HIM frontman VILLE VALO became an alcoholic after he discovered drinking helped him cope with the panic attacks he began suffering while working in the studio. The 29-year-old Finnish star refers to himself as an on-off alcoholic but is determined his problem will never get out of hand. He says, "Look I'll be honest. What happened was, in 2003, while we were recording LOVE METAL, I started having panic attacks. I got so scared of them, I had to have two pints of beer just to be able to get into a taxi. "I still suffer from that but I'm getting better. I've always taken things further than anyone else in the band. I've been... diving into some deep ditches. "But not so far that the others haven't been able to drag me out."