''The 13th Floor'' is the fourth studio album by the Norwegian

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...

band ''

Sirenia The Sirenia (), commonly referred to as sea-cows or sirenians, are an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The Sirenia currently comprise two distinct f ...

'' and their first with the Spanish vocalist

Ailyn Pilar María Del Carmen Mónica Giménez García (born 29 May 1982), known professionally as Ailyn Giménez or simply Ailyn, is a Spanish singer. She is the current vocalist of Her Chariot Awaits and the former vocalist of the Norwegian symph ...

. It was released on 23 January 2009, through

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

. The album features guest appearances by Jan Kenneth Barkved (who had also made some guest appearances on their album '' At Sixes and Sevens''), and the French violin player, Stephanie Valentin, who adds to the sound along with the choir that has been a part of their sound since the beginning. The album was released in three formats: CD, CD-Digi and box set. The box set edition was restricted to 500 copies worldwide. The download-only single, ''"The Path to Decay"'', was released on 26 December 2008.

Track listing

*All songs written by

Morten Veland Morten Veland (born 4 December 1977) is a Norwegian musician. He is one of the founding members of the gothic metal band Tristania and the founding member of Sirenia and Mortemia. Background At the age of 14, Veland began saving to buy his ...

. * ''The multimedia part includes photo gallery, wallpapers and screensavers. "The Path to Decay" was released as a promotional single and also has a video.

Personnel

Sirenia

–

female vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

(on all tracks) *

– clean male vocals (on track #4),

harsh vocals A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...

(on all tracks except #2 & #7), all other instruments

Additional musicians

*Jan Kenneth Barkved – clean male vocals (on track #9) *Stephanie Valentin –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

(on tracks #3, #7, #8 & #9) *Damien Surian, Mathieu Landry,

Emmanuelle Zoldan Emmanuelle Zoldan (born 18 June 1977) is a French opera singer, best known for her work as a session musician in heavy metal bands as Sirenia, Trail of Tears and Turisas, among others. She is currently the vocalist of Sirenia. Career Zoldan ...

, Sandrine Gouttebe, Emilie Lesbros –

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

(on all tracks)

Production

*Arranged, produced and engineered by Morten Veland *Additional recording at Sound Suite Studios by Terje Refsnes *Mixed by Morten Veland and Tue Madsen *Mastered by

Tue Madsen Tue Madsen (born 1969) is a Danish music producer and sound engineer, who is well known in metal genre for his work with bands like Meshuggah, Dark Tranquillity, Suicide Silence, Hatesphere, The Haunted, Mnemic, Ektomorf, Cataract, Exmortem ...

*Artwork by Jan Yrlund

Charts

References

External links

The 13th Floor
on The Metal Archives
The 13th Floor
at discogs.com {{DEFAULTSORT:13th Floor, The 2009 albums Nuclear Blast albums Sirenia (band) albums