How well known is HIM?

I think that HIM is just on the verge of breaking into the American mainstream of music. I know that our local radio station was playing "Wings of a Butterfly" last fall, which really surprised me! I suspect they have gotten some MTV airplay as well, and Hot Topic is FULL of HIM merchandise pretty much year round.

I really love HIM, as does my boyfriend. Our other roommate hates HIM, which is odd, since she likes a lot of the other "goth" bands with a very similar style of music.

HIM is not pretty well known where I come from. Only to certain groups of people who do the research out of the boring mainstream.

I was a HIM fan when their first international record came out back in 2000 (RAZOR BLADE ROMANCE?) and it wasn't some high pitched rock group for a change.

I thought they were pretty unique in the way the sounded. Up until (LOVEMETAL)and every album after that just didn't click with me, as it just sounds plain and presented nothing new.

I lost my fan-hood when VALO was performing in NYC, drunk and forget the lyrics to the song he was doing. That blew their chance for making it BIG in the USA, which is the most important global market. I don't think Valo was anywhere near serious about his art. That was an irrseponsible thing to do.

If you look closely, most of their fan base are just teenage girls who like the lead singer more than the music..pretty shallow IMHO.

HIM is very well known in Europe, mainly in Scandinavian countries, Germany and other states in North/Central Europe. I think HIM are not so well known in the USA, because at the time of release of their first albums there was an american band with the same name... so they weren't able to publish their albums in the USA. Later on, they released them under another name which wasn't taken by anyone else, but I don't remember it.
Once this problem was solved they started their promotion in USA and nowadays I believe they already have some attention of the americans with "Love Metal" and "Dark Light" albums.
However, in my opinion the problem is precisely here. I also believe their first albums' music was a lot better and much more original than the music they play nowadays. Although I remain a great fan, I believe their music is becoming more and more always the same and less creative. I'm afraid their objective of being well accepted in the huge market of the USA is forcing them to release albums with more mainstream/pop music and not what they used to do in the early days, which had much more quality in my opinion.
As for the idea that their fan base is only a bunch of teenage girls dazzled with Valo, I agree. Unfortunately, that happens, but that doesn't have to be necessarily bad for HIM's reputation. That can happen to any band and if that contributes to bring more people to their music, it doesn't matter.

Well..HIM (His Infernal Magesty) are a Fin group formed in 1991...Members of HIM are Ville Hermanni Valo (Singer),Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindstorm (Guitarist),Mikko Henrik "Mige" Julius Paananen (Bassist),Janne Johanes "Burton" Puurtinen (Keys) and Mika Kristian "Gas" Karppinen (Drums)...
After makingthe album RAZORBLADE ROMANCE in 1999 they starded to become popular in the US when Bam Margera (a professional Skater and Villes friend) began using the heartagram logo of HIM and promoting them on Viva La Bam series on MTV...
FACTS ABOUT GROUP THAT I KNOW!!!
1.Translation of Villes name to English is William Hermanni Light
2.Ville and Mige met at school when they were aproximately 12 years old!
3.Heartagram is a Pentagram and a HEART combined together (love/death metal)
4.Back in the days...in USA "HIM" were known as "HER" because in the USA there was a band called HIM...after they bought the name.
5.Bam Margera directed the following videos: Burried alive by love,The Sacrememnt,And love said no,Solitary man.
6.Linde's lucky nmber is 11
7.Ville suffers from ASTHMA and drinks RED WINE on stage!!!

I live in Malaysia and have known about HIM for 5 years or so. They have not come out to your radio airways. (Which I thank the heavens for) And only recently, I've checked some music store and they have imported HIM CDs for sale, though there's only one or two copies. (I bought them though I really want the HER copies..)=(

I became a fan of HIM half of a year ago. I was fond of this band once I listened to the song GONE WITH THE SIN over the radio. Then I'm crazy about their music and anything about them. While, because I am now living in China, HIM is not so famous here, I can hardly search any news about them or buy their discs.