SIRENIA: The Enigma of Life

Produced by Morten Veland

Released: 2011

Sirenia came about when Morten Veland split from Tristania at their creative height, just over a decade ago. He quickly asserted himself with a couple of Gothic metal masterpieces, At Sixes and Sevens and An Elixir for Existence. Since then, he hasn't really lived up to expectations.


The Enigma of Life is Sirenia's fifth album, and the second with vocalist Ailyn but it isn't close to the standard of even The 13th Floor, of which this actually sounds like a half-baked copy. The songwriting is lazy and predictable to the point where every track is virtually indistinguishable from the one before and after. Ailyn's vocal style starts and ends with a sweet, syrupy chirp with no variation whatsoever. Veland adds some lame growls and phoned-in cleans and tries to vary things by chucking in some choir parts he found laying around the studio after Therion had left, but this just makes it worse. The riffs are so soft and so lazy they make Lacuna Coil's look varied and technical and the poppy keyboard tone is just very, very annoying.

This is a staggeringly ordinary album that defines the word "generic". It's boring, uninteresting, uninventive, tepid, hollow and flat, and should be avoided at all costs.

1. The End of it All
2. Fallen Angel
3. All My Dreams
4. This Darkness
5. The Twilight in Your Eyes
6. Winter Land
7. A Seaside Serenade
8. Darkened Days to Come
9. Coming Down
10. This Lonely Lake
11. Fading Star
12. The Enigma of Life

Rating: 25%