Track Listing

1. Lithium And A Lover
2. Voices Within
3. A Mental Symphony
4. Euphoria
5. In My Darkest Hours
6. Save Me From Myself
7. The Fall Within
8. Star-Crossed
9. Seven Sirens And A Silver Tear

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43637 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Album Description
Former Tristania mastermind, Morten Veland returns with another ingenious album while bringing a fresh sound into the rock and gothic scene. The epic songs and symphonic arrangements on An Elixir for Existence surpasses the high standard set with his striking debut At Sixes and Sevens. Terje Refnes’ elegant Sound Suite production provides charm throughout without taking away from its heaviness.

Customer Reviews

What A Rush!
Sirenia's debut album At Sixes And Sevens basically left no room for improvement. To Sirenia's credit they have made a few minor changes but kept the quality extremely high for this, thier second release. What you have hear is extremely rich Gothic metal with a mix of growl, clean, female and gothic choir vocals. Both of Sirenia's releases just reek of class which is not easy to do when you heavily utilize growl vocals.

For me the highlight for Sirenia is again the first track of the album. Lithium And A Lover is a driving number that really convices with it's outstanding lyrics and passionate vocal delivery. Comparing to At Sixes And Seven's lead track "Meridian" this one is a bit more straight forward and the same could be said for the whole album.

I did not want to give a full 5 stars because I feel this album is not quite as strong as the debut and not quite as spellbinding regarding the atmosphere and female vocals. Nonetheless, 4 and a half stars would not be a stretch at all.

Sirenia is a one of a kind band IMO and both releases are manditory of you have any use at all for Gothic style metal. So, so classy.

Lush beauty can be found almost anywhere...
First, let me say that I am rather new in realising consciously my Antiquity-Goth tendencies and habits, therefore also basically new to delving into this genre of music, sifting through it all to see what types click with me. I'll also say that I'm definately NOT a fan of death growls and excessive heaviness - it doesn't do anything for me. When I listen to music, I want to FEEL. If it can make me feel deeply by touching my soul and laying it bare, then it's got my seal of approval. The songs off of this album that do just that are:

Save Me From Myself ***** [5 stars]
Seven Sirens & A Silver Tear ***** [5 stars]
Star-Crossed **** [4 stars]

[x] SAVE ME FROM MYSELF [x] The highlight of the entire album, in my opinion. Each time I listen to this, it never fails to caress my heart with a velvety touch and make it bleed. A haunting choir of wispy voices, heartbeat drums and the melancholic strains of a violin accompany a fallen angel as she sings...

--

Save me now
Before my world falls
Save me now from myself
Before the dawn

Save me now
I'm at the Reaper's door
Can't you see?
You hold the key
To set my mind free...

--

The violin interludes on this just makes your soul lose itself within the bittersweet beauty of it all. So simple yet so poignant.

[x] Seven Sirens & A Silver Tear [x] An instrumental done with piano and a few soft haunting voices. It starts very slowly with piano and then builds up pace near the end with voices and stronger instrumentation until finally... the whirlwind ends and the soft tone of piano we heard in the beginning lulls the song to sleep. Very beautiful piece that successfully imbues a sense of a calm ocean turning turbulent with storm before drifting back to peace and the sirens all on a high sea rock together. With a bit of imagination, a story can unfold.

[x] Star-Crossed [x] The reason I gave this only 4 stars instead of 5 is because it has a lot of death growling and raspy male voice reciting the lyrics (which I personally think would have been better done by a non-raspy female voice). The melody itself is absolutely gorgeous, especially at the very beginning of the song where it brings across the meaning of 'star-crossed' lovers exquisitely. I listen to this song solely for that lovely melody.

Buy the album or download these songs at http://www.mp3search.ru but, either way, find a means of listening to them.

Morten Veland is back!
Sirenia's debut "At Sixes and Sevens" was a great album, but for all its high points, it failed to explore anything near its full potential. First of all, almost every song was built off of the same riff, the same synth sequence, and the same vocal structure, so it tended to feel like one very long song. But seeing as he was kicked out of his old band Tristania only a year and a half before the album's release, I can imagine that he was more eager to just get something out and prove he was still around. But with "An Elixir for Existence," he's back to kick the dust off of his shoes and show his former bandmates that they can stab him in the back all they want, but it'll be little more than a slap in the face for him.

One downside is the new female vocalist, Henriette Bordvik. She's certainly not bad, but her vocals seem to be a little empty, unlike the previous singer Fabienne, who had a more ethereal and emotional, seductive "Sirenian" voice. Also, J.K. Barkved is absent and the clean male vocals are left entirely to Kristian Gundersen, who has more of an 80's rocker voice than a metal one. He only appears in three songs, and sounds like he has a cold. Veland doesn't dominate many songs vocally; it's usually an even split between him, Henriette, and the choir, which now boasts a third female voice. The only other musician on this album is Anne Verdot, the violinist, as Morten plays or programs everything else. And he's good. The instrumental closer proves that he's not only a killer vocalist and guitarist, but he can handle the keyboards with just as much (and I almost dare say more) skill as his former colleague Einar Moen. Standout songs? In my opinion, all but "The Fall Within," which sounds like a leftover from ASAS, deserve 5+/5 stars. So, if you like old Tristania and you liked Sirenia's previous effort, you will love this Elixir for the mindless mediocrity that plagues the music industry as of late.