HIM are in another issue of Sonic Seducer. Here's a bit of the translation, thanks to shining_rose from Live Journal:

Still Berlin is under Winter’s frosty control and while its well wrapped up inhabitants are passing on by outside some first sprouts of spring fever spread in a suite on Alexanderplatz: Ville Valo is in an excellent mood, as is HIM’s 7th studio album Screamworks which was released in time for Valentine’s Day. The Finns intone unusually happy tunes in which clearly less of their typical melancholy resonantes while they don’t tire of singing about mostly love and its demons. A little survey today, 15 years after HIM’s founding.

Where there used to be a shy boy giggling and hiding behind his hair there now is a full-grown rockstar with his first laugh lines around his eyes. Ville presents himself in his usual gentlemanly manner with a touch of an hobby-intellectual and is mature enough to name his own abysses without fear which makes him so admirably unamerican. HIM are back and Valo's single again, thanks to his secret muse who inspired him but wasn’t able to make the eternal bachelor commit himself. And since Ville doesn’t make a den of thieves out of his affairs of his heart, 'Screamworks' tells meticulously of the master’s mental state. Particularly interesting here is “Scared to Death” in which one of the keys to the empty place on his side seems to be hidden: “The song is full of uncertainties. It turns and changes its words following the rhythm of the music. A bit like Morrissey arranges his songs. But basically it’s about not being able to make a beloved person happy because you can’t let yourself fall because in your eyes she deserves something better than you. I’m also afraid of loosing control again since I’m pretty truckle in love. And at the moment as we’re getting started again a relationship is impossible anyway.”

Most of his band collegues see that a bit differently. Linde and Gas became married fathers in the meantime. Where at the beginning the whole band travelled along with him, later at least long-time-friend Mige, the frontman step by step took over the helm and HIM seem to become more and more a Valo-solo-project. “I take care of everything, for example the cover artwork, too, that’s true. Let’s put it like that: HIM’s a band which plays and interprets my songs. Besides I prefer a singer to sing his own lyrics. This might work differently for Black Sabbath or Depeche Mode but for me as a listener to music it’s always been important that the singer sings about things which come from his thoughts and heart. If you take extrinsic songs you can give the song a very different touch and play a part in that like we did with “Wicked Game”. But to analyze the band-feeling you should make clear what you understand as a band. For me a band is when everybody takes the same share, adds and equivalent part, you write music together and work together in pure democracy. As measured by that we’re not a band because I write all the music. Nevertheless this is a difficult question. This progress has equipoised for us. When I’m ready with the music we go into the rehearsalplace and together we change a lot about it. We whine, I write additional things and together we kick different things out. At this stage I work more like a producer. I don’t sing at rehearsals, maybe I sometimes hum the melody. I think every band has its own way of approaching things, but still every one has a very important influence on the sound of the band. We would surely sound totally different without Linde, or Mige since especially for a bass player the personality plays an important role.

Rest of this translation can be found here.