SIRENIA: 'In Styx Embrace' Lyric Video

The official lyric video for "In Styx Embrace" from Nordic epic metal masters SIRENIA can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's latest album, "Arcane Astral Aeons", which was released on October 26 via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2016's "Dim Days Of Dolor" marks the band's second LP to feature French vocalist Emmanuelle Zoldan, who replaced Spanish singer Ailyn Giménez García two years ago.

"Arcane Astral Aeons" track listing:

01. In Styx Embrace
02. Into THE Night
03. Love Like Cyanide
04. Desire
05. Asphyxia
06. Queen OF Lies
07. Nos Heures Sombres
08. The Voyage
09. Aerodyne
10. The Twilight Hour
11. Glowing Embers
12. Love Like Cyanide (edit; bonus track)

SIRENIA leader Morten Veland stated about "Arcane Astral Aeons": "The album was recorded in Audio Avenue Studios (Norway) and Sound Suite Studios (France),while the mixing and mastering took place in Hansen Studios (Denmark) with mixing engineer Jacob Hansen.

"This album is something unique to us as it is the first one we have made together with our fans; everyone who have supported our pledge campaign has directly contributed to the funding of the album and to make it what it has turned out to be.

"We are very proud of what we have achieved together and we're very eager to share it with you, hoping that you all will find it as special as we do."

Prior to the recording of "Dim Days Of Dolor", SIRENIA collaborated with Zoldan on choir vocals on all its albums except its 2002 debut, "At Sixes And Sevens". She also did some lead vocals on SIRENIA's cover version of Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan" on the 2004 EP "Sirenian Shores".

Veland told Overdrive about Zoldan: "[In] 2003, she was in the studio to record as part of the choir, and we recorded also a cover version of 'First We Take Manhattan' by Leonard Cohen. Emmanuelle sang lead vocals on it. It's been 15 years now and we've become really good friends over the years. Two years back, when we needed a new singer for the band, it came very natural for us to ask Emmanuelle. It was a very smooth transition — not like getting somebody new into the band or something like that. We've known her and worked with her for so long, it felt really really natural having her as part of the band."

Regarding his songwriting process, Veland said: "I always do the compositions first, then the lyrics. I found that, for me, it works best. When I start writing the lyrics, all compositions are more or less finished. I like to reflect the feelings and emotions already there in the compositions musically. It's one of those things that is getting more and more challenging with every album. At this point, I've written so many songs that it takes a lot of creative thinking to stay inspired. Most of the time, I write more indirect lyrics, use a lot of metaphors to make people think and write lyrics that are really open to interpretation.Those are the kind of lyrics I always really liked — indirect stuff that you have to give it a lot of thought try to figure out what it's all about. I love that people can get very different meanings out of it."

Photo credit: Béranger Bazin