''The King of Rock 'n Roll'' (2001) 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. 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.
Vol. II (2010–2011) In February 2010, Daniel Lioneye announced they would release their sophomore album
Vol. II in April 2010, via
The End Records. Now with fellow HIM-member
Janne "Burton" Puurtinen on keyboards, as well Black Vomit Bolton replacing Ville Valo on drums, Daniel Lioneye's second album featured a much heavier sound than their debut, being described by Lindström as "extreme rock n' roll", with influences from
black metal. In 2011, Daniel Lioneye embarked on their first tour of the United States, supporting
Cradle of Filth, with Seppo Tarvainen on drums, as well as Manu Patel on backing vocals.
Vol. III (2014–2016) On 30 December 2014, the original line-up of Daniel Lioneye reunited for a performance at HIM's annual New Year's Eve festival
Helldone. When asked about the possibility of new music, Lindström responded: "Let's see if something could happen already next year." According to Lindström, musically the album would be a combination of its two predecessors, with "more fuzz-guitar, more singing, and less growling".
Vol. III received positive reviews from critics, with Neil Z. Yeung of Allmusic stating "
Vol. III is [Daniel Lioneye's] most accomplished effort, balanced by equal measures of ferocity and harmony, professionally on par with anything the guys have done with HIM", which was echoed by Jarkko Jokelainen of
Helsingin Sanomat, who gave the album four out of five stars. The band were scheduled to perform several European shows in the fall of 2016, but the dates were cancelled after drummer Seppo Tarvainen broke his arm. == Discography ==