Lioneye

Lore & Background

Daniel Lioneye was formed by members of the Finnish rock band HIM in 2001. Composed of vocalist-guitarist Mikko "Linde" Lindström, drummer Ville Valo and bassist Mikko "Mige" Paananen, the band was born as a way to relieve stress brought on by the amount of success HIM was achieving at the time, according to Valo. Prior to their debut album, Daniel Lioneye had played only a few shows at various parties around Finland. When the group entered the studio to record their debut album with producer Hiili Hiilesmaa, they only had three songs ready, while the rest were written while recording.

According to Lindström, none of the material was initially intended to be released, as the group had already collaborated with Hiilesmaa for many years on unreleased experimental music. Daniel Lioneye eventually decided to release their debut album The King of Rock 'n Roll "as a joke" in the spring of 2001 in Finland and Germany. Described as "psychedelic stoner rock", with lyrics largely dealing with themes of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", The King of Rock 'n Roll received negative reviews from critics, with Pertti Ojala of Soundi calling the album "dirty, loud and diversely unpleasant".

Despite this, the album's title-track was later used by professional skateboarder and television personality Bam Margera as the opening theme to his TV series Viva La Bam. The song later became the second-most-played Finnish song in the world in 2006.

Reader's Guide

Daniel Lioneye's discography consists of three studio albums: The King of Rock 'n Roll (2001), Vol. II (2010), and Vol. III (2016). The band's original line-up included Mikko "Linde" Lindström on guitar and vocals, Mikko "Mige" Paananen on bass, and Ville Valo on drums. For Vol. II, the line-up changed to include Janne "Burton" Puurtinen on keyboards and Black Vomit Bolton on drums. The 2011 US tour featured Seppo Tarvainen on drums and Manu Patel on backing vocals.

The 2016 line-up for Vol. III consisted of Lindström, Mige, Burton, and Tarvainen. The band's debut album was recorded with producer Hiili Hiilesmaa, who also played keyboards on the subsequent three-date festival tour across Finland, with Ike Vil providing sound effects. The King of Rock 'n Roll was described as "psychedelic stoner rock", while Vol. II was described as "extreme rock n' roll" with black metal influences, and Vol. III was described as a combination of its two predecessors with "more fuzz-guitar, more singing, and less growling".