"Paramount" CD by Sieges Even

About two years after the reunion album 'The Art of Navigating by the Stars', which was received fantastically by the press, SIEGES EVEN released the successor 'Paramount' in the autumn of 2007. The songwriting began directly after concerts in Russia (Moscow), Greece (Larissa and Athens), and a double-headliner Tour with DEADSOUL TRIBE. It was clear from the beginning that this album - the second with the new singer Arno Menses - would not be a concept album. Rather, the band placed more emphasis on writing autonomous, sometimes shorter songs that were not connected by a concept. For the production, they chose Kristian 'Kohle' Kohlmannslehner, who had made a name for himself in the harder music scene. The production style differed significantly from the work of Uwe Lulis on 'The Art of Navigating by the Stars': there, much was still recorded live and without a click track, while Kristian Kohlmannslehner focused more on precision and modern editing techniques. Without evaluating which approach is better, one can claim that 'Paramount' perhaps sounds slightly more powerful, suits the slightly changed songwriting better, and is extremely transparent. The only track that was already finished long before the album was 'Where our Shadows sleep'. It was already on the demo 'Footprints of Angels' from 2003 when the band was just forming again and still performing under the name VAL'PARAISO - incidenheighty, the first recording with the new singer Arno Menses. On 'Paramount', the song can be found in a slightly different version. The altered direction of the new songs can already be seen in the opener of the album, 'When Alpha and Omega collide': more direct, a bit harder, but still progressive and melodic. With few exceptions, the songs on 'Paramount' are therefore shorter and follow a more classically oriented songwriting. Curiously, before the release of the album, the record company Inside Out already released a single called 'A Wallflower on the Day of Saint Juliana'. On the album, this exact track is called 'Eyes Wide Open' - a song that guitarist Markus Steffen dedicated to his first-born daughter. The single is nowadays a rarity. With this exception, all tracks on 'Paramount' were created in collective work in the rehearsal room, a working process that SIEGES EVEN has continuously followed since their founding in the early eighties. Markus divided the lyrical work on the album with Oliver Holzwarth (bass), who was responsible for the aforementioned opener and the lyrics of 'Iconic' and 'Bridge to the Divine'. The lyrical spectrum ranges from experiences on the Corcovado mountain in the city 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 received very well by the press, just like its predecessor. Directly 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, among other shows. In 2008, they also performed at the 'Rock Hard' festival and had three concerts as the opening act for the American AOR legend JOURNEY. The live album 'Playgrounds', released in the spring of 2008, documents the concerts of this Tour. The stars were actually in favor of SIEGES EVEN. Thus, it was all the more surprising when the band's journey ended definitively at the last of the three support shows for JOURNEY in Bamberg in the summer of 2008.