The 13th studio album of the Finnish goth rock legend The 69 Eyes offers a mixed set of gothic and rock'n'roll tracks.
The opening and title track "Death of Darkness" delivers us a gothic rock hit - in a glorious and recognizable style the band has became famous for. Perhaps even too recognizable, since the track includes everything that a 69 Eyes hit could ask for: poppy song structure, a bit lame lyrics from the vocalist Jyrki 69 and a guitar solo that hasn't a real reason to be there other than that there just has to be a solo in almost every The 69 Eyes song.
On the other hand, this all works well together and it's exactly what one could ask from a The 69 Eyes song. The mixing and sounds are on spot and they are some of the best from the band that I can think of. Plus there is one surprise factor: Jyrki's black metal like screams in the pre-chorus parts. I wonder if Jyrki has drawn inspiration from one of the guest stars from their last album "West End", Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth who was featuring in the track "Two Horns Up". Other, maybe a little bit surprising thing is that the backing vocals in the chorus are at least my personal favorite hook from the song, which is pretty rare for a The 69 Eyes song. In any case, the course of the album is set for some serious goth'n'roll goodiness and it's a wonder if this song doesn't make its way to have a permanent spot on the band's live gig set.
However, the second track "Drive" instantly breaks the atmosphere that the first track together with the album cover art has built so far. Being a more traditional rock'n'roll and hard rock style it just feels very off after the goth hit that the first track was. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent rock song and even a real banger when combined with driving. The same goes with a bit later coming track "California". They both feel like summer rock hits and they will be playing at least on my summer playlists, but they just don't fit the more gothic atmosphere that is present on the rest of the album. Decent tracks on their own and as single releases which they both were, but I'd just like to skip them when listening this album as a whole.
Another track that I would just like to skip is "Call Me Snake". Being more gothic than the previously mentioned singles it suits the album's atmosphere, but I find the track otherwise rather uninteresting and the chorus downright annoying with the catchphrase "Call Me Snake, Snake, Snake". I think it might just be one of the worst The 69 Eyes singles out there, but at least I think of it as the weakest link of this album. There is one good thing in the song though which is the rather funny hook of Jyrki singing "na-na-na-na-na-na-na" in the pre-chorus & chorus.
If the other singles (not including the title track) don't work that well in the bigger picture of the album, same can't be said from the Boycott cover "Gotta Rock" which became an instant hit right when it was first featured in the Finnish TV Show "Vain elämää". The cover doesn't really bring anything new to the table - it's just really well executed version of the song in the style of The 69 Eyes. It is faithful in arrangement to the original song but brings out the overall gothic tone of the band. The chorus might be the most "sing-along" and highlighted moment of the whole album for most people, but personally I think it is the Archzie's bass (with Jussi's drums and Bazie's & Timo Timo's guitars, but especially the bass) that carries the song. The song, excluding the chorus, kind of reminds me (in a good way) of "Gothic Girl", one of the most successful hits and one of my personal favorites from the band.
The real star of the album might be the track number 4 "This Murder Takes Two (feat. Kat Von D)" though. The song explores a field that hasn't been really heard on a The 69 Eyes song before: country music. Although, of course, it is not pure country in its style: it has the feeling of the Helsinki Vampires in it with a gloomy touch of Finnish schlager.
On top of the style choice of the song, Kat Von D brings notable variation to album's flow with her vocals, since otherwise it is Jyrki that sings all lead vocals (not that there would be anything wrong with Jyrki's iconic low vocals, just that we hear another completely different kind of voice in the middle of the album). Plus, Jyrki hits some of his lowest clean vocal notes found in any The 69 Eyes recording in the catchphrase of the chorus. While not being as good of a song as a whole as the previous one where Kat Von D featured ("Rosary Blue"), it's certainly one of the best tracks on this album and is at least my personal favorite.
Of the remaining four tracks of this 10-track album my personal favorite is "Something Real", which also has Ben Christo from The Sisters of Mercy marked as a co-writer of the song (title track has him credited too). The song strangely reminds me of Dark Tranquility on top of anything else, but I think that's a good thing - another different (and fitting) style for The 69 Eyes on the same album. This song would probably have been a better single release candidate than, well, let's just say Call Me Snake.
The last three tracks provide us decent goth rock mood - but unfortunately a little of anything really memorable (note: times I have listened to these songs at this point: 3-5), whereas each other track of the album has at least something memorable going on in them right from the first hearing. Of these tracks I can say for now that "Sundown" wanders a little more to the area of summer rock like the single California while remaining somewhat more gothic. "Dying in the Night" has a part in its solo section that, at least to me, sounds like a rip off from one particular Michael Jackson song, and the last track "Outlaws" just feels too slow and long. Maybe with more replays one could find more interesting aspects from these songs.
As a summary:
The 69 Eyes have delivered an album with really mixed atmospheres going on within it. Most of the songs are good or even excellent, but there are some sluggish feeling ones as well. The album, being mostly towards gothic atmosphere, would have benefited a lot as a whole if the non-gothic sounding tracks (which sound great as their own) would have been replaced with more gothic sounding ones or at least the order of the tracks would have been different so that the atmosphere wouldn't completely change between every track in the first half of the album.
The sounds, mixing and mastering are well executed throughout album and it might be one of, if not even the cleanest sounding The 69 Eyes album(s). It has some new things, even major ones going on and is mostly pleasing to listen to for its 40-minute runtime. The rating has some leeway depending on how you want to think about the album: as a whole the rating is lower (presented below), as a collection of individual tracks you could add 0,5 or even a whopping 1 total point to the final score.
Favorite track: This Murder Takes Two (feat. Kat Von D)
Rating: 2,75/5
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Tracklist:
Death of Darkness
Drive
Gotta Rock (Boycott Cover)
This Murder Takes Two (feat. Kat Von D)
California
Call Me Snake
Dying in the Night
Something Real
Sundown
Outlaws
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