Agh!! I think I’m going to go mad. I thought I’d look around a bit and see what other people’s opinions on this album were before I came barging in with my usual offering of abuse and sanctimony. I was more than ready to put this down as one of my albums of the years before I’d even heard it, and it seems I was not the only one. I have so much faith in Morten Veland, he’s like the Betty Crocker of Gothic Metal. You know, the stamp of quality. You see his name on an album and you automatically know that it’s going to be something special. He’s also a bit of a one-man band. He did most of At Sixes And Sevens by himself and it was a brilliant offering. So I think we were all looking forward to what he was going to come up with next, and we all thought it was going to blow everything else out of the water. However, everything else has stayed very much in the water to the point of saturation.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Morten had been giving us the same stuff for years and years and it was very good indeed. But An Elixir For Existence could be the first step in a downward trajectory. The first slip off the edge, the initial loss of foothold, and if he’s not careful, things could go very badly until that trajectory turns into a merciless nosedive.

At Sixes And Sevens was a marvelous album. Each song had something to say for itself, there were wonderful female vocals and violins, the production was great and the effect on the guitars - that wonderful, full, creamy distortion - was heavenly. But what’s happened now? Well, due to reasons that I haven’t yet found out, Fabienne Gondamin has been replaced by Henriette Bordvik, a timid little rodent of a vocalist whose first bar of vocals on the album – the big entrance, the huge "tada, I’m here!!" - is more of a squeak than a roar. And that’s pretty much how it goes with the female vocals here. But, if I remember correctly, the vocals on ASAS were hardly the sort that made you feel like you were flying through a wind tunnel. For some reason, Morten seems to like picking these vocalists who aren’t so much the icing on the cake or the rich gooey filling, but more the cocoa dusting or the doily underneath it. Especially this time round, because little Henriette the mouse-creature doesn’t get much of a look-in on this album, in fact, there’s quite a lot more male vocals than on previous efforts.

However, I don’t want to seem too deterring here. It’s really not that bad. I think the first problem I had with this album was the fact that all the songs seemed a little too similar, but ain’t that always the way. However, after listening to them for weeks and almost living off this album like it was my basic diet, they still sound pretty similar. There are some great parts, though. Lithium And A Lover is a fantastic opener with a great riff and it’s an uplifting start to the album. Voices Within is pretty fantastic too, with Morten utilising Henriette’s soft vocals in the quieter parts to the best of his ability, while Star-Crossed builds up into a wonderful climax in the time-honored way. Save Me From Myself is a nice slow, if token, ballad, which made me realize that one of the things that made ASAS such a great work for me was the use of the violin, and though there is some of that in this song, there’s less than I’d like on this album as a whole. However, there is plenty of choral work, though it seems to have been pasted into the background rather that beautifully woven into the song structure like on previous Tristania albums.

One way or another, I get the impression that An Elixir For Existence is rather a rushed piece of work. It feels like Morten’s way of throwing husks to a greedy and undiscerning Gothic metal public - a desperate toothy boar that will snaffle up anything as long as it’s thrown by the right hand. Still, this is not an album to be sniffed at too much. If you loved Tristania and Sirenia’s previous offerings, you won’t be disappointed with this. Give it some time and parts will start to shine out at you, whereas at first glance they might have seemed rather dull. I think the main problem is that before this we were all thinking that Morten would excel himself with each step he took. Unfortunately, he’s proved that he is human after all and that he doesn’t always have the Midas touch.