Album Spotlight: Blessed Be (The 69 Eyes, 2000)

    The fifth studio album of Finnish goth 'n' rollers the 69 Eyes was meant to be the one that established them as a band that should not be messed with not only in their native Finland, but the rest of Europe as all. Released just in time for the last boom of goth clubbing, it spawned four hit singles, three of which (Gothic Girl, Brandon Lee, and The Chair) are considered to be among their best songs to this day.

   This is the album where the band's transformation from a more noisy, sleazy rock band to goth is finally completed. Jyrki's vocals hit an all-time low, his lyrics get darker, more broody, with a macabre romantic flair evident here and there, the bass gets louder, the sound gets heavier, and just like that, a masterpiece of gothic metal has been created.

   The auditory and visual transformation of the band down darker paths had already  started three years ago in 1997, with "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" and continued in 1999's "Wasting the Dawn". And right when you would have thought that they had reached levels of vampiric charm that would make a statue swoon, the five Finns bestowed upon the world an album the likes of which we have yet to see eighteen years later. Jyrki has a Peter Steele thing going on here heavily, both in regards to his long hair partially obscuring his pale face and in regards to his dark brooding vocals.

   Of course, having the hottest new vocalist of the hottest new band provide backing vocals in some of the tracks certainly helps, and if you were one of the skeptical people who hadn't heard a single riff off this glorious masterpiece, this would convince you to buy it. I am talking of course about Ville Valo of HIM, who had recently broken out into international fame with their 1999 album "Razorblade Romance". Ville provides backing vocals for "The Chair" and "Angel on my Shoulder", and if there was anything missing from these two already beautiful tracks (which there wasn't), now they have it all, and you can hear it in the end result. Ville Valo had also contributed vocals (plus a guest video appearance) in the band's previous albums, as he and vocalist Jyrki69 had been friends for a number of years.

  The album is a gothic metal masterpiece that is wanting in nothing of more commercially successful bands such as legendary Type O Negative. Honors must be given to two tracks that are often overlooked in this album in favour of the most well known singles or guest vocals featuring songs, the dark and lustful "Graveland", featuring some of Jyrki's sexiest vocal work, and the atmospheric and mesmerising "Stolen Season", which immerses you in a floating dream world.
   This album remains to this day the measure by which the success all following albums of the band are measured against. It is also the album that successfully converted legions into eternal fans of the Helsinki Vampires. If you are a fan of Type O Negative, HIM, The Sisters of Mercy, gothic rock, and/or vampires, it is a crime against your very existence not to have listened to this album.