1989 - 1999
Formed by a group of friends in the bars of Helsinki, Finland in the summer of 1989, a nod to illustrate the band's tight-knit friendship is that the lineup has stayed the same since creation. The band originally played glam metal inspired music, different from their current gothic rock style.
The band released their first 7 inch EP, "Sugarman", in 1990, followed by another 7 inch, "Barbarella" in 1991. These releases paved the way for the bands first album Bump 'n' Grind released in 1992 which contained some re-recorded versions of songs from the first 2 EP. This same year, the band released their final 2 7 inch EP's, titaled "Juicy Lucy" and "High Times Low Lives". In 1994 through a Japanese Label the band's second CD release was unleased, the compilation album "Motor City Resurrection". It has since been re-released with 8 bonus tracks worldwide. Though this release featured no new songs, it collected the majority of the bands early material and contributions to other compilations. It was followed in 1995 by Savage Garden which featured Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy on the track "Wild Talk". Also released during this time were 2 VHS tapes "Motor City Resurrection" and "Savage Tales" available only through the band's self-run fanclub which are seen rarely, if ever for sale online. In 1997, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, which fans generally mark as the last "glam" album before the milestone success of 1999's goth rock infused, Wasting the Dawn which was released internationally on Roadrunner Records and marked the band's major label debut. The album's hit single, the title track Wasting the Dawn lyrically paid tribute to The Doors' Jim Morrison and was released as a digipack CD, which is now a rare find for fans of the band. Jyrki 69 developed a concept video for this track which featured long-time friend and collaborator HIM member Ville Valo posing at a snowy cemetery as the ghost of Jim Morrison. This video was released on VHS in Finland featuring a behind the scenes feature, both the video and feature were later added as extras on the Helsinki Vampires DVD.
2000 - 2002
Spring of 2000 brought the single Gothic Girl which spent months on the Singles Top 10 and on Finnish nation radio playlists. It brought the band their first gold record. After recording their sixth studio album, Blessed Be, the band did their first short tour for Wasting the Dawn in Germany which included a show at the M'era Luna Festival. Support for the tour was Norwegian rock band Zeromancer.
Released in September 2000, Blessed Be rose straight to number 4 on the Finnish Album Charts and stayed in the top 10 for over a month. The second single was Brandon Lee, the third was The Chair and Stolen Season was the fourth. Videos were filmed for the first 3 singles.
In 2002 the band released Paris Kills, which would be known as their breakthrough album. It stayed for weeks as number 1 in Finland and went gold in a month, June 2002. In Germany it rose to number 35 in the first week. After touring Europe and Finland for months, a sold-out show at Helsinki's famous Tavastia Club was filmed and documented in November for use in the "Helsinki Vampires" DVD.
2003 - 2007
At the end of 2003, The 69 Eyes were signed to EMI Finland, as they geared up to record their highly successful Devils album. The well-timed "Lost Boys" single was released in Finland at this time, paying homage to the film of the same name as anticipation for the full length album grew.
2004 saw the release of Devils, their 8th album, to which they toured the UK in support of Wednesday 13. Once again the album was number one in their native Finland and reached gold in a month. It was their first release on a big major label Virgin/EMI. Released in their native Finland in October 2004 later on in Europe through Virgin/EMI and in October 2005 in USA through 456 Entertainment it is also their 4th album to reach gold status and again another number one position on the Finnish TOP 40 album charts.
In 2005 The 69 Eyes played nearly one hundred shows around the world in fifteen countries, from Mexico to Japan. Devils was also released in the USA. The band filmed their video for their biggest ever hit single "Lost Boys" in Hollywood and the Philadelphia area, directed by the band's friend and MTV superstar Bam Margera.
In 2006, The 69 Eyes toured for the first time in the USA in March with Program The Dead & Damone, appearing on Last Call with Carson Daly. Their new album Angels, the sequel to their 2004 album Devils, was released in March 2007. Shortly after their Early 2007 tour with Cradle of Filth & 3 Inches Of Blood. Their latest album Angels was released on the 25th of June 2007 in the UK. The first single from the album is "Perfect skin" which went straight to number 1 on the Finnish singles chart. The second single is "Never Say Die". Angels debuted at number 1 in Finland and has since gone gold.
The band did a summer 2007 US tour with Wednesday 13, Night Kills The Day, & Fair To Midland, and supported Within Temptation on tour in the UK in November. They played 125 shows world wide in 2007.
2008 - present
In 2008 the band released their first live album, titled The 69 Eyes: Hollywood Kills. It featured a complete live show recorded at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood in March 2006.[9] The performance featured hits spanning the six latest albums an introduction by Bam Margera and a live cover of The Ramones "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do". The concert was also filmed in its entirety. Five tracks from the performance were released on DVD as bonus content on the Angels/Devils box set and the entire concert was released on the "Back in Blood" bonus DVD.
The band began 2009 by touring in Europe as a part of Hellhounds Fest with Tiamat and Ava Inferi. The band started recording their tenth studio album with Grammy award winning producer Matt Hyde. He is most known from his works with Slayer, Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu. The recording process took place both in Helsinki and Los Angeles. The new album has been titled Back in Blood was released on the 28th of August in Europe and will be released the 15th of September in the USA. In early June, Bam Margera directed the music video for the first single from the album, "Dead Girls Are Easy." The video premiered on playboy.com on 17 of July 2009. The 69 Eyes also toured Australia for the first time in mid June, playing in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.
A tour of the United States followed in October 2009, and Jyrki 69 was featured on both FOX New's "Red Eye" program, and CNN International also. In December 2009, the band debuted their newest video for the song, "Dead & Gone" via Myspace. This new video marked the band's third collaboration with Bam Margera. On August 10 the band revealed a contest for fans to create a video for the next single "Kiss Me Undead". The response was overwhelming, and on September 30 the band posted their 14 favorite videos on their YouTube page.
In April 2010, during an interview with Sean Twisted of Renegaderadio.net, Rudi Protrudi, frontman & founder of the Fuzztones, reported he had completed work on new song with The 69 Eyes, although further details were unavailable during that time.
On the official The 69 Eyes webpage they reported a European tour with Hardcore Superstar and Crashdïet in March and April 2011.
Early in 2012, The 69 Eyes began recording their next studio album X. X was released on September 28, 2012, across Europe and on October 9, 2012, in the United States. The first single from the album was "Red" and featured a music video. The second single was "Borderline." Both singles were available before the album was released in Europe. On February 2013, the band released the singles "Love Runs Away" and "Tonight" simultaneously via iTunes. "Tonight" was released exclusively in Finland while "Love Runs Away" was released everywhere else. Both singles included two previously unreleased tracks, "Rosary Blue" and "Dracula's Castle," the latter being the song Rudi Protrudi reported he had co-written with The 69 Eyes back in 2010.
The 69 Eyes will release a double CD compilation of their radio hit singles called “The Best Of Helsinki Vampires” on November 1, 2013. The compilation also includes their brand new single “Lost Without Love.”
In 2016 on the 22th of May The 69 Eyes released their 11th studio album called Universal Monsters containing 11 tracks.
Sleeping With Lions
The 69 Eyes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Cold metal and hard steel
But it cuts in too deep
To see you doing your midnight creep
Somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
The only way it was meant to be
As the lights of neon slowly dim
Everywhere you've been
Dreaming of silence
Of the gentle rain
Sleeping with lions
In the temple of pain
Said you wanted to steal
A heart of soul and make a deal
With the danger that you feed
Don't like the monsters that you keep
Somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
The only way it was meant to be
As the lights of neon slowly dim
I can read in flesh everywhere you've been
Dreaming of silence
Of the gentle rain
Sleeping with lions
In the temple of pain
The lyrics of The 69 Eyes song Sleeping With Lions are a complex and intense exploration of pain, desire, and the dangerous allure of self-destruction. The first stanza, "Said you wanted to feel/Cold metal and hard steel/But it cuts in too deep/To see you doing your midnight creep," suggests a deep longing for physical pain and an addiction to the rush it provides, even though it is ultimately harmful. This verse also establishes a sense of secrecy and shame around the behavior, hinted at in the phrase "midnight creep."
The chorus, "Dreaming of silence/Of the gentle rain/Sleeping with lions/In the temple of pain," heightens the sense of conflict and contradiction in the song. The dream of silence and peace contrasts sharply with sleeping with lions and the temple of pain, which suggests a desire to experience extreme pain and danger. The image of the temple further emphasizes the idea of a secretive, possibly illicit, activity.
The second stanza, "Said you wanted to steal/A heart of soul and make a deal/With the danger that you feed/Don't like the monsters that you keep," continues to develop the idea of destructive desire, suggesting a wish to hurt others as well as oneself. The final lines of the song, "As the lights of neon slowly dim/I can read in flesh everywhere you've been," suggest that the singer is able to understand the singer's pain and desire through their physical body.
Line by Line Meaning
Said you wanted to feel
You expressed the desire to experience something new.
Cold metal and hard steel
You wanted something that felt cold and hard.
But it cuts in too deep
However, this desire is causing deeper harm.
To see you doing your midnight creep
I am disturbed by your nighttime behaviors.
Somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
You are reacting to the pain caused by someone else by hurting me.
The only way it was meant to be
Perhaps this is the only way you know how to cope with pain.
As the lights of neon slowly dim
As we move further into the night, the artificial lighting fades.
I can read in flesh
I can see the physical signs of your pain and inner turmoil on your body.
Everywhere you've been
The scars and bruises on your skin reveal the places you've been and the things you've done.
Dreaming of silence
You long for peaceful quiet and calmness in your mind.
Of the gentle rain
You desire something tender and soothing to wash away the pain you feel.
Sleeping with lions
You are taking big and dangerous risks to escape the hurt you're feeling.
In the temple of pain
This risky behavior has brought you to a holy place of agony that you can't seem to escape.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Paula Vinkel
said you wanted to feel cold metal and hard steel
but it cuts in too deep to see you doing your midnight creep
somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
the only way it was meant to be
as the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
everywhere you've been
dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
said you wanted to steal a heart of soul
and make a deal with the danger that you feed
don't like the monsters that you keep
somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
the only way it was meant to be
as the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
everywhere you've been
dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
Traducir al español
Komodo Jones
Said you wanted to feel cold metal and hard steel
But it cuts in too deep to see you doing your midnight creep
Somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
The only way it was meant to be
As the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
Everywhere you've been
Dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
Sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
Said you wanted to steal a heart of soul
And make a deal with the danger that you feed
Don't like the monsters that you keep
Somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
The only way it was meant to be
As the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
Everywhere you've been
Dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
Sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
Bharadwaj Sharma
what states of mind are these people in??? just amazing to hear something something like this... "dreaming of silence of the gentle rain" is the best.....
victor bruun
hell song this hit me somewhere deep while being forcefully bedded for something close to a month (the first time) with acute total renal collapse (kidneys being totally mushed, bloodpressure at 320/210 ie "how are is it possible you are conscious" questions from docs and nurses)... and literally crawling into a hospital at 03.00hrs.. and no idea wft was wrong.
Then prodded, needles, cameras down the throat for half an hour at a time, a thousand times all over, more scars than what could possibly be called cool etc. Hell.. more that once having a good look at arms and wondering whose arm it exactly is that is attached to me... yeah body disassociation.. but the arm obeys, is useful, and not much pain atm so whatever.
Especially duing the home dialysis part of showing twin giant needles into a arm myself. and sometimes when discnnecting and being groggy from 4hrs of sleep im bleeding and wondering why there is a pool of blood in my bed before i figure out how to stop it. Yeah more that one mattress totally ruined.
So yeah it speaks to that mind state a lot.
Delci Quakenbush
Bharadwaj Sharma they are eternally depressed....
OctoberRain
great song i really love it!!
Luka Danelia
such a "Gothic" voice <3
Paula Vinkel
said you wanted to feel cold metal and hard steel
but it cuts in too deep to see you doing your midnight creep
somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
the only way it was meant to be
as the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
everywhere you've been
dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
said you wanted to steal a heart of soul
and make a deal with the danger that you feed
don't like the monsters that you keep
somebody hurts you so you're hurting me
the only way it was meant to be
as the lights of neon slowly dim i can read in flesh
everywhere you've been
dreaming of silence of the gentle rain
sleeping with lions in the temple of pain
Traducir al español
Carlos Aguilar
Buenísima
{Hevnoraak Von Moreau}
Thank you.
Roger Larsson
My favourite song, most beautiful song ever
Owendigo
Beautiful, just beautiful.💤