Finnish Love Metal pioneer, Ville Valo (VV), has released “Echolocate Your Love,” the second single to from his forthcoming debut solo album, Neon Noir.
With plans for Neon Noir to be released in 2023, the elegiac goth-optimism of “Echolocate Your Love” gives a fuller picture of the wrought elegance to come.
“It’s a sonic step-by-step guide on how to survive, and perhaps even enjoy, the realm of VV with its abundance of things that go bump in the night,” says Valo. “It’s a teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy, with a dash of hope.”
VV’s headlining tour–taking place next year across Europe, the UK, and North America–has already sold-out across a number of cities.
In the annals of 21st century alternative rock history there are few artists who cast a longer or more peculiar shadow than Valo. After all, his band HIM were easily among the most iconic and idiosyncratic groups of the millenium. 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 to mention 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. That, it turns out, is the emergence of Ville Valo’s solo project.