HIM frontman Ville Valo invited us into his home for a never-before seen look at his house in Finland available in this issue of Metal Hammer. Here is the first in a series of teasers…

Below is a small portion of Hammer’s very personal interview feature with HIM’s Ville Valo. The whole interview can be read in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now!

The big yellow sign on the door says, ‘I want to be alone’ and underneath it, ‘Thank You’. It’s currently minus 18 degrees celsius and spirals of footprints of varying size in the ice-sheathed snow are a telltale suggestion that this particular statement is falling on deaf eyes. Off in the darkness, a snail-like wireframe sculpture sits ominously in the cold, its purpose or significance impossible to judge, and yet somehow – in the dim light streaming from the windows of this particular suburban medieval tower – very little could seem out of place. It’s late in the evening of New Year’s day, and Hammer’s just turned up to Ville Valo’s home for a chat about his infernal majesty’s new record, Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practise. This is the first time any publication has been invited to do so on any such occasion. Come on in.
“Hellooo therrre,” says Ville, shoving the door open against a snowy barricade, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. “Get the fuck inside, it’s cold.”

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This is not a Ville Valo you’ll know or have ever seen. Underneath the formica sheen of this month’s Alice In Wonderland cover shoot, this is a level of warts-and-all intimacy that’s without precedent. Exactly why the friendly baritone has decided to change that now, for us, is a mystery. Questions aside, we’re here to see his infernal majesty up close, and – to borrow a line from Lewis Carroll to whom we owe our cover this month – to discover just how deep this particular rabbit hole goes…

See what else is in this issue of Hammer here.