<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nI never might have heard any of the songs from The 3rd And The Mortal\u2019s debut album live sung by Kari Ruesl\u00e5tten, if she hadn\u2019t somehow gotten into contact with Leaves\u2019 Eyes- and former Theatre of Tragedy-vocalist Liv Kristine and former The Gathering-singer Anneke van Giersbergen a while ago and all three of them had started planning to do something together, which eventually became a project called The Sirens. I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of Theatre of Tragedy, because in addition to Liv\u2019s clean female vocals, they also featured male growling, something I still can\u2019t stand today, whereas I liked The Gathering with Anneke on vocals right from the beginning, thus the release of \u201cMandylion\u201d in 1995, and got the chance to see and hear them live for the first time already about 19 years ago, on December 29th, 1995, to be precise.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been attending the Metal Female Voices Fest nearly each year since 2004, though in the past years mostly as some kind of habit and not because of the bands performing there (with a few exceptions here and there). When this year\u2019s line-up already looked rather bleak for me, The Sirens were one of the last acts to be announced. When I read that they would play also some \u201cold stuff\u201d of their former bands, I thought that this might turn out to be the most interesting act for me and I was not mistaken.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nI\u2019m tempted to say that hearing \u201cDeath-Hymn\u201d with Kari Ruesl\u00e5tten on vocals alone was worth the trip to this festival (in spite of the fact that the live version was about two minutes shorter than the album version) – Kari\u2019s vocals live sounded as clear and beautiful as they did 20 years ago on the album version of this song. The same applies to the other two songs from \u201cTears Laid In Earth\u201d which were played at this festival, namely \u201cAutopo\u00e9ma\u201d (often misspelled – like on the backside of the original album cover – as \u201cAtupo\u00e9ma\u201d) and \u201cWhy So Lonely\u201d, the latter being performed as a duet with Anneke van Giersbergen. For me, these three songs were the absolute highlights of this year\u2019s Metal Female Voices Fest, followed by Anneke\u2019s performance of \u201cStrange Machines\u201d and \u201cIn Motion #1\u201d – the latter as a duet with Kari – from The Gathering\u2019s album \u201cMandylion\u201d.<\/p>\n
The entire The Sirens-concert lasted about 75 minutes and the setlist was therefore somewhat shorter than on the other concerts they played on their mini-tour. (I found e.g. a setlist of their very first concert in Bonn which included 20 songs in total.) In addition to the songs mentioned explicitly above, some old songs by Theatre of Tragedy were performed as well as songs from the solo-albums of Liv, Anneke and Kari and one out of two new songs which were written for this project. People interested in the entire setlist will surely find it somewhere on the net as well as live-clips from this performance as well as the other concerts they played. The singers were accompanied by Anneke\u2019s band.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nI was also lucky to get the chance to say hello to Anneke and Kari during their signing-session (Liv wasn\u2019t there because of a photo-shooting – and maybe also because she was headlining with her own band Leaves\u2019 Eyes later on the same night) – both seem to be very kind and nice persons. Funny side-note: When Kari saw my t-shirt, she wanted to take a picture of me with her mobile-phone (which she did). A new experience for me, because usually I\u2019m the one who wants to take pictures of his favourite singers and not the other way round.<\/p>\n