my heart, you showed me that you can restart to live in a great way even if everything is crumbling down. I’m really proud of you!”
The Path-Antonella
THE HIM'S SOURCES OF INSPIRATION :
THE KISS
Are you curious to know which is the hottest band in the world! Well, the answer is quite simple: the Kiss. And it’s not something regarding the name or the fact they make rock, because the band I will talk you about is the hottest band in the world for a series of various matters we will discover together later.
Kiss have been with no doubt, for sure the inspiration font of many artists, take a look at king diamond for example – the one have been sued for plagiarism- but our beloved HIM too. Perhaps we can’t hear that well the influence of the American band when we listen to their music, but there is no doubt there is their footprint in Ville’s musical path, who confesses that “Animalize” has been his first album bought.
“I adored the Kiss when I was a guy, because it was fantastic to see Gene Simmons breaking the fake blood sacks he had in his mouth to let the blood flood out like a real vampire, and then the bass with the shape of an axe..fantastic!”
This is what Ville declared during an interview and with no doubt he recalls the thoughts of the many people who have been charmed by the Kiss great show. Because it is a real show: the blood scene, the fireworks, the masks themselves give life to a sort of theatrical performance which gives joy to our ears and to our eyes. The make up and the vertiginous heels leave people with their mouths open, and if sometimes this may alienate a part of the audience who believe it is a sort of clown show, it’s enough to listen to their music to understand we have a good product in our hands.
Surely during HIM shows we can’t find silver clothes or guitars that shot boosters, and therefore Mige wouldn’t go under surgery, we will never see a bass player with a kilometric tongue sticked our directly to the audience. Anyway the influence of Kiss touches the musical production of the group, because if an artist leaves you something inside, he catches you, inevitably you will find him again, in the moment you will find your path. Ah historic band like Kiss, with a tremendous discography and a great commercial universe at its back, can’t leave nothing else than its trace.
But let’s briefly, as it is possible, their history.
It’s early 70’s when Paul Stanley (voice and guitar) and Gene Simmons (bass) found the Wicked Lester, after followed by the drummer Peter Criss, found by an announce on the Rolling Stone magazine. And it is in that period that begins to take life the idea of the masks and of a different show. On 1973 Ace Frehley is added to the band and they change their name into “Kiss”. A little curiosity: the logo of the band is designed by Ace himself and gives birth to several discussions about the shape of the two S that reminds the one of SS in Germany. Together with the new name the characters see the light and the make up too: Paul becomes “Starchild”, Gene “The demon”, Ace “The spaceman” and Peter “The catman”. On 1974 their first album is out: “Kiss”. Unfortunately at that time they didn’t have a great success, but some of the best tracks like Cold gin, Strutter and Deuce come from there. The same story for the second album, Hotter than hell, but the story starts to take a good shape thanks to the third album, Dressed to kill, and above all to the gigs of the band that enter in the hearts of the fans thanks to the make up and the fireworks and the fake blood and the guitar with boosters.
The top of the success comes on 1975 with the first live album, “Alive!” that the band celebrated this year with a commemorative tour that touched Italy on May 13th in the wonderful shape of the arena in Verona and on june 24th in Milan.
From that moment Kiss will begin to give better attention even to the world of merchandise, so much that their logo become a registered trademark. Dolls, make up, condoms, limited editions of their albums and much more enter to make their part of the most hard desires of the fans who look at their gadgets like a kid in front of the Christmas tree.
After 5 more albums kiss decide to edit 4 solo albums, completely different the one from the other even on the musical genre. In the same year there is the first of their movies: Kiss meets the phantom of the park.
The following year is the time of the album Dinasty, not that loved from the fans because inclined to the disco music as the famous track “I was made for lovin’ you “ shows.
Problems anyway begin, starting to the line up: Peter Criss, already replaced in the studio from another drummer is dethroned by Eric Carr because of his problems of drugs and alcohol. Two years after the same destiny touches the guitar player Ace Frehley, replaced at first from Bob Kulick and then definitely from Vinnie Vincent. The two replacements don’t just see the entering of two new musicians but two other characters: to the drums The Fox and to the guitar The Warrior.
In 1983 there is a big change: it’s the first time that Kiss decide to leave behind their make up , to show themselves to the fans completely unmasked. It’s the period of hair-metal and of the multiple prized album “Lick it up”, but it’s the same period when there are some more changes in the line up, seeing the leave of Vinnie Vincent replaced by Mark St.John and with Bruce Kulick. With the new line up the Kiss edit three more albums until when, unfortunately, Eric Carr dies. A heart cancer takes with it the fox-drummer, leaving a huge hole in the heart of the fans who are used to still remember him with great love. To replace the Fox comes Eric Singer 8already with Black Sabbath), untol 1996 when the Kiss decide to make a reunion of the original members: the album “Psycho Circuit” comes our even if Criss plays just on a track and Frehley in two. The original Kiss of course don’t have a great future, so Singer gets back to the drums and after that Tommy Thaier is taken as guitar player. The two still now are with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons interpreting the two characters that were of Carr and Frehley. Some fan is still not happy about the coming of the two in the band, but there are so many who are happy, thanks to this year’s tour, “Alive! 35 world tour” because they could appreciate the feeling that is touchable between the two new entries and the veterans.
Someone thinks that Kiss should retire, seeing the age and the number of non musical activities they dedicated perhaps too much in these late years…and maybe they will do it. The only thing to do for the fans is to enjoy this year that is full of surprises and continue to listen to the rich discography of Kiss , something that makes mourn the young people to be born after the 70’s and makes remember the adults the time when these four weird people tickled their curiosity.
Line up:
Actual
Gene Simmons - voce, basso
Paul Stanley - voce, chitarra ritmica
Tommy Thayer - chitarra solista
Eric Singer - batteria, voce
Ex members
Ace Frehley - voce, chitarra solista
Vinnie Vincent - chitarra solista
Mark St. John - chitarra solista
Bruce Kulick - chitarra solista
Peter Criss - voce, batteria
Eric Carr - voce, batteria
Discography
Studio Albums:
Kiss - 1974
Hotter Than Hell - 1974
Dressed To Kill - 1975
Destroyer - 1976
Rock And Roll Over - 1976
Love Gun - 1977
Dinasty - 1979
Unmasked - 1980
Music From "The Elder" - 1981
Creatures Of The Night - 1982
Lick It Up - 1983
Animalize - 1984
Asylum - 1985
Crazy Nights - 1987
Hot In The Shade - 1989
Revenge - 1992
Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions - 1997
Psycho Circus - 1998
Live Albums:
Alive! - 1975
Alive II - 1978
Alive III - 1993
MTV Unplugged - 1996
Kiss Symphony: Alive IV - 2003
Best of:
1976 - The Originals (Casablanca)
1978 - The Originals II (CasablancaVic)
1978 - Double Platinum (Polygram)
1979 - The Best of the Solo Albums (Casablanca)
1982 - Killers (Mercury)
1985 - The Singles (Concept/Polygram)
1988 - Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (Mercury)
1996 - You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! (Mercury)
1996 - Greatest Kiss (Mercury)
1997 - Greatest Hits (Polygram)
1998 - The Originals 1974-1979 (Mercury)
2001 - The Box Set (Universal)
2002 - The Very Best of Kiss (Universal)
2003 - The Best of Kiss, The Millennium Collection (Mercury)
2004 - The Best of Kiss, Volume 2: The Millennium Collection (Mercury)
2005 - Gold (Mercury)
2006 - Kiss Chronicles: 3 Classic Albums (Mercury)
2006 - The Best of Kiss, Volume 3: The Millennium Collection (Mercury)
2006 - KISS Alive! 1975-2000 (Universal)
SidonieGabrielleColette
Planned and developed by Mrs Lindstrom with the help of Nailedtoacross, Legolas di Mirkwood,
Shikaia590 and Maia.Editor in chief: Mrs Lindstrom, Graphic Project: Dan[616]
