Sirenia

Morten Veland, the vocalist and guitarist who had steered Norway's Tristania to the forefront of goth metal, concluded that this success was insufficient. In 2000 he withdrew on his own initiative and launched Sirenia, a freshly formed group whose sound remained close to his previous work. Resuming that stylistic direction, he recruited Kristian Gundersen for clean vocals and guitar, Hans Henrik Varland on keyboards, and French singer Fabienne Gondamin to record the debut album At Sixes and Sevens, issued the following year. Veland and Gundersen later assembled a steadier lineup with vocalist Henriette Bordvik and drummer Jonathan Perez, which produced the 2003 follow-up An Elixir for Existence. The EP Sirenian Shores appeared in 2005, succeeded by the full-length Nine Destinies and a Downfall in 2007.