SIRENIA – “The seventh life path”
The seventh life path
SIRENIA manage to keep their roster of releasing an album every two years since the release of “Nine Destinies And A Downfall”. “The Seventh Life Path” is not only the seventh album of the Norwegian/Spanish band, but also the fourth album with vocalist Ailyn.
After an opener full of choirs, ‘Serpents’ is a kick-start for “The Seventh Life Path” – it is catchy but also combines everything typical for SIRENIA: bombastic sound, choirs, Ailyn’s high voice (which reminds me of Liv Kristine very often), some growls and straight-forward heavy metal. A brilliant song to get the SIRENIA feeling again.
Impressive piece of music.
‘Once my light’ might be the poppiest song on the album – maybe that’s why SIRENIA have chosen it for a video clip. Nevertheless, it’s a very dark one and has opulent choirs as well. It is justified by the band’s name, but it is a little sad that we never hear Ailyn singing on the album without duplicated track or another singing line above the main vocals – expect a short sequence in this song. Ailyn proves in this little part (beginning in minute 4:00) that this would truly give a benefit to the music.
SIRENIA also works with male vocals – if also not so good in the clean part – in ‘Elixir’ in which the listener has to wait about four minutes until Ailyn starts singing. ‘Sons of the north’ is a very dark one with deep tunes which could be the soundtrack for a dark movie with giant battles. Bombastic atmosphere.
Typical sound plus some surprises.
The song ‘Insania’ got electronic influences in some parts – which sounds strange when talking about SIRENIA but somehow fits the music and gives it a new aspect. The song in total is very melancholic but powerful. As on the whole album, the sound is pure heavy metal with symphonic influence (of course through the instruments) and choir. Also Morten Veland growls a lot in this one.
‘The silver eye’ is speedy, but with a catchy chorus and blastbeats within the strophes. After this track, SIRENIA come up with the slowest song and only ballad on “The Seventh Life Path” to finish the album: ‘Tragedienne’. Best way to calm down after this powerful piece of symphonic metal. And for some seconds, Ailyn sings unbelievably high tunes which we would not have expected from her after listening to “The 13th Floor”. The album in total is a really impressive piece of music from the north.
Tracklist:
01. Seti
02. Serpent
03. Once my light
04. Elixir
05. Sons of the north
06. Earendel
07. Concealed disdain
08. Contemptuous quitus
09. The silver eye
10. Tragedienne