Sirenia - The 13th Floor (2009)
©Nuclear Blast
Norway

Tracklist:

  1. The Path to Decay (4:19)
  2. Lost in Life (3:14)
  3. The Mind Maelstrom (4:50)
  4. The Seventh Summer (5:24)
  5. Beyond Life's Scenery (4:35)
  6. The Lucid Door (4:51)
  7. Led Astray (4:37)
  8. Winterborn 77 (5:36)
  9. Sirens of the Seven Seas (5:12)

Oh, man.

I don't even know where to begin on how bad Sirenia has fucked up. Remember "At Sixes & Sevens?" Now that's what you call an archetype of pure Gothic Metal. The melodic guitar leads, haunting choirs providing the essence of enchanted melody in each song, and Morten Veland's deep, yet completely understandable growls giving the songs a very serious and heavy feeling, and most importantly, artistic and innovative song structure. I have nothing but great memories of listening to that album, along with it's 2004 counterpart "An Elixir for Existence" which was not as brilliant, but still impressive nonetheless.Then came Sirenia's third studio album "Nine Destinies and a Downfall" in 2007 and holy shit did it ever suck donkey balls. Granted, this album is miles ahead of "Nine Destinies..." in terms of song writing, lyrics, melody, etc... But that doesn't mean it's any good. Sure if you're a fan of (new) Within Temptation, (new) Nightwish and Evanescence, then you're going to absolutely adore without question, every part of this album.

I, on the other hand, am not a fucking emo, so I DON'T like (new) Within Temptation (new) Nightwish, or any Evanescence. Therefore, Sirenia; at the moment, is trash. Let's dissect the elements found on "The 13th Floor":

Generic power chords: lame.
Pop-inspired female vocals: - lame.
Background choir: - awesome.
Boring, common synths: - lame.
Morten Veland's growls: - lame/awesome. (Half-half for the severe lack thereof.)
Repetitious song structure: lame.
Short track lengths compared to earlier efforts: lame.

Well. There you have it, laid out quite simply for you to behold. What we have here is a stale pop-friendly Gothic Hard Rock album. I wouldn't even constitute this as Metal. I can definitely tell Morten and co. have tried to make this album more Sirenia-like after receiving negative criticism from "Nine Destinies...", but I'm afraid the inclusion of more choir vocals just doesn't serve the justice. "The 13th Floor" is lacking of everything that made Sirenia so critically acclaimed in their earlier years. Poor effort.

-Jeremy

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