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 & 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’, HERE.
NEON NOIR TRACKLIST:
01: Echolocate Your Love
02: Run Away From the Sun
03: Neon Noir
04: Loveletting
05: The Foreverlost
06: Baby Lacrimarium
07: Salute the Sanguine
08: In Trenodia
09: Heartful of Ghosts
10: Saturnine Saturnalia
11: Zener Solitaire
12: Vertigo Eyes
Press reactions:
„Der Aufwand hat sich gelohnt, nicht nur, weil er Valo durch die düstere Corona-Zeit half, sondern weil ein starkes Album dabei rausgekommen ist.“ – DPA
„Eine gelungene Rückkehr.“ – Classic Rock
„Ein Debütalbum, welches sich durchaus als düsteres Reifezeugnis begreifen lässt, ohne dass die ebenso noch deutlich hörbaren Verbindungen zu HIMs Erbe gekappt würden.“ – Metal Hammer
„experimentellere Songs wie ‚Heartful Of Ghosts‘ oder der mit 50er-Gitarren und einem kruden Outro veredelte Closer ‚Vertigo Eyes‘ beweisen aber auch, dass Valo seinem Grundsound nach 30 Jahren Musikmachen noch immer neue Facetten entlocken kann“ – Kronen Zeitung
„Ville Valo ist Lord Byron und David Attenborough des Gothic Rock in Personalunion: ein Poet der Nacht, ein neugieriger Betrachter des merkwürdigen Lebens, das wir auf diesem Stück Stein mitten in der lichtlosen Unendlichkeit des Alls führen.“ – Sonic Seducer
VV’s headline tour – taking place right now across Europe, the UK and North America – has sold-out across a number of cities. Get your tickets now to avoid disappointment. Tickets available HERE.
JAN – MAY 2023 ‘NEON NOIR TOUR’
EUROPE
13.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
14.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
15.01 – Tavastia, Helsinki (sold out)
14.01 – Stodola, Warsaw (sold out)
15.02 – Studio, Krakow (sold out)
16.02 – LMB, Prague (sold out)
17.02 – Huxley’s Berlin (sold out)
18.02 – Fabrik, Hamburg (sold out)
20.02 – Paradiso, Amsterdam
21.02 – Batschkapp, Frankfurt (sold out)
22.02 – Komplex, Zurich
24.02 – Razzmatazz, Barcelona
25.02 – La Riviera, Madrid (sold out)
26.02 – Cineteatro Capitolio, Lisbon
27.02 – Hard Club, Porto
02.03 – Alcatraz, Milan
03.03 – Backstage Werk, Munich (sold out)
04.03 – Barba Negra, Budapest
05.03 – Arena, Vienna (sold out)
07.03 – Rockhal, Esch-Sur-Alzette
08.03 – LMH, Cologne (sold out)
09.03 – Le Trabendo, Paris
UNITED KINGDOM
10.03 – O2 Academy, Bristol
11.03 – Rock City, Nottingham (sold out)
13.03 – Garage, Glasgow (sold out)
14.03 – O2 Ritz, Manchester (sold out)
15.03 – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London (sold out)
ABOUT VV / Ville Valo:
In the annals of 21st century alternative rock history there are few artists who cast a longer or more peculiar shadow than Finnish Metal pioneer Ville Valo. After all, his band HIM were easily among the most iconic and idiosyncratic groups of the 21st century. 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 Ville 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 ten 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 to 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.
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.“
