What does HIM stand for?
Villes comments on this issue: In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I cant even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot, we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesnt have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke. And it was our protest to Haile Selassies rastafarian religion, he used to be called His Imperial Majesty. But nowadays because of Lindes hair, we actually might be supporting him [from Soundi 6-7/2001].
When I started the band in 1995, I was eighteen and I was a fan of Black Sabbath and of these old Hammer scary movies, so I named our band His Infernal Majesty as a trribute to these works, which were a major influence for us at that time.During this period, we played a lot of gigs for a very hard audience, black-metal fans, which wrongly thought we were a satanic band.To avoid any kind of further misunderstandings, we decided to keep only initials.[from Elegy 2000]'