It has become increasingly difficult to review HIM albums.They have essentially been doing their entire career what bands are specificly taught not to do by critics, that is constantly re-hash what they've done before. again, and again, and again. This has however generally worked in their favor, their first four albums were widely regarded as masterpieces by most rock critics, despite the fact that they were technically identical. With their fourth studio album "Love Metal" many felt HIM had defined their music perfectly and any attempt to better it would result in failure. In the case of follow-up "Dark Light" they were right on the money. While dark light wasnt bad, it wasnt as interesting as their previous efforts. Again, strange seeing as it was made of exactly the same ingredients. So HIM had alot to make up for, and with all valo's talk of this record being the heaviest they've ever made, does "venus doom" make up for "dark lights" shortcomings?No. It doesnt. The guitars are chunkier, and the vocals more brooding but overall, venus doom follows the exact same pattern as its predessecors. This cant be a bad thing though, because those predecessors were all magnificent werent they? Up until dark light yes, they were. Which brings me to my rather ironic conclusion. Dark light was their most commercial album, and venus doom is apparently their heaviest. This being the case its strange that these two albums are so similiar in every other way. Venus doom has some good songs. "Dead Lovers Lane" and opener "Venus Doom" are quality. Even single "Kiss Of Dawn" has a great melodic chorus. But apart from those there are no rock anthems here. There are no brooding power ballads. There doesnt even seem to be any real ATTEMPTS at either of them. The whole album (particularly the drab doom filled interludes to almost every song) wreaks of lazy songwriting. Its becoming clearer and clearer with each HIM release that Love Metal was their formula perfected. If HIM intend to keep their band going, they'll need to come up with something alot more interesting than this. Even the fangirls are growing up.Andy Kavna