SIRENIA

The second full-length studio album by cult Norwegian Symphonic Gothic Doom Metal band.
The album follows in the same vein as the previous, "At Sixes And Sevens", but includes a new female vocalist, Henriette Bordvik. From this album, Sirenia has been presented as a 4-piece band, with Morten Veland as the only permanent member.
Like its predecessor album, the musical style in "An Elixir For Existence" corresponds to the more classic Sirenia's Gothic Metal of their origins, with some elements of Symphonic Death/Doom and even Black Metal.
Numerous of the songs are concerned with mental conditions, be it depression ("Voices Within"), drug use ("Euphoria") or thoughts of suicide ("The Fall Within"); of course, the meanings of all of these songs are subject to further conjecture.
This album takes everything right in the Gothic Metal genre, including soothing female vocals, harsh vocals that always command you to pay absolute attention, bombastic choirs and compiles them here.
While providing very enjoyable music on its on, this is simply more than an album. "An Elixir For Existence" takes you on a journey through the darkest and most melancholy parts of the human mind and spirit, brightening your outlook on life...
Napalm Records Handels GmbH, 2004 (NPR 135). Made in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. Lithium And A Lover 6:33
2. Voices Within 6:52
3. A Mental Symphony 5:26
4. Euphoria 6:35
5. In My Darkest Hours 6:05
6. Save Me From Myself 4:15
7. The Fall Within 6:48
8. Star-Crossed 6:29
9. Seven Sirens And A Silver Tear 4:46
Total playing time: 53:49 min.

The debut full-length studio album by cult Norwegian Symphonic Gothic Death/Doom Metal band.
New Band of Morten Veland (ex-Tristania). On this release, he is moving on along the path he was walking with Tristania's "Beyond The Veil". This is Sirenia's only album featuring the vocals of French singer Fabienne Gondamin.
Sirenia's debut album is a continuation of Veland's compositional work with Tristania, a band that he had left only two years before, so it corresponds to the most classical Gothic/Symphonic Metal style of his catalogue. The band made use of contrasting vocals – male bass vocals (making some use of clean vocals and Death grunts) and female whispering vocals, with interludes of a symphonic choir. As is the usual in all Sirenia albums, Veland is the sole author of all the tracks, to which he gave a very introspective and personal character. Also, he played most of the instruments that were used.
Lyrically, it has dark and long songs, with gothic and human existence themes (especially related to death and mental decline), in a complex structure of very similar metre and tempo among all, except the last one. It is something probable that the album title and its main track reflected Morten Veland's mood in that time. Similarly, numerous of the songs on this album and the next one of Sirenia refer to the disturbed mental conditions, a topic in which its writer was particularly interested. "At sixes and sevens" is an English idiom very common in the United Kingdom. Used to describe a condition of confusion or disarray. The similar phrase "to set the world on six and seven", used by Geoffrey Chaucer, seems -in its context-, to mean "to hazard the world" or "to risk one's life".
The woman on the cover is a Norwegian model, picked by the designer to represent a Siren.
The Orchestral Gothic Metal of Morten Veland's Sirenia is more than ambitious on the band's debut, "At Sixes And Sevens" - it's almost cosmic in scope and epic by any standard. A cadre of operatic vocalists and classical musicians wrap Veland's songs in a composite sheen that's rare even within a genre known for grand soundscapes. When highlights like the anthemic "Shadow of Your Own Self" get into gear, "At Sixes And Sevens" rolls like thunder and flows like the bitter tears of Veland's less-accomplished Goth/Doom colleagues!
Napalm Records Handels GmbH, 2002 (NPR 105). Made in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. Meridian 6:20
2. Sister Nightfall 5:38
3. On The Wane 6:37
4. In A Manica 6:03
5. At Sixes And Sevens 6:46
6. Lethargica 5:30
7. Manic Aeon 6:26
8. A Shadow Of Your Own Self 5:58
9. In Sumerian Haze 4:39
Total playing time: 53:57 min.