Ville Valo Brings Dark Divine And Love Metal to NJ

Hot Topic Presents Ville Valo and Dark Divine

Ville Valo released his debut solo album Neon Noir back on January 13th of this year (2023), 12 tracks of brand new solo material from the Finnish singer and creator of the subgenre “LOVE METAL”. It is also the first glance at full music from Ville since HIM’s break up in 2017. The album carries a heavy 80’s goth rock influence as described by Valo himself as “ The sweet spot between Depeche Mode and Black Sabbath.” Mission Accomplished Ville!

Valo who toured the U.S. solo for the first time in the Spring and has appeared on numerous festival dates around the country is making his rounds once again this Fall teaming up with Hot Topic, Dark Divine, and Black Veil Brides to bring the ultimate Goth lover dream tour to America. 

Opening the show is Florida’s own Dark Divine, fresh off their newest album release titled Deadly Fun which came out a few weeks back on September 8th and is the follow-up to 2022’s Halloweentown Dark Divine has amassed quite the fan base with 149k monthly Spotify listeners and attracting fans of bands like Motionless In White, Black Veil Brides and Ice Nine Kills to name a few. If you like any of those bands listed you should most definitely give these guys a listen. 

I arrived at Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ early to catch the guys and of course, excited to see Ville Valo back in action. Dark Divine kicked off the show promptly at 7 PM (Arrive early, spoiler alert you don’t want to miss these guys) The guys hit the stage high energy and full of charisma, It was my first time hearing these guys but after seeing the performance I’m quite sure this won’t be my last. 

Vocalist Anthony Martinez has noticeably great vocal diversity mixed with great songwriting and the band as a whole is insanely tight. These guys don’t hang their career on just heavy breakdowns, they actually incorporate great musicianship and give an absolutely stellar and veteran-like live performance. Touring bassist Cory Scissorhands is a showman and apparently quite talented in the hair industry as well. He completely owns whatever side of the stage he is on and you can’t help but pay attention. 

Drummer Triston Blaize is equally impressive, and damn fun to watch play. The band owns the stage as if they’ve been playing large rooms for decades, watching Dark Divine tells me the industry is going to be just fine with bands like this carrying the torch. The band absolutely crushed through an 8 song setlist that left the New Jersey crowd hungry for more. Their set included songs like “Cold”, “Run Away” and “Circle”. 

I absolutely recommend supporting these guys and catching their live show if you have the chance. I for one will definitely be keeping an eye on them and hope to catch them next time they’re in the NorthEast! 

Ville Valo made his long-awaited return to the Tri-State, specifically, it has been quite a while since he’s been across the river in New Jersey. Valo hit the stage around 8 pm, a stage pitch black clearly illuminated with the beloved Heartagram with a slight V Variation in the center. Valo as always took the stage with his gentle strut and smile ear to ear as he glanced at the packed Wellmont crowd. 

Ville kicked off the set with “Echolocate Your Love” from his solo album before jumping into the HIM cover of “Poison Girl”. Which had the NJ audience absolutely losing their minds. This was a recurring theme through the set which pleased the crowd no doubt. After HIM’s farewell tour a few years ago, nobody knew if fans would ever get to hear those songs live again but to our surprise Valo switched off and on through the entire set,  going from a solo song to a HIM song constantly taking turns and leaving fans surprised throughout. 

I should also note Valo sounds absolutely phenomenal, arguably as good as he ever has. The dark bruting voice, his signature tone is one that’s not only distinct but also translates perfectly live. The band is also fantastic, Guitarist Mikko Virta on guitar, Risto Rikala on drums, bassist Juho Vehmanen, and second guitarist Sampo Sundstrom bring both the solo material and HIM tracks to life. 

The show features 13 songs over the hour-long set. Of those 13 happily 6 of them are HIM songs including “Soul On Fire”, “Funeral Of Hearts”, “Right Here In My Arms” and “Buried Alive By Love” to name a few. Of course, the others were songs off Neon Noir including “Heartful of Ghost”, “Saturnine Saturnalia”, “The Foreverlost”, “Neon Noir” and “Loveletting”. 

I could have easily watched another hour of Ville Valo material and been completely content, as a HIM fan myself. It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to relive those memories and hear these songs live again. The new band and music suit Valo quite well and hopefully we will get to see more from him in the future. The tour is almost at its halfway point but there is plenty of time to catch Ville Valo, Dark Divine, and Black Veil Brides live.

The tour will hit Indiana, Ohio, Texas, and Nebraska and even make its way into Canada before wrapping up on October 20th in Riverside, California. Check out the full setlist for the night below!!!

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.