Metal Underground.com

Self-proclaimed Finnish vampires, The 69 Eyes perform mixture of rock and roll, goth rock and glam rock, whilst also taking obvious influences from Elvis Presley in a combination that on paper sounds like it shouldn't work... and quite frankly doesn't. The music itself sounds like a much weaker version of fellow countrymen Lordi and both the vocals and lyrics make it hard to decipher whether or not this band is a joke or not.

Their latest album, "Angels" opens with the title track and whilst it initially sounds like a promising sound, the vocals completely spoil it. I'm convinced that singer Jyrki 69 was trying to explore the concept of what Elvis would sound like had he been a goth but that idea should have been left well alone, as quite honestly, it makes what is supposed to be a hard rocking band sound more like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song and several others on the album seem to be based around Hollywood (or even the world in general), and what is perceived as the lack of morality of its citizens. The title track itself, however, is another tired and unimaginative attempt at this concept. The opening line of "Nothing's left here but the sun" isn't too bad, but starting immediately with the next line, "The human race is on the run," the lyrics take a serious plunge. From there it continues with the idea that everyone is screwed and the apocalypse is coming. Of course they're not the first band to write about Armageddon and they won't be the last, but the problem is that the music really doesn't compliment that concept. The music itself also becomes really lazy as soon as the vocals enter and seemingly never recovers throughout the album - a terrible way to open a rock album.

From there, the album is littered with far too many songs trying to capture the feel of the 1980's movie montages, containing a tone reminiscent to the poor quality bands that can be heard during horror movie franchises such as Friday The 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street. There's far too much piano work on the record for a rock band, and it doesn't compliment the sound particularly well and takes away the notion of a harder sound. Another problem, as previously mentioned, is that the lyrics are almost unbearable. For example the song, "Rocker" contains the chorus of "I'm a rocker, Yeah baby I'm a rocker, That's right I'm a rocker, A god damned rocker." Again, this concept isn't new to rock music and has been proved before that it can be done very well by bands like Thin Lizzy and AC/DC. The problem herein is that those bands had an edge to themselves and their songs that gave the concept credibility, whereas The 69 Eyes are far too lightweight to boast about rock music.

The 69 Eyes are likely not to achieve much success in many places besides Finland, because their sound is dated, tired and boring. The whole album is stuck in the same vein the whole way through and reaches unflattering levels ranging from boring to being so campy that even the infamous Batman TV series can't match it. If you want a solid rock album, avoid "Angels" and spend your money on another young rock band such as The Answer or Wednesday 13 if you want the horror edge to your rock. However if wannabe goth rock in the style of H.I.M. is your taste, you might like it, but this album is far from appealing for most folk.