Sirenia Live at The Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA 05/26/2017

Sirenia are a symphonic metal band coming from the northern realms of Norway. Founded by musician extraordinaire Morten Veland in 2001 upon his exodus from Tristania, Sirenia have spent the last sixteen years putting out amazing music that incorporates elements of classical, gothic, death, and power metal.

This was Sirenia's first ever trek into North America, and they were touring with Russian Folk Metal favorites Arkona. I have been a fan of Morten's music since the early days of Tristania and love everything he touches including his incredible solo project Mortemia.

Sirenia's signature sound incorporates melodic female vocals, swelling orchestrations of classical instruments, heavy rhythm guitars, intricate lead guitars, growled male vocals, and lush backing choirs. The combination of all of these elements is infused with the often esoteric and meaningful lyrics that make Sirenia a band of epic proportions.

They opened the set with "Serpent" from "The Seventh Life Path" release. It was a great start to the set providing all of the above qualities in abundance.

Sirenia have had a constantly shifting roster of talented musicians surrounding Morten over the years. For the current incarnation he is joined by Emmanuelle Zoldan as lead vocalist as well as Jan Erik Soltvedt on guitar and Jonathan A. Perez on drums. Morten pretty much handles everything but the female vocals in the studio but both of these guys were impressive live.

Doing another fan favorite right from the start they did "Lost in Life" from "The 13th Floor" album. They followed that up with the title track from their latest release, "Dim Days of Dolor".

While over the years, the band has seen a slight shift into more melodic territory, they have predominantly remained true to their original vision and the latest album does not deviate nor disappoint in that regard; often maintaining huge song structures that travel between bombastic beasts and soothing lullabies all in one track.

Hitting upon another amazing album they played "My Destiny Coming to Pass" from "Perils of the Deep Blue". They have put out eight albums over their career and one EP, all of which I love so I was happy to hear something from any and all of their releases.

They moved back to the latest album for a couple in a row with "Goddess of the Sea" and "Treasure n'Treason". Taking it from the brand new back to the very beginning, they did the powerful "Meridian" from their debut album "At Sixes and Sevens".

Morten used to sing a lot more on the early releases, predominantly focusing on growled extreme male vocals with the female vocals playing more of a support role which began to shift to the current arrangement which is pretty much opposite. I love Morten's vocal delivery and really enjoyed this song live. It makes me appreciate his side project, Mortemia because it allows him to focus more on this side of vocals and I hope he puts out another album of that material soon.

Featuring the new release quite heavily in the set, they did another song from "Dim Days of Dolor" with "Ashes to Ashes" which ranks up there with one of my favorites from this album.

A good share of the songs throughout their career deal with the questions of existence, mortality, the afterlife, and the threads of fate that intertwine all of these. This in essence is the gothic trappings of their music and makes up some of my favorite material. "The End Of It All" from "The Enigma of Life" encompasses this aspect of Sirenia as well as any of their songs and was great to see live.

Morten and company followed that up with another one of my favorites from their entire repertoire with "Sons of the North". A tale of Viking heritage, born in a frigid winter and coming to find and full fill one's destiny.

"Elusive Sun" from the new album came next and continued the plight of illumination in the northern realms where things like daylight and the warmth it brings are not taken for granted.

It was an epic show, already covering six of their eight albums and giving fans a great spread of material with a heavy bias on the latest release. Time was growing long and rather than take a break in the set, they kept going up the end.

Touching upon one of their most popular releases, they gave us two back to back from "Nine Destinies And A Downfall" with the amazingly dark yet beautiful "My Mind's Eye" and a tale of what comes next, "The Other Side".

Morten thanked everyone for coming and said that it has been a dream of his for many years to get to play live in this legendary city where so many of the bands that influenced him got their start. They finished off the set with one last fan-favorite, "The Path To Decay" from "The 13th Floor".

It was an amazing show, the only album they did not touch was their sophomore album "An Elixir for Existence" and its companion EP "Sirenian Shores". I was hoping they would play the latter song but I cannot complain as they did so many of my favorite songs of theirs, there are just too many with that vast of a back catalog and I understand their interest in promoting and playing their latest efforts.

Hopefully they come back in the near future as I have not seen enough of these guys and with it being sixteen years until they made it here, I don't want to wait that long for an encore performance.




					Sirenia Live at The Echoplex Los Angeles, CA May 26th, 2017 Review and photos by Travis Baumann Sirenia are a symphonic metal band coming from the northern realms of Norway. Founded by musician extraordinaire Morten Veland in 2001 upon his exodus from Tristania, Sirenia have spent the last sixteen years putting out amazing music that incorporates elements of classical, gothic, death, and power metal. This was Sirenia's first ever trek into North America, and they were touring with Russian Folk Metal favorites Arkona. I have been a fan of Morten's music since the early days of Tristania and love everything he touches including his incredible solo project Mortemia. Sirenia's signature sound incorporates melodic female vocals, swelling orchestrations of classical instruments, heavy rhythm guitars, intricate lead guitars, growled male vocals, and lush backing choirs. The combination of all of these elements is infused with the often esoteric and meaningful lyrics that make Sirenia a band of epic proportions. They opened the set with "Serpent" from "The Seventh Life Path" release. It was a great start to the set providing all of the above qualities in abundance. Sirenia have had a constantly shifting roster of talented musicians surrounding Morten over the years. For the current incarnation he is joined by Emmanuelle Zoldan as lead vocalist as well as Jan Erik Soltvedt on guitar and Jonathan A. Perez on drums. Morten pretty much handles everything but the female vocals in the studio but both of these guys were impressive live. Doing another fan favorite right from the start they did "Lost in Life" from "The 13th Floor" album. They followed that up with the title track from their latest release, "Dim Days of Dolor". While over the years, the band has seen a slight shift into more melodic territory, they have predominantly remained true to their original vision and the latest album does not deviate nor disappoint in that regard; often maintaining huge song structures that travel between bombastic beasts and soothing lullabies all in one track. Hitting upon another amazing album they played "My Destiny Coming to Pass" from "Perils of the Deep Blue". They have put out eight albums over their career and one EP, all of which I love so I was happy to hear something from any and all of their releases. They moved back to the latest album for a couple in a row with "Goddess of the Sea" and "Treasure n'Treason". Taking it from the brand new back to the very beginning, they did the powerful "Meridian" from their debut album "At Sixes and Sevens". Morten used to sing a lot more on the early releases, predominantly focusing on growled extreme male vocals with the female vocals playing more of a support role which began to shift to the current arrangement which is pretty much opposite. I love Morten's vocal delivery and really enjoyed this song live. It makes me appreciate his side project, Mortemia because it allows him to focus more on this side of vocals and I hope he puts out another album of that material soon. Featuring the new release quite heavily in the set, they did another song from "Dim Days of Dolor" with "Ashes to Ashes" which ranks up there with one of my favorites from this album. A good share of the songs throughout their career deal with the questions of existence, mortality, the afterlife, and the threads of fate that intertwine all of these. This in essence is the gothic trappings of their music and makes up some of my favorite material. "The End Of It All" from "The Enigma of Life" encompasses this aspect of Sirenia as well as any of their songs and was great to see live. Morten and company followed that up with another one of my favorites from their entire repertoire with "Sons of the North". A tale of Viking heritage, born in a frigid winter and coming to find and full fill one's destiny. "Elusive Sun" from the new album came next and continued the plight of illumination in the northern realms where things like daylight and the warmth it brings are not taken for granted. It was an epic show, already covering six of their eight albums and giving fans a great spread of material with a heavy bias on the latest release. Time was growing long and rather than take a break in the set, they kept going up the end. Touching upon one of their most popular releases, they gave us two back to back from "Nine Destinies And A Downfall" with the amazingly dark yet beautiful "My Mind's Eye" and a tale of what comes next, "The Other Side". Morten thanked everyone for coming and said that it has been a dream of his for many years to get to play live in this legendary city where so many of the bands that influenced him got their start. They finished off the set with one last fan-favorite, "The Path To Decay" from "The 13th Floor". It was an amazing show, the only album they did not touch was their sophomore album "An Elixir for Existence" and its companion EP "Sirenian Shores". I was hoping they would play the latter song but I cannot complain as they did so many of my favorite songs of theirs, there are just too many with that vast of a back catalog and I understand their interest in promoting and playing their latest efforts. Hopefully they come back in the near future as I have not seen enough of these guys and with it being sixteen years until they made it here, I don't want to wait that long for an encore performance.








































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