Album Review: Sirenia - Arcane Astral Aeons

Here's an uncomfortable truth about symphonic metal; while much of it is gorgeous to listen to, the massive amounts of ornate instrumentation obscures the songs enough that little of it makes much an impact with me. I can count on one hand the number of times symphonic music has truly resonated and lasted with me, because many of the composers of it rely on those burnished details, and don't focus enough on the core of the songs. It's an easy mistake to make, but it's one that has plagued an entire genre, because the proginators established the problem so early on. Much of the classic rock revivial suffers from a similar problem, if you want to know. I'm not singling symphonic music out for any reason.

Sirenia is one of those bands that bubbles under the surface, not quite cracking through the way that Nightwish or Delain has. They are in the second tier, and perhaps for that reason is a band I haven't spent much time with. I did review their previous alliterative album ("Dark Days Of Dolor"), and I came away from it with the impression that they had the talent to make beautiful music, but didn't often enough hit on the melodies and songwriting that would let them live up to their potential.

I feel the same way about this new record. Emmanuelle Zoldan has the necessary voice, and the band is a tight unit that plays the music with the polish and precision necessary to be top-notch modern metal. In terms of execution, there's nothing to complain about. Listening to the first single, "Love Like Cyanide", they hit all the right marks. The music is engaging, has depth, and the main hook is as strong as anything on the record. You can even hear bits of black metal come through the guitars, which is an interesting twist on the usual formula. Connecting the dots between Emperor and Nightwish isn't as hard as you might think, so even though it is only the smallest of influences here, it gives us something unique to sink our teeth into.

Sirenia reminds me of Amaranthe, in a way. No, they don't sound much alike, but the approach is similar. They both take modern heavy metal, and add an outside influence to the mechanical chug to give their music some color. Amaranthe uses electronic pop music, while Sirenia has symphonic elements. The difference between them is that Amaranthe has their outside influences as a minor detail, with the emphasis placed on the relentless pop melodies they write. Sirenia, on the other hand, puts more emphasis on the music, as their melodies are softer, subtler, and not as sticky.

In the end, that's the thing that continues to hold me back from Sirenia. Like the previous album, "Arcane Astral Aeons" has some beautiful music, and plenty of heavy crunch, but the vocal melodies don't give me either the sugar rush or the killer sharpness that I expect from power metal. They've made a good record, but one that still doesn't live up to what I know they could do. I can hear they have something great in them, but it has to be unlocked. This is another solid album, but I'm waiting for their armor to shine. We aren't quite there yet.