Helsinki's most famous vampires, The 69 Eyes, have announced the title of their new, 12th studio album, which will be released on April 22nd via Nuclear Blast: It's called Universal Monsters and contains eleven brand-new Finnish gothic hymns. The cover art – there will be five individual ones – can be seen below.

The new album’s cover artwork, as well as the first video single, were conceived by Finnish photographer and director Ville Juurikkala - known from his works for Nightwish, Amorphis, HIM, Apocalyptica and Michael Monroe. As the album title Universal Monsters refers, the band are portrayed in movie monster lightning, showing them as well classic and timeless creatures. 

“The covers are planned and designed as an old-school CD covers - remember when the booklets used to be as exciting as the album itself?! It will actually have five different covers being such a folder - each member of the band can be used as a cover creature of their own. Ville has really succeeded in capturing the classic movie vibe for the shots without any special make-up or photo shopping. The 69 Eyes are the universal rock ’n’ roll monsters - not so many of us left anymore,” says The 69 Eyes vocalist Jyrki. “So from real fans I wish they would get the actual CD in their hands to get the full album treatment as we have planned it to be experienced!”

Tracklisting:

“Dolce Vita”
“Jet Fighter Plane”
“Blackbird Pie”
“Lady Darkness”
“Stiv & Johnny”
“Never”
“Miss Pastis”
“Jerusalem”
“Shallow Graves”
“Rock ‘N’ Roll Junkie”
“Blue”

The first making-of Universal Monsters teaser trailer takes fans into the beginning of the album’s recording sessions with producer Johnny Lee Michaels and drummer Jussi 69 in nighttime Helsinki. Some beers help them get through the process:

The first single and video from it will be released on January 15. It’s called “Jet Fighter Plane” and the video for it was directed by Juurikkala. Check out the teaser below:

“The song has a dark early ‘80s kind of vibe. I wrote the lyrics those Cold War-era times in my mind. Strangely the world has totally returned into those dark days again after recording the song,” says The 69 Eyes vocalist Jyrki.

“It’s been some 15 years since we recorded Blessed Be and Paris Kills albums with producer Johnny Lee Michaels here in Helsinki. You can consider Universal Monsters as a follow-up to those records. Nobody makes this kind of music anymore.”

The 69 Eyes will tour Europe in support of their new record. See all dates below:

Februray
6 – Helsinki, Finland – Baltic Queen
12 – Kittila, Finland – Hullu Poro Areena
13 – Tornio, Finland – Lapland Tattoo Weekend

April
24 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7
25 – Munich, Germany – Backstage
26 – Stuttgart, Germany – LKA Longharn
27 – Frankfurt, Germany – Batschkapp
28 – Bochum, Germany – Zeche
29 – Cologne, Germany – Gloria
30 – Berlin, Germany – PHB-Club

May
1 – Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle