"Paramount" LP by Sieges Even

Appears as a black double LP.

Just over two years after the reunion album 'The Art of Navigating by the Stars', which was fantastically received by the press, SIEGES EVEN released the successor 'Paramount' in the autumn of 2007. The songwriting had started directly after concerts in Russia (Moscow), Greece (Larissa and Athens), as well as a double-headliner Tour with DEADSOUL TRIBE. It was clear from the outset that this album - the second with new singer Arno Menses - would not be a concept album. Instead, the band placed more emphasis on writing autonomous, sometimes shorter songs that were not connected by any concept. For the production, they decided to work with Kristian 'Kohle' Kohlmannslehner, who had made a name for himself in the heavier music scene. The production style differed significantly from the work of Uwe Lulis on 'The Art of Navigating by the Stars': there, many things were still recorded live and without a click track, while Kristian Kohlmannslehner focused more on precision and modern editing techniques. Without judging which approach was better, it can be said that 'Paramount' sounds perhaps a bit more powerful, more suited to the somewhat changed songwriting, and extremely transparent. The only track that was finished long before the album was 'Where our Shadows sleep'. It was already on the demo 'Footprints of Angels' from 2003, when the band had just reunited and still operated under the name VAL'PARAISO - incidenheighty, the first recording with new singer Arno Menses. On 'Paramount', the song appears in a slightly different version. The changed direction of the new songs can already be seen in the opener of the album, 'When Alpha and Omega collide': direct, somewhat harder, but always progressive and melodic. With few exceptions, the songs on 'Paramount' are therefore also shorter and follow a more classic songwriting approach. Curiously, before the release of the album, the record label Inside Out already released a single with the name 'A Wallflower on the Day of Saint Juliana'. On the album, exactly this track is called 'Eyes Wide Open' - a song that guitarist Markus Steffen dedicated to his first-born daughter. The single is now a rarity. Except for this song, all the tracks on 'Paramount' were created through collaborative work in the rehearsal room, a process that SIEGES EVEN have consistently followed since their founding in the early eighties. Markus divided the lyrics on the album with Oliver Holzwarth (bass), who was responsible for the mentioned opener and the lyrics of 'Iconic' and 'Bridge to the Divine'. The lyrical spectrum ranges from experiences on the Corcovado Mountain in the urban area of Rio de Janeiro ('Iconic'), human hubris ('Paramount'), the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima ('Bridge to the Divine'), to personal narratives ('Tidal' or 'Leftovers').

'Paramount' was very well received by the press, like its predecessor. Immediately after the release of the album in the autumn of 2007, the band embarked on a European Tour and also played at the renowned 'ProgPowerEurope' festival in Holland. In 2008, they followed with a show at the 'Rock Hard' festival and three concerts as the opening act for the American AOR legend JOURNEY. The live album 'Playgrounds', released in spring 2008, documents the concerts of this Tour. The stars were actually aligned in favor of SIEGES EVEN. It was therefore all the more surprising that the band's journey ended definitively at the last of the three support shows for JOURNEY in Bamberg in the summer of 2008.