Sirenia - The Enigma Of Life

Published February 09 2011

*=Staff's pick	The End Of It All Fallen Angel My All Dreams This Darkness The Twilight In Your Eyes* Winter Land* A Seaside Serenade* Darkened Days To Come Coming Down This Lonely Lake Fading Star The Enigma Of Life*

Genre	Gothic Metal	Aylin/Morten Veland	Vocals
Tracks	12	Morten Veland	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Michael Krumins	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Morten Veland	Bass
Release	21 January 2011	Jonathan Perez	Drums
Country	Norway	Morten Veland	Keyboard
Producer	Morten Veland
Similar artists	Within Temptation, Nightwish

Norwegian Goth metal band Sirenia does not surprise you. All of you who have heard Within Temptation will recognize this right away. The similarities with said Dutch band are big, which gives you the sensation that this could be a compilation of their rejected songs. If we take into account that the production is far from the same quality, the feeling of "copy-cat" comes creeping even more. It feels as if they are very ambitious and know what they want, but they don´t reach all the way. This is due to several circumstances.

The songwriting is overall good, and some parts have the potential to be VERY good. However, the rollercoaster effect is to present, and some songs get boring and standard. The arrangements are sometimes thought out and nice, and sometimes very basic with no fantasy. In short; the songwriting could be improved, and if all songs would have the same quality as "The Twilight In Your Eyes" this album would be a lot better.

The biggest downside on this album is, however, the production. It´s not bad, but it feels a bit amateur. The guitar sound is pretty thin and does not have the raw power that you would want (easily heard in "This Darkness"). The drums feel plastic, and the mix in general is sometimes very unbalanced, letting you hear only strings and drums, which feels empty. This is very regretful, as some sections could be made very epic with a better mix and, to some extent, better arrangements.

The mid-section of "A Seaside Serenade" is an example of this. It starts out very nice with strings and choirs, but the following drums and guitar lack the power you would wish for. It is a bit annoying to know that this section could be great, but as for now is only good.

In general you could say that it´s clear what Sirenia want to do, and I like it, but they will have to improve their work a little bit to make it all the way. I would not be surprised if they did it in the future, but not right now. I´m keeping my eye on this band, hoping to be able to give them a better judgement in the future.

See also review of: Nine Destinies And A Downfall

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	5	6	7

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Olof