Customer Reviews

Nine Destinies & a Downfall

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love gothic metal. It is the only type of metal music I will listen to. Unfortunately a lot of gothic metal music nowadays is rather generic sounding and sounds awfully like Leaves' Eyes or Nightwish. This is not the case with Sirenia. A friend recently gave me a copy of "Nine Destinies and a Downfall". This is my first Sirenia cd so I can't compare this album with past Sirenia albums. As a new listener to Sirenia's music, I immediately fell in love with this album. The album is chockful of radio friendly gothic metal tracks. The songs are extremely accessible. I immediately fell in love with the album the moment I heard "Last Call". I knew I was in for a treat. I especially love "My Mind's Eye". I find myself playing this song over and over again because of the infectious pop hooks that permeates through the entire song. One of the things that stood out for me about this album is Monika Pedersen's clean vocals. Her vocals has a hint of Liv Kristine influence but they are very subtle. The musicianship is tight and solid. There was not one single song on this album I did not like. As a new fan I am curious to check out the band's earlier albums. I am well aware that their other albums with their former vocalist is not as clean and polished as "Nine Destinies and a Downfall". I understand why some longtime fans are not happy with this album. I could say the same about some of my favorite bands.

Sirenia is the only band who has never produced a song I didn't like--until now. I bought this new release expecting to love it all, with one or two epics like Euphoria, Sister Nightfall, or Lithium and a Lover. What did I get instead?--46 minutes of pop radio. Gone is the violin, and rare is Morten's voice. We get a bunch of Monika (who has a solid voice, but every song sounded the same). Please, Morten, tell us this is an early April fool's joke and that the real release is coming out April 2.

"Nine Destinies and a Downfall" is the third full-length album by Sirenia, the gothic metal band founded by Morten Veland in 2001 after his stint with Tristiana. It differs substantially from their earlier work, featuring female-fronted vocals almost exclusively. This is in sharp contrast to the male death grunts that dominated Sirenia's first two albums.

Because of this stylistic difference, "Nine Destinies and a Downfall" didn't appeal to many fans of Sirenia's previous work. However, fans of other female-fronted metal bands (such as Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Eyes of Eden, and Nightwish) enjoyed the album quite a bit.

From a technical standpoint, "Nine Destinies and a Downfall" is very solid, featuring a blistering (yet melodic) gothic metal mix anchored by top-notch guitar work. Monika Pedersen's voice is strong and fits in well. The lyrics are dark and gloomy, as befits a gothic metal album.

The top track on this album are "Absent Without Leave", "One By One", "Seven Keys And Nine Doors", "The Last Call", and "The Other Side". The others are worth a spin as well. Five stars. Highly recommended to the fan of female-fronted metal.

As a huge fan of Tristania, and inumerable other gothic metal bands, I must admit that I bought this album with high expectations. Admitedly, it is very good by most standards, but is also far more *shudder* 'pop-friendly' than will generally be apreciated by the average metal-head.

Therefore, for those seeking something heavier, I certainly recommend some of Sirenia's earlier works, as well as those of Tristania- masterpeices all.

But you should by no means overlook 'Nine Destinies and a Downfall', as it's still a very good record compared to most of the dribble out there these days.

My understanding is that to most Sirenia fans, this isn't their best album. I've had a listen to some tracks from their other albums, and I also own The 13th Floor. I am not a fan of growls and harsh vocals in symphonic metal so an album like Nine Destinies and a Downfall is something that I personally prefer. I can only really compare this album to The 13th Floor as I haven't heard everything by Sirenia... I know that for each of their 4 albums Sirenia has 4 different singers, and I have heard some criticisms of Monika Pedersen's voice, but I really like her. It's quite different from most of the female fronted metal bands that I listen to... she's definitely not a soprano singer, but I still think she has some great talent.

If you're considering purchasing this album, really think about the type of music you like... if you're a fan of the growls and harsh vocals (of bands like Tristania, Epica and Leaves' Eyes)or if you're a Sirenia fan of earlier albums, then you probably shouldn't buy this album.

If you have never bought a Sirenia album before, then I would recommend this one...

I think that if this is your first Sirenia album then you're lucky because you can appreciate the great music of this album without thinking "OMG! It's nothing like their other work, ewwwww!" Then you can decide for yourself... Do you like harsh vocals? If so, buy their earlier albums.

I think the problem is that people generally like the first thing that they hear or see. For example, similar to my Sirenia purchasing, I bought my first Within Temptation album; The Heart of Everything.... apparently a lot of Within Temptation fans dislike this album as it is too "poppy" and tries to appeal to a greater audience like the U.S. Perhaps Sirenia is trying to do the same? If you look at their latest album The 13th Floor, I would describe it as pretty "poppy"... which is what I dislike... as well as Ailyn's voice too...

I absolutely prefer Nine Destinies and a Downfall to The 13th Floor...

In a way Nine Destinies and a Downfall is an epic album... by "epic" I mean, though each song has its own story, the music is quite similar and flows well like an extended poem.

Okay, so I think I should talk about the album a bit more... I must give credit to Morten Veland as the lyrics are amazing! And to the choir... they are great =)

Female vocals and the choir appear on all tracks... Next to each song below, I have listed where there are other vocals appearing.

1."The Last Call" - 4:45 - I absolutely love this song. It is a strong opener to the album.

2."My Mind's Eye" - 3:38 - I am completely adore this song. Very catchy; "poppy". You will listen to this song over and over.

3."One By One" - 5:30 - Another great song... The Sirenia choir is quite soothing in contrast to the heavy guitar riffs.

4."Sundown" - 5:04 - I noticed in one of the reviews of this song there was mention of Monika's voice "straining" on some of the lyrics. Personally I do not think that it is her voice straining, but rather intentional. It's not like it was a high note to reach or anything. I was however disappointed with the harsh male vocals (Morten)... I always find that they (any harsh male vocals) ruin a female's vocals... I know that some people like the contrast in vocals... I much prefer a band to leave it only to the constrast between the metal music and the celestial female vocals... maybe even adding clean male vocals like Marco Hietala from Nightwish. So despite the disappointing chorus which is just harsh male vocals, the verses are really beautiful, accompanied with amazing music, and the choir again appear.

5."Absent Without Leave" - 4:53 - Clean male vocals on this track (they're alright... I'm not a big fan of them). This song is okay... not great, but okay.

6."The Other Side" - 3:55 - Very catchy song... as another review stated, this is a radio-friendly song; "poppy".

7."Seven Keys And Nine Doors" - 4:55 - Harsh male vocals and clean male vocals on this track. It's a great song and I really enjoyed the start, with the choir... the clean male vocals are okay... there's a bit of harsh vocals, not too much... which is good.

8."Downfall" - 4:44 - Harsh male vocals on this track. Amazing start to the song with the violins... and the recurring violins. I really love this song and was again disappointed with the harsh male vocals... I thought they just ruined the song. The choir, again, are excellent... BUT the following harsh male vocals... I could have cried... the song was so beautiful until that point. The lyrics are great though, in my opinion, not as good as some of the earlier songs on this album. However, this song is good enough to be a single... and probably should have been released as one.

9."Glades Of Summer" - 5:37 - A nice soothing song to follow Downfall. A good end to the album.

Bonus Track on the enhanced-CD version:

"My Mind's Eye (Radio Edit)" - 3:17

Is this different than most Gothic symphonic or industrial metal you have heard? Yes it is but but with hauntingly catchy melodies and some great dark lyrics this album breaks new ground. Definitely not a typical Nighwish or TOT clone. The music sucks you in then elevates you the metal heights you would expect. Give this album half a chance and you will enjoy the change from the same old same old.

I wasn't impressed. The lead singer's voice is not as rich as I expected, and I read somewhere that this band considered themselves to be "symphonic" metal, and even went so far as to invite comparisons with Dimmu Borgir. Yet I heard very few strings or winds, and I heard none of the bombast associated with Dimmu's latest offerings (Death Cult Armageddon & In Sorte Diaboli).

The songs are amateurish with bland, predictable melodies that lack energy and lyrical content that sounds like it came directly out of my buddy's goth sister's diary.

In short, mopey 14-year-old self-mutilators who just lost their "one true love" will eat this up. The rest of us have better things to do.

In reading some other reviews on Sirenia's "Nine Destinies and a Downfall", I'm a little mystified. This is an *excellent* album, with the vocals of Monika Pedersen being the highlight of the album. She has a strong and clear voice, and the dark and melodic gothic metal mix put together by the rest of the band works well with it.

Perhaps "Nine Destinies and a Downfall" represented too large a shift for fans of Sirenia's earlier works. Specificially, the shift away from a vocal mix of female singing and male death growls to almost pure Monika Pedersen. Since I dislike male voices in my symphonic/gothic metal, I consider it a marked improvement.

The top two tracks are "The Last Call" and "The Other Side", but almost all of them are quite good. Only "Glades of Summer" did I find a little too mellow.

Those of you who prefer female-fronted rock will like this album. Those of you looking for death growls... Well, you'll have to look somewhere else.

Sure this album is more radio-friendly than their previous releases, but that doesn't mean it's simpleton pop trash. Most of the songs seem to have the same arrangement formula (soft verses, heavy chorus, choir section after 2nd chorus, etc.), but damn it, the melodies and music are catchy. I can't get these songs out of my head. These guys are amazing composers making great music, and that's what's important.

I actually don't like the other albums too much. This one does it for me though. Almost every single song is good. Which never happens to me anymore. You never know till you try, and music is like trying to tell someone what food they will like, it's really hard to do. Why am I even leaving this review?? I just like the way this tastes.