[schema type=”review” name=”The 69 Eyes – Universal Monsters” description=”Label: Nuclear Blast Records” author=”Gamze Öyünc” pubdate=”22-04-2016″ ]
The notorious “Hellsinki Vampires” are back with their 11th studio album fittingly named “Universal Monsters” after 4 years since their previous album “X”. During these 4 years, the band of course didn’t sit still, they toured the “X” throughout Europe and the ever-cool frontman Jyrki69 released an album with the “gothabilly” super-group “The 69 Cats” and toured the U.S. with this unique side band of his.
Like The 69 Cats, the namefather The 69 Eyes have such a unique and discernable sound that almost no one makes this kind of music in the world anymore. Plus the band has been around and active for over 2 decades. Kudos to these guys for keeping the goth-rock fire alive!
Before the release of Universal Monsters, we heard some statements from the band members that this album is going to be sort of a return back-to-the-roots. The roots as in; a combination of their sleaze-punk era and the brilliant and fan-favorite “Blessed Be” and “Paris Kills” albums. “Universal Monsters” was produced by Johnny Lee Michaels who also produced the albums like “Blessed Be” that defined The 69 Eyes sound from then on along their career. You can definitely hear the shout-out’s of sleaze sound in some of the melodies such as “Miss Pastis”, “Stiv&Johnny”, and the closing track “Rock ‘N Roll Junkie”. In my humble opinion, the first single choice “Jet Fighter Plane” falls flat compared to the rest of the album even though the guitar work of the track is very much melodic and catchy.
However, the tracks “Dolce Vita”, “Blackbird Pie”, “Shallow Graves” carry the traits of their self-proclaimed, one-of-a-kind genre, “Goth’n’Roll”. Those tracks rock with the trade-mark 69 Eyes sound. “Jerusalem” spices things up with an exotic keyboard intro and mystical lyrics. My absolute favorite off the album has been the track called “Blue”. It directly pulls you in to a romantic-melancholic atmosphere with frail lyrics and Jyrki’s delicate vocals. To me, this song resonates with the feeling of constantly being in love with one’s own melancholia. Finnish rock/metal fans would know what I’m talking about.
As a fan of The 69’s, I absolutely loved this album because it’s the ultimate representation of where they are now as a band soundwise. The band will be touring all over Finland and quite a few European spots this summer. I say, catch them live if you would like to see these Finnish rock veterans still rock hard with their full-on Goth ‘N Roll gear.
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