The Finnish goth rock legends The 69 Eyes played a gig at Kerubi to celebrate the release of their new album "Death of Darkness". With great determination and style, these goth'n'rollers know how to rock it.
The 69 Eyes is the first goth band outside of HIM that I got into, and it has remained one of my absolute favourites ever since I saw the music video to their song "Gothic Girl". The 69 Eyes is a band that seems to age like fine wine - the live shows have only gotten better since I first saw them in 2016. This album release show in Kerubi was probably the best one I've seen from them - Jyrki's vocals were powerful, the guitars and bass were on point and Jussi's drumming was mostly precise.
Jyrki has definitely improved his live vocals over the years. It seemed like he was able to hit low notes more comfortably and the overall perfomance was more energetic than usually. Jyrki even explored some previously obscure territories with the almost black metal-esque screams that could be heard in "Death of Darkness", the title song of the new album. Grim vocals were also utilized in Two Horns Up - a song from their previous album "West End" that had Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth feature in the guest vocals on the studio version. Well, it is clear now that Jyrki can handle this kind of harsher vocal styles just fine by himself.
TimoTimo, Archie and Bazie know how to handle their istruments - nothing stood out as incredibly special there, but their performances don't warrant any complaints either. Just good old rock'n'rollin' fun. Jussi69's drumming however had got a bit more technical since the last gig I saw. The inclusion of two kick drums makes more sense now, since Jussi actually utilized double bass more than once.
The setlist was pretty much what you'd expect - a run of their greatest hits with a couple of songs from the new album. The set highlights were The Chair, Two Horns Up, Framed In Blood, Gothic Girl and the ultimate goth banger Wasting the Dawn. Death of Darkness, although it had those unique grim screams, sounded a bit unrehearsed and sloppier than the rest of the set - a pity, since it was the only track from the new album that had not been released as a single, making it the most obscure track in the setlist. The biggest disappointment of the set came in Betty Blue, in which Jyrki didn't do his signature low "uh"sound.
Overall the gig was great - the sound mixing was awesome, the setlist was entertaining and the performances were what you would expect from a world-class rock and roll band. Would recommend.
Rating: 4/5
-Spider
Kommentarer