"Tears On Tape" will be released on April 30 via Razor & Tie in North America and on April 29 through DoubleCross (Cooking Vinyl's specialist rock imprint) in the U.K. and Ireland. The "love metal" act's eighth official album was recorded at Helsinki's Finnvox Studios with longtime producer Hiili Hiilesmaa (APOCALYPTICA, AMORPHIS, MOONSPELL) and was mixed in London, England by Tim Palmer, who previously helmed 2005's "Dark Light" and 2007's "Venus Doom".
"Tears On Tape" track listing:
01. Unleash The Red
02. All Lips Go Blue
03. Love Without Tears
04. I Will Be The End Of You
05. Tears On Tape
06. Into The Night
07. Hearts At War
08. Trapped In Autumn
09. No Love
10. Drawn & Quartered
11. Lucifer's Chorale
12. W.L.S.T.D.
13. Kiss The Void
In addition to the 13 new tracks, the very exclusive and very limited "fanpack", presented by Metal Hammer magazine and DoubleCross Records features some not-to-be-found-anywhere-else content. Exclusively available from April 29 for four weeks, it comes with a bespoke 132-page magazine edited by frontman Ville Valo himself that plays as the ultimate sleeve notes to the album, including:
* Full studio album + 2 bonus tracks ("Buried Alive By Love" and "The Kiss Of Dawn" recorded live in the studio)
* Giant double-sided door poster
* Exclusive interviews with Ville Valo and all members of HIM
* An extended track-by-track guide to "Tears On Tape"
* An interview with the architects behind the sound of "love metal" Hiili Hiilesmaa and Tim Palmer
* A detailed guide to HIM's extensive back catalog
* The true, exclusive story of the Heartagram
* An exclusive gallery from the band's own private collections
* Interviews by the band with as assortment of their own heroes
The album's artwork, which artist Daniel P. Carter describes as having come about via "a series of strange coincidences involving Lee Dorrian, sacred geometry and the ramblings of a madman," is revealed below.
