Sirenia
An Elixir For Existence

THE REVIEW

In 2004, we witness a small change, or rather, a new addition to the Sirenia lineup. The red-haired Henriette Bordvik joins the band permanently but will stay for just over a year. 2005 will indeed witness her departure from the band due to artistic differences with Morten Veland (a decision, in my opinion, hardly blameworthy).

The album starts with a somewhat unconventional choice: the space given to the new member is really too little, actually, as for the first track, it's even limited to a central break of a few seconds. However, we do notice some minimal new elements in the band's sound: the guitars seem to have been more carefully crafted than the keyboards, and the choirs have lost importance in the overall song, thus avoiding playing the role of the "cherry on top” but blending better with other elements. Vocally, the changes are virtually nil: Veland's growl hasn't altered one bit. "Lithium and a lover" therefore barely achieves a passing mark due to its lack of impact. In the second track, "Voices within", we are almost faced with plagiarism: the closing melody of "… Of ruins and a red nightfall" by Tristania is heavily reused, accelerated to a good extent, and, with a bit of good sense, inserted only at the beginning of the song, perhaps to avoid destabilizing listeners emotionally connected to the past. How out of place and fake are the synth sounds, and how ridiculous is the attempt by the drums at a black metal style acceleration in the intro! Fortunately, the song manages to recover thanks to Henriette's graceful voice and her part introduced by a brief piano solo and then accompanied by synthesized orchestrations, truly beautiful, but not unlike what Liv Kristine and company offered in the masterpiece "Aégis". However, perhaps what truly elevates the track is the violin break, even if it's placed randomly within the song structure without a sense of continuity.

Completely anonymous are the next two tracks "A mental symphony" and "Euphoria". The fact that it's not only the keyboards but also the guitars that prevail in some parts of the tracks matters little: everything always falls into anonymity, and I regret to say, insufficiency. "In my darkest hour" presents a drum that, once again, attempts ridiculous accelerations to accompany horrible orchestrations reproduced in a truly indecent manner on the synthesizer, seemingly trying to plagiarize Dimmu Borgir. The choirs, unfortunately relegated to a purely ornamental role, suffer from such ugliness. Mid-album, we find one of the two (and only) noteworthy episodes: the calm and sweet, yet intense "Save me from myself". The rest of the album repeatedly falls into anonymity. "The fall within" doesn't deserve any comment. The closing choirs of "Star-crossed" are truly imposing, but the rest of the song is unlistenable. Finally, we arrive at the ninth song "Seven sirens and a silver tear". I have to, for all intents and purposes, call it a masterpiece (perhaps the only one ever composed by the band). With that beautiful piano first enchanted, then tempestuous and finally sweet, the female choirs in the background and the apocalyptic orchestrations, it feels like perceiving an imminent end and a dark future that is now becoming present. In my mind, it's as though that aquatic world as melancholic as calming evoked by Sirenia's songs appears to me in the eerie and anguishing scenario of its ruins. A dark vision made even more fascinating by the distant cry of a Siren, mourning the destruction of her world.

The imagery proposed by "An elixir for existence" perfectly echoes what accompanied us during the listening of the debut album. It feels like being immersed in a futuristic underwater world that reveals itself right away for what it is:nothing more than pure fiction. Even Morten's intentions are fake: despite what has been claimed, evolving his sound does not seem to be a priority for the composer. The only new elements are the slightly faster, yet inappropriate, rhythms, the greater importance given to guitars, and the improved performance of the female vocals. The rest remains the same:keyboards and synth (this time truly awful) in abundance, dark-wave contaminations, the usual guitar riffs, the usual growl, annoying clean vocals worthy of the worst Tilo Woolf, piano and violin to lift us from boredom. And the Gregorian choirs? Well, unfortunately, they are no longer the same: if in "At sixes and sevens" they knew how to revive many tracks with their grandeur, here they suffer from the anonymous position to which they have been relegated, lost as well in that varied stew that the Norwegian has reheated and presented once again as a new exuberant recipe. It's noteworthy, however, how, in the absence of growl and guitars, the band has managed to propose two truly successful songs, inspired by the dark-wave and by Theatre Of Tragedy's masterpiece known as "Aégis", yet in a sufficiently personal context.

Who knows what the band (once again renewed in terms of female vocals) will propose with the new "Nine destinies and a downfall". Meanwhile, Tristania, fresh from the release of the controversial "Ashes" and the astounding "Illumination", now light-years away from the excessive baroque elements in which we risked losing them with "Beyond the veil", have given Morten a great lesson: recycling may be a good work, but when it's at the expense of one's own music, it becomes a rather questionable operation.