Could Tears on Tape been better?

[SIRJARVIS01]

This is kind of a surprisingly bittersweet album for me for different reasons. It honestly just depends on the mood I'm in when listening to it. I thought the composition of the music was fantastic.  I love everything musical element about it which in an odd way makes it one of their best albums. That being said, what makes this album "bad" is the musical interludes which I can only describe as an obvious lazy way to meet the album's time mark so they would not have to call it an EP. Some fans also criticized the mixing which I thought wasnt all that bad but could have been better. I feel the DVD content of studio tracks was a good addition, but could have gone without it. Overall, I've learned to love the album, but I cant listen to it without wonder if you catch my drift, like musically there could have been more songs or maybe even new covers. What do you guys think?

[666WTLOnVinylFTW]

Honestly, I don't really think so, or at least not by leaps and bounds if they did some things differently. Personally I think the album was a rushed decision by everyone involved. The band was hot again coming off of the heels of their comeback and the success of the Two Decades Of Love Metal greatest hits album. Not surprisingly I feel like their management wanted them to capitalize on that as soon as reasonably possible by releasing an album of all new material, and since the band had a chance to recharge their batteries during the downtime so they were game for it as well. So I don't think they were forced into the studio, but I do think that they quickly found out while in the studio that the same passion for HIM and making new music that used to be there and was there at the beginning of their return just wasn't there anymore. I feel like Ville's material well had begun to run dry over the years and especially during the downtime without the band to rehearse songs and finish them with, hence the interludes to make the album longer. I think Ville chose the best on a short list of the most finished material that he had written and the band quickly did their parts and recorded the songs accounting for a certain staleness and lack of creativity the album has. Had they taken more time, those factors could've easily been improved, but I think it was too late. The motivation was gone by that point and it was a sign of things to come. The entire band had checked out mentally.

[Alex]

I think sometimes we want too much... Like...every next album to be the greatest... well there is no such band and never will be.

I think everything was part of the process and part of their emerging worldview. Ville is very creative person.... he can do a lot of things with one melody. So through the years he found out what they can sale well, and what not. After Love Metal they just start softening the songs... except Venus Doom which was more like an answer of the question "can you do something more commercially  then Dark Light?" and he just shut their mouth.
So what i'm trying to say is that ToT and Screamworks was meant to reach bigger audience and we cannot blame them for this...this albums has early demo discs and I assure you that they sound much much heavier. (no i dont have them just i'm sure)...
Ville can do a lot of things with one song so in what direction will go it depends of in what situation they were. Maybe was a mistake, maybe not... but i'm sure that all the demos were heavy and they were just softening and softening in the studio until they decide that this is saleable...

[616]

ToT is very solid album, they did what they wanted - remember, the end records wasnt like when they signed Warner and they had in contract that they have to release like dozen releases so they were releasing shits like SWRMXS just to fulfill the contract
every demo they did was heavy as fuck when compared to the album..... When they were younger they were heavier and they took it more seriously. Ville even said that Greatest lovesongs album was too serious and it was its fault.
The problem is that we always expected the next album to be better than the previous one, we always wanted Razorblade Romance 2 or Love Metal 2 or Greatest Lovesongs 2 or mix of Greatest lovesongs and Razorblade..... and when they released something we were expecting something different so we were not very pleased. High expectations killed it for us many times, admit it.

i have to say that since HIM ended on Tavastia i wasnt very listening to HIM or anything. Actually even in 2017 i wasnt very listening to HIM. I mean albums. I listen to HIM bootlegs - i already have some favorites and a song from that performance and another from this performance..... what i want to say is that when i look back, my HIM list is of best to least favorite album is:
1. Greatest Lovesongs vol 666 (definitely the best so far), 2. Razorblade Romance, 3. Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, 4. Tears On Tape, 5. Dark Light, 6. Love Metal, 7. Venus Doom, 8. Screamworks

and let me explain  - Greatest lovesongs is for me their best album because it has their most significant songs that define Love Metal and His Infernal Majesty - Its All Tears, Your Sweet 666, When Love and Death Embrace, Stigmata Diaboli and of course fucking The Beginning of the End - very hard songs too, there is no doubt for me that this album is the best.
Razorblade on second place - what else should be there? It was a break-through album - Join Me, Right Here in My Arms, Gone With The Sin, Poison Girl - these songs were so popular that it was meant to be the most memorable album of HIM - These are the singles and best HITS, but album "fillers" are even better than singles - just for example Razorblade Kiss, Resurrection, Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart, fucking I love you is probably the most underrated HIM song and definitely one of the greatest on the entire RR album
Third place for DSBH - yes this album is cheesy, its melodic, its catchy - i love the polished RR kind of album that DSBH definitely is - Pretending, Heartache Every Moment, In Joy and Sorrow - pretty solid trio huh? But lets take a closer look on "His infernal majesty" and "Love metal" aspects - heaviness, romantic and even silly lyrics , just to underline the quality of Villes songwriting skills - Love you like i do, Salt In Our Wounds, You Are The one and maybe weird but this song is somehow fucking cool as fuck - Lose you tonight
4th place for ToT - ToT is simply mix of Screamworks, Dark Light and for me even a little bit of Razorblade Romance in the album - i think songs like All Lips Go Blue, Hearts at War, Into The Night, I will be the end of you - if these songs were on other albums like Razorblade Romance they would have been their greatest hits, but TOT has another strong side - Drawn & Quartered is a song that for me is what Screamworks should have sound , Tears On Tape is another Screamworks like song for me, WLSTD is for many fans like it was cut off from Venus Doom, i think that WLSTD is a song that would fit perfectly on Greatest Lovesongs insted of Dont fear the reaper. But there is another song that should have attention - Love without tears - actually this is for me Razorblade Romance like song
5th place for Dark Light is obvious - Dark Light is very SO-SO album for many, many fans hates this album, but when you listen to Dark Light - how many songs do you think would be loved if Linde undertuned his guitar and Ville sang in lower tune? Imagine if Dark Light was done in Semifinal 2003 sound!!!! Imagine if Ville sang song Dark Light in low voice like WLSTD, imagine if it had keyboards like WLADE and bass and guitar of Pretending in it. Vampire heart, Play Dead, Venus(in Our Blood), Under the Rose, Killing Loneliness, - so many good songs on the album. Very good listening. In The nightside of Eden is probably the best song on Dark Light - a song that would rather fit Love Metal album instead of Endless Dark
Ok i continue with Love Metal - its on the sixth place altough the album is probably HIM´s most loved and favorite among the fans and band probably too. I like the album, there is no bad word about it, the problem i have with this album is simple - for me it is like one session, grey album, like a everything was done so close and i dont know but song order is bad, singles could be - The Sacrament, Soul On Fire, The Funeral of Hearts and Beyond Redemption. I think Endless Dark 616 is SUPERB and album version Endless Dark is pure horse piss when compared to 616 version. This fortress and Sweet pandemonium are like twin songs, so similar to my ears, BABL and Soul on Fire too, if i were to decide i would did Love Metal in this exact song order - 1. Beyond Redemption, 2. Soul On Fire, 3. Circle Of Fear, 4. The Sacrament, 5. Sweet Pandemonium, 6. Endless Dark 616 version, 7. Loves Requiem, 8. The Funeral Of Hearts, 9. The Path
7th place for Venus Doom - this album is specific, a lot of people are like "Love metal and Venus doom are best HIM albums" - but when i inspect the album closer and when i listen to the songs and everything i cant help myself but dislike the album for its long songs - songs are TOO long because of LONG solos, long bridges and stuff, for example Love in cold blood it could be shor like Bleed Well and it would have been the same powerful, but now its boring. Venus Doom song is boring, the choruses are terribly boring and so much trying to be as doomy as possible. The best song on the album is definitely Bleed Well and Dead Lovers Lane followed by reasonless long Sleepwalking past hope. The hidden gem of the album is probably Song or Suicide and Cyanide Sun. Kiss of Dawn and Venus Doom and Love In Cold Blood are not good in my opinion, probably worst Villes songwritings in his life. But that is only my opinion.
If the album had more shorter songs in style of Bleed Well and Dead Lovers Lane it would be a real deal.
The last place in my list belongs to Screamworks album - the album has so many good songs that were never played live or played live only few times, songs that if they were released as singles and promoted more - HIM could sold more albums than with Dark Lights. The first mistake was mr. Squire - he just cant do music for HIM. It is the same as he cant do music for Slayer or Soulfly. Its just good maybe for Rihanna or 30 seconds to Mars. I am 100% sure that if Hiili did the entire album himself, without even Tim Palmer. This could be nice heavier album. But lets take a look on Screamworks from my point of view - the singles - did it even have any? Of course it did but who remembers, right? Thats what i am talking about. The most catchy and radio friendly and actually hit song, Dark Light - like was Love the hardest Way. It should have been everywhere , not Heartkiller, but Love the hardest way. Followed by fucking Ode to Solitude (altough the chorus is WEIRD and i dislike the change of tempo and melody and rhytm) this would have been better choice than Scared to Death. And of course Shatter Me With Hope - this is after I Love you second most underrated HIM song in my opinion. If you listen to this song - Ville did absolutely great work - this is for me the best song on the album, definitely one of the best Villes vocals performances too (after Its All Tears). But in general there are very weak songs that just are not for regular HIM fans, not for old-HIM fans, not even for girls - songs like Dying song or In Venere Veritas, Like st Valentine, Katherine Wheel - its like not well planned experiment. I mean i cant mark these as on of the worst HIM songs in the entire discography, and if not worst HIM song would be Heartkiller. The album has fine cover and fine experiment that actually worked - Foreboding sense, but the rest is just very under-average and most of the songs would be in the lowest positions in the entire discography list of the best and worst songs. The good songs were unfinished or finished in very different way - In the arms of rain - this is a song with good vibes and it has some U2, Angels and Airwaves shit in it but somehow this song doesnt work. Acoustic Funeral has fantastic lyrics parts and very nice versions but somehow this song was never played live - like Shatter me with hope, Ode to solidute - WHY not? This album has very little to offer actually. It is not soft like DSBH (altough i dont think DSBH is soft at all, but general public of HIM fanbase do think) and its not pop like Dark Light but it is not even close to HIM. Even the entire 2010 tour was a fucking disaster. After Rock am Ring 2010 i just said fuck it and didnt even went to Donauinselfest which is free festival, no tickets needed, two hours by train from home, but it just wasnt interesting for me. The entire Screamworks tour was bad. ALTOUGH i can consider Helldone 2009 as screamworks tour - Helldone 2009 had probably the most interesting setlist since 2002 Turku probably

[SIRJARVIS01]

616, I definitely agree with everything you mentioned especially the semifinal rig setup with Dark Light.  Hell, that setup in any studio album after love metal would have been exactly right!
The singles from SW were very forgettable,  as well as the music videos. DSABH shares the exact same feeling on my heart as TOT. loved the composition of the music,  but the instrument setup wasn't right. In my opinion,  the heavy demo set up the vinnfox relics had would have been great for the entire DSABH album.

Dark Light for is also a hit or miss. Personally,  I never thought WOAB or KL were that great. Catchy in a commercial sense but not great. I personally loved Vampire heart,  under the rose, behind the crimson door, and the cage.

SW as well had gems for me. I loved ode to solitude in my opinion the best track on there