Oh dear this is a long way from the Sirenia we know and love.

There are two reasons for this - a turn to a more poppy direction in terms of arrangements (I can live with that). The second reason - the awful vocals from Ailyn. I'm surprised that Morten Veland has given her another run out after the last album The 13th Floor (a slightly better album than this). Ailyn is often flat and even when she's in tune sounds really whiny. She has a good pop voice, but no sense of rock or metal dynamics as you hear from singers such as Epica's Simone Simons.

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And then there are the problems of Ailyn's accent creeping into the performance. I'm sure for many fans over the world who aren't necessarily native English speakers it doesn't matter so much, but to hear her constantly singing words like "rise" as "rice" just gets on my nerves. Some none-English bands take the time to solve these issues when recording - Lacuna Coil worked hard on this for the last record - it's a shame Sirenia hasn't.

We've lost the dark almost-80s sounding gothic sound from the earlier records, and that hint of Paradise Lost style doom, we've even got much less vocal action from Veland too. It's a real shame. Sirenia have released some great records, but if you've not bought At Sixes and Sevens then do yourself a favour, get that instead. It's a brilliant piece of work.

Reviewed by Harry Neary

Sirenia's The Enigma of Life is now available from Amazon MP3.