Sirenia
The Seventh Life Path
Napalm Records
2015
Sirenia is a Norweigian band with a Spanish female singer, in the past few years, since their third album that indulges in a Goth-Symponic with gruff male vocals, a bit like Theater Of Tragedy used to do it, all those years ago, that were formed after Morten Veland left Tristania with whom they share a great deal... their bassless sound, is quite harsh and while they released a number of albums, under Nuclear Blast, they had to revert to Napalm for this one, meaning their sales were on the decrease.
This album is not a great departure sound-wise from what the band has done in recent times, but it does, from somewhere mid-way onwards, gain a bit on aggression and dynamics, a bit of a throwback to their earlier days. However the poor mastering and the treble sound, just leaves me cold. Even the relatively decent ideas, like the single “Once My Life” overstay their welcome at seven plus long minutes long, “Elixir” with its more traditionally goth passages is a bit shorter and a bit better, but still, the sound, doesn’t allow you to enjoy it, as much...
“Earendel”, tries to be a bit more “theatrical” but meandering as it feels it sort of falls short of expectations. On songs like the seven and a half minute “The Silver Eye”, the band goes several steps darker, with the balance of the vocals tipping over very often in favor of the guttural grunts and the riffing is more extreme... when you can hear it under the keyboard swamp.
“Tragedienne” the albums closer, is way more melodic and the band even reprises it in Spanish, for the Special and Japanese (!) – for the Asian market editions…
Overall, Sirenia is a band that have been around for a while and that’s probably the reason why people bother with them, because there are certainly better bands in the female fronted world. Their choice to cater to the more extreme spectrum, basically, helps them a bit, in gaining some market/fans, but overall they do not rise above mediocrity.
Fans of the band will probably disagree, but if they like the treble, almost annoying sound of the mix/band, it’s probably, by the free will and accord, so there’s not much I could do than just say it doesn’t do it for me.
This album is not a great departure sound-wise from what the band has done in recent times, but it does, from somewhere mid-way onwards, gain a bit on aggression and dynamics, a bit of a throwback to their earlier days. However the poor mastering and the treble sound, just leaves me cold. Even the relatively decent ideas, like the single “Once My Life” overstay their welcome at seven plus long minutes long, “Elixir” with its more traditionally goth passages is a bit shorter and a bit better, but still, the sound, doesn’t allow you to enjoy it, as much...
“Earendel”, tries to be a bit more “theatrical” but meandering as it feels it sort of falls short of expectations. On songs like the seven and a half minute “The Silver Eye”, the band goes several steps darker, with the balance of the vocals tipping over very often in favor of the guttural grunts and the riffing is more extreme... when you can hear it under the keyboard swamp.
“Tragedienne” the albums closer, is way more melodic and the band even reprises it in Spanish, for the Special and Japanese (!) – for the Asian market editions…
Overall, Sirenia is a band that have been around for a while and that’s probably the reason why people bother with them, because there are certainly better bands in the female fronted world. Their choice to cater to the more extreme spectrum, basically, helps them a bit, in gaining some market/fans, but overall they do not rise above mediocrity.
Fans of the band will probably disagree, but if they like the treble, almost annoying sound of the mix/band, it’s probably, by the free will and accord, so there’s not much I could do than just say it doesn’t do it for me.