and an assured sense of songcraft". He did however criticize the songwriting as formulaic, but concluded his review by stating: "no one is doing the whole gothic rock thing as convincingly as HIM are right now." Ilkka Mattila of Helsingin Sanomat was positive in his review of Love Metal, describing the band as sounding "liberated" and more rock following Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights. Rumbas Samuli Knuuti described Love Metal as a return to the roots of the band and sounding like "what HIM should sound like", despite perceiving a lack of variety. Rob Theakston of AllMusic praised the album's songwriting as being "as strong as it has been in quite some time", with "a newly found sense of urgency [keeping] the record going at a well-tempered pace". He also touted Love Metal as the album "HIM has been struggling to make and realize for quite a while", providing "dramatic metal of high sonic quality". Petri Silas of Soundi commended the band's ability to innovate themselves with the "faster songs" amid the "grand, mid-tempo tracks." He did however criticize the album of being more of the same "pain-ridden, gothic dragging". In 2017, Valo revisited Love Metal and declared it as the band's best album, stating: "We found the sound of the band, and I found myself. The band's declaration of what we are." Loudwire later ranked Love Metal as HIM's second best album, describing it as an improvement over Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and as the album where the band "truly found their sound that moved them forward throughout the next decade." On the other hand, Kaaoszine ranked Love Metal seventh in HIM's discography, calling it "a good collection of songs", but overall "tiring". Track listing Original release All tracks written by Ville Valo. Remastered edition Personnel HIM Ville Valo − lead and backing vocals, artwork Mikko "Linde" Lindström − guitars Mikko "Mige" Paananen − bass Janne "Burton" Puurtinen − keyboards Mika "Gas Lipstick" Karppinen − drums Production Hiili Hiilesmaa − production, engineering Tim Palmer − mixing Mark O'Donoughue − mixing engineer Alex Uychocde - mixing assistant Nick Friend − mixing assistant George Marino − mastering Janne Uotila − artwork Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications References External links HIM (Finnish band) albums 2003 albums