Swedish band Siren have honed an engaging progressive metal sound that they describe as “melodic, atmospheric and powerful.” The band perfectly combines encapsulating vocals with crushing riffs and dreamy harmonies and melodic sections.
The quartet of lead singer Lukas Hansson-Stéen, drummer Knut Asplund, guitarist Felix Urbano and keyboardist Alex hail from different parts of Sweden but are all moving to Stockholm this autumn to focus fully on the band. Knut and Felix have played in various bands together in the past, the sound started to come together when they met Lukas and they soon discovered Alex as he went to the same music school as Lukas.
And Alex tells us: “We have a great deal of musical education behind us and each band member has played at a pretty high level since we were kids. We try to create diverse music by using our different musical backgrounds and taking inspiration from a wide variety of genres.
“A lot of our music is based around bringing more melodic interest to a genre that’s generally more focused on rhythm and timbre. With all our members having experience in a variety of genres it brings a lot of interesting opportunities for breaking the norms. The chorus to Is This It, and the outro to Parallax are great examples of this.”
Our first taste of the Siren sound was latest single Is This It, which was released in June. It opens up with a high-pitched stabbing riff over heavy drums, which drops into plodding guitars supporting laid-back vocals. The vocals intensify and lead into an engaging chorus that ends on the line “You are teaching them how to fall by killing them all.”
A dreamy instrumental section follows, which flows into another mellow verse supported by slightly more menacing guitars and high-pitched synths. A sudden key change sees a meandering little guitar lick drop into floaty high-pitched vocals and guitars that bring the song to an end.
On the track, Alex said: “All the feedback we’ve gotten has been very positive and even though our marketing campaign wasn’t as good this time as our previous releases, it’s nice to see people sticking around and enjoying our music.
“If you haven’t listened to Is This It yet you should expect heavy, crushing riffs as well as emotional, dreamy melodies and synths that carry the song forward and give it the iconic Siren sound. This song will definitely take you on an epic journey!”
The track comes from the band’s debut EP, which will be released this summer and on which Alex adds: “The EP will feature extended versions of some of the songs we’ve already released and also some new music of which we consider some of our best to date. The EP will take you on an epic ride in a massive blend of hard-hitting riffs, complex rhythms and large, ambient harmonies to accompany the eccentric yet delicate lead vocals.”
To get a better taste for Siren’s music, check out previous singles Void and Parallax. Their debut track Void starts out with punishing low riffs and a laid-back lick before mellow vocals then low-tuned guitars and a flickering lick support Lukas’ engaging vocals. That continues into a slightly more sinister section before more relaxing vocals that develop into high-pitched vocals. A cool synth solo comes in over backing vocals before the song comes to a heavy conclusion. And you can check out the epic and slightly wilder Parallax, which features one of the funkiest guitar solos you’re likely to hear, here:
The Siren sound is heavily influenced by the likes of Meshuggah, Hällas, Leprous and Gojira, but probably their biggest musical inspiration is Danish/Swedish band Vola. Individually, Knut is big into Thomas Haake from Meshuggah, Lukas is most inspired by Tommy Alexandersson from Hällas, Felix by Nolly from Periphery and Alex shouts out Matt Bellamy from Muse.
And on what inspires them to write music, Alex explains: “Lukas draws a lot of inspiration from Hällas and VOLA when writing our lyrics. Generally it’s centered around describing uncomfortable feelings, such as feeling depressed, angry or sad.
As for the rhythm sections, the riffs and synthlines for example, they often revolve around a certain feeling stuck in your head and finding a way to describe that without words. This often leads to quite interesting juxtapositions between the riffs and the lyrics, such as the verse in Is This It where the chords carry a much more lighthearted vibe than the lyrics.”
It’s been a while since we covered any Swedish bands, but on their local scene Alex said: “Sweden has had a big impact on the global metal scene, but there’s still a big scene for metal locally, even though most of the success of Swedish bands seems to be international. Metal is absolutely a popular genre here in the Nordics, and there are a lot of opportunities for new metal bands to grow and thrive. A lot of cities have specific venues for new and upcoming acts that make it a lot easier to reach out to potential listeners, and that is absolutely a blessing for us musicians in general.
“This also feels like the case internationally. There are a lot of metal acts from Sweden that have reached success internationally and we hope that we can attract some of that success as well.”
Siren’s debut EP will be out later this year and they’re already in the process of recording and writing more new music. The band has several gigs upcoming in Sweden, with a view to getting a few bookings in the UK.
And Alex adds: “We have a lot more in store for the world to see, and we are very excited about it. Our Instagram is the first place to find out about new releases, gigs, behind-the-scenes stuff and whatever goofy thing we decide to upload at any given day. Hope to see you there!”
You can follow Siren on Instagram and TikTok and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.
Listen to Siren on our Spotify playlists
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