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Rating: Released in the autumn of 2000, this is the work that best represents the career of the Helsinki combo, a perfectly successful sum of the band's past glam-rock with the "damned" attitude of the previous "Wasting the Dawn".
A work of change, especially on a vocal level, where Jyrki embraces very deep and dark tones, while the contribution of the ivories becomes a key element in the sound of our band. Languid and velvety atmospheres constantly follow one another throughout the work, aided by an elegant mixing, skillful in filtering our band's rock vein into a dark-romantic funnel that is easy to grasp.
A peculiar feature of "Blessed Be" is embodied by the presence of "hit songs" in abundance, fast and never boring tracks endowed with perfectly fitting harmonious choruses that imprint themselves on the mind with great speed. Despite this, the intimate aspect is not overlooked thanks to refined arrangements vaguely "gothic" that give the album in question a shadowy aura laden with nostalgic sadness.
The opening of "Framed in Blood" immediately suggests a fresh and rhythmically energetic style, balancing between the Bazie/Timo-Timo grove'n'roll guitaring and Jyrki's warm timbre, all wisely filled with tearful keys.
The succeeding "Gothic Girl" and "The Chair" maintain a high emotional "pace", an intelligent intertwining of refrains with dark-rock ambitions revised in a version bordering on the radio-friendly, certainly skillful in echoing sounds close to the British gothic-pop tradition.
"Velvet Touch" reveals the darker side of the Finnish band, slow and gloomy, woven with keyboard bridges of sure effect while the vocal "narration" descends into the deepest baritones possible (Type o'Negative).
Highlighted are also the tender ballad "Stolen Season", sweet amid electro-dark loops and graceful vocals, and the piercing energy of "Angel on my Shoulder", in which the 69 Eyes emphasize the more pronounced "heavy" aspect of their sound.
The finale settles on sustained rhythms, unleashing the aggressive spirit belonging to the quintet's past and leaves one quite bewildered, in stark contrast to the delicacy of the first part. Among the remaining three tracks, "Wages of Sin" stands out, dominated by venomous riffs, imperious drumming, maddened solos, and the "dirtiness" of the singing. Excellent and surprising.
In conclusion, the album in question represents the link between the group's past and present and, in my view, the most talented side of Jussi and company, capable of maintaining a "metal" credibility which was then irreparably lost in subsequent platters. Rough and velvety.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Framed in Blood (03:45)
Would you give me the key to the empire of bliss
gimme substance to dissmiss
Everybody's searching for a difference
everybody's searching for the liveliness
gimme just another reason to live
things you can resist things cannot they're
just framed in blood
Would you give me redemption in your kiss
gimme something that I already miss
Everybody's searching for difference
everybody's searching for providence
gimme just another reason to live
things you can resist things you cannot they're
just framed in blood
03 The Chair (04:09)
Just walk
Away from these dreams
And talk
The pain what it seems
Angel of my revelation
I don't really want to let you
Walk
Away from these dreams
You gotta turn it all over
You gotta turn it all over
All over again
Kick the chair right down under me
Leave me hanging alone in misery
Kick the chair right down under me
Leave me hanging alone in misery
Walk
Away from these dreams
And talk
The pain what it meens
Angel of my revelation
I don't really want to hurt you
So walk
Away from these dreams
You gotta turn it all over
You gotta turn it all over
All over again
Kick the chair right down under me
Leave me hanging alone in misery
Kick the chair right down under me
Leave me hanging alone in misery
04 Brandon Lee (03:28)
What would there be as the river of sadness turns into sea
Could there be another thousand stories like you and me
Wanted a heart, wanted a soul
More than anything else in this world
But we are doomed our flesh in wounds
I would never give in
Just like the moon does
We rise'n'shine'n'fall
Over you that I rise'n'shine'n'crawl
Victims aren't we all
What would there be beyond the eyes of Brandon Lee
Could there be a revenging angel left to bleed
Wanted the truth, wanted the faith
More than anything else in this world
But we are doomed body and soul marooned
I would never give in
Just like the moon does
We rise'n'shine'n'fall
Over you that I rise'n'shine'n'crawl
Victims aren't we all
05 Velvet Touch (04:38)
The autumn came took you away
i never expected you to stay
black tears fallin' in the cold rain
I woke up one night to the darkest dream
Your pretty ghost whisperin' to me
Just one drop and I'll give you eternity
i'm lookin' at you I'm lookin' for love
Never get enough when push comes to shove
Try to look at me tell me what you see
You let fantasy become reality when the night is callin' pretty baby screams
I buried my heart into the deapest seas
When the blood runs cold i feel hot in heal
The red moon risin' over you and me
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