The case of this Norwegian band has led me to a rather strange kind of thinking. Sirenia is a band with a constant course in album releases; its back catalogue is quite respectable, its name is instantly recognizable and yet it still hasn’t made the necessary step forward in order to evolve even further. I am not quite sure why this happens but again –with this 8th studio album- Sirenia delivers a pretty good album that unfortunately won’t make the significant change.
The new singer Emmanouelle Zoldan seems to be skillful and with great potentials; from my perspective she’s the ideal replacement of Ailyn. Having said all that, “Dim Days of Dolor” is well-crafted from a compositional and overall arrangement standpoint yet something is clearly missing here. Don’t get me wrong; there are good songs on the album like “Treasure n’ Treason”, “Ashes To Ashes”, “Fifth Column”. On the other hand, I didn’t track down any unique idea, something that will make me say that this is an identifiable Sirenia song. After all, this is a rather contrived genre and every band should be careful on its steps. Maybe the fact that Sirenia has suffered from numerous line up changes has a lot to do with the overall “just OK” level of its music.
“Dim Days of Dolor” is a good album with an impressive cover sleeve but again it won’t make any substantial difference compared to the band’s previous offerings.
