Their debut EP, 666 Ways to Love: Prologue, was released in 1996 solely in Finland, with only 1,000 copies printed. It was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, and was recorded at Finnvox Studios, MD and Peacemakers, Helsinki.

Later in their career it was re-released as a vinyl record by The End Records in the box set “lashes to ashes, lust to dust”. However it was in the diehard bundle once again making it limited to only 2,000 copies. The woman on the cover is Valo’s mother, who (according to an interview with Valo) worked in a shoe shop at the time.

Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (2001–2003)

During 2001, before the group’s third release, the members of HIM formed a new band, Daniel Lioneye. This was intended as a solo project of guitarist Linde, who took on the vocal spot and the stage name Daniel Lioneye for it.

Migé Amour played bass, Ville Valo was on drums, with Hiili on keyboards, and Ike on sound effects. They released two albums, The King of Rock’n Roll in September 2001, and Vol. II in April 2010. Although it was not a commercial success, it retains a cult following.

After the Daniel Lioneye project, HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights on August 27, 2001. It is the band’s first album with new keyboardist Emerson Burton, the final addition to the lineup that composed the band for most of their career until drummer Mika Karppinen left in 2015.

Once again, the album peaked at No. 1 in their Finnish homeland, and also reached No. 2 in Germany. Three singles were released from the album: “Pretending” (which reached No. 10 in Germany), “In Joy and Sorrow” and a double single featuring both “Heartache Every Moment” and “Close to the Flame”.

Such success further facilitated their gradual emergence into the mainstream. As with Razorblade Romance, there were problems naming the album. It was meant to be called ‘Ozzymandias Dargunum’ and it would contain 14 tracks. The demos were recorded in 2000 in Hollola. In November 2001 total sales were nearly 400,000.

Love Metal (2003–2005)

On April 14, 2003, HIM released Love Metal. This was the first album that did not feature singer/songwriter Ville Valo on the cover. Instead, it features a gold heartagram, the band’s well-known logo. “The Funeral of Hearts” was the first single released and their first high appearance on the United Kingdom charts at No. 14, and also hitting No. 3 in Germany. It was followed by “Buried Alive By Love” and “The Sacrament”. “The Sacrament” was used as the ending for the anime film Highlander: The Search for Vengeance.

Around the time of the album’s release, HIM began experiencing further success in both the U.S. and internationally, when professional skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera began using the band’s heartagram logo and promoting them extensively on his MTV series Viva La Bam.

Margera produced their video for “Buried Alive By Love”, which featured a guest appearance from Natural Born Killers actress Juliette Lewis. They played at Download Festival in 2003 on the second stage with The Hellacopters, the following year they would go on to headline the same stage.

Love Metal was performed in its entirety on March 8, 2003 in Hamburg’s Grosse Freiheit Club, a month before the album’s release on April 14. The only track that was not performed was “Love’s Requiem”, which was only included in digipak versions of the album.

The tickets were available for sale on the band’s official website and sold out within a few days. Ville had the initial idea for making this a gift to their fans. The show has been included in unofficial video and audio bootlegs under the name Buried Alive or Love Metal Live.

And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits 1997–2004, the band’s first compilation album, was released on March 15, 2004, and contains two exclusive tracks: “And Love Said No” and “Solitary Man”, the latter of which is a Neil Diamond cover. It also had a re-recorded version of “When Love and Death Embrace”, while the British version contained a re-recorded “It’s All Tears (Drown in This Love)”.

The digipak version of this album came with a DVD with six live songs at the Semifinal Club in Helsinki. There is also a Promo version of the album that is very rare and not well known among fans and collectors. Only about 500 copies were made.

It is the full album with some videos on the disc and an extra untitled instrumental track. It was distributed among several radio stations internationally, and also given to a small number of fans with backstage passes to one of the concerts that took place shortly after the release of the CD. It has the same disc art as the normal album with a few minor differences and came in a black-backed CD-rom case.

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