Sirenia (band)

Sirenia
Sirenia performing live at Norway Rock Festival in 2009
Background information
Origin	Stavanger, Norway
Genres	Death-doom (early), Gothic metal, Symphonic metal
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Napalm (2002-2005, 2014-present) Nuclear Blast (2005-2014)
Associated acts	Artifact, Tristania, Sinphonia, Trail of Tears
Website	sirenia.no
Members	Morten Veland Jonathan Perez Jan Erik Soltvedt Emmanuelle Zoldan
Past members	Fabienne Gondamin Henriette Bordvik Kristian Gundersen Monika Pedersen Bjørnar Landa Michael S. Krumins Ailyn

Sirenia is a Norwegian gothic metal band from Stavanger, Norway.

The band uses melodic instrumentals, synthesizers, and distorted guitars with female vocals, male death vocals, clean male vocals, a choir and violins. The lyrics are concerned with human existence, emotion, and mental states.

Due to musical disagreements and personal differences Morten Veland departed from Tristania in January 2001.

A few weeks went by when Veland had a new band along with three other members. He had written material for Tristania's next release but because of the split he used it towards Sirenia's debut album At Sixes and Sevens with other new material written for it as well. The band entered the studio by November or December 2001. The band failed to find a suitable singer prior to recording in France, so they hired a session female singer named Fabienne Gondamin.

On the subsequent tour Fabienne Gondamin was replaced by Henriette Bordvik, with whom the band recorded the album An Elixir for Existence and the EP Sirenian Shores.

The band signed with Nuclear Blast Records in May 2005.

In November 2005, Henriette Bordvik left the band, citing personal reasons.

In 2007 they released a third album – Nine Destinies and a Downfall. The album features new singer, Monika Pedersen from Denmark, who joined the band in April 2006, and new guitarist Bjørnar Landa (from Artifact), who joined the band during the recording.

On November 5, 2007, Monika Pedersen quit the band over musical disagreements. Her departure caused Sirenia to pull out of a planned European tour with Therion.

Sirenia began looking for a new singer in November 2007. The process in finding their newest member took about six months. About 500 applied, at the end they wanted to find someone from the EU region for practical reasons. On April 9, 2008, Sirenia announced Spanish X Factor contestant Ailyn as their new female vocalist.