His Infernal Majesty aren’t the sort of band to go reinventing themselves for every album, and Tears On Tape pretty much follows the usual musical formula found in some of their older records, but Ville Valo and co. really know what they do well, and hell does this album stick to the band’s gothic metal brilliance!

Reminiscent of tracks found in “Deep Shadows” and “Dark Light”, Tears On Tape features beautiful haunting melodies and epic orchestral instrumentals, a little more “love metal” than the more aggressive “Screamworks” from 2009.

As per usual, most of the songs are very repetitive and feature acoustic bridges, vocal endings and 80’s sounding keyboard tunes, however there are a couple new moves the band pull; “Drawn and Quartered” is definitely one of the most poignant tracks in the mix, with lyrics enough to send shivers up your spine; a truly unnerving love song. The title track also unusually builds up to a choir-y highpoint, a sure anthem for live shows.

Composed like a mixtape, the record is the first of HIM’s to feature musical interludes; from the eerie “Unleash The Red” to the ambient and violent unwind of “Lucifer’s Chorale”, the album is constantly juxtaposing between a bittersweet collection of twisted tales of romance and sadness until the “death scene” in “Kiss The Void” where the tape ends.

It might have their typical distorted guitar riffs and Valo’s legendarily large vocal range, but the Helsinki group’s eighthinstalment is in no way tedious and the band have very much made a crowd pleaser with this one, a melodramatic magnum opus.  ****

Samaa Husain