LEAVES' EYES: Another New Song Available For Streaming

An audio sample of "Meredead", a new song from LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — is available for streaming at this location. The track is the title cut of LEAVES' EYES' fourth full-length album, which will be released on April 22 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland via Napalm Records. The effort will be available exclusively as limited-edition mediabook CD, including bonus track and bonus DVD "Live At The Metal Female Voices Fest", strictly limited-edition deluxe box set and regular jewel case.

Commented Liv Kristine: "Firstly, let me explain the title, which is my own word-creation: To my grammatical knowledge, 'Meredead' could mean 'dead by the sea,' or 'the deadly sea.' Poetically, we could add some imagination and lyrical sound and say 'sea of death.' Secondly, the word 'Meredead' sums up some of the themes rooted in my lyrics on the album.

"Now you may ask, why sing in Old English? Since my Old English studies, I've taken great interest in both Old English poetry and grammar. I just felt that this song required Old English lyrics, and an Old English 'sound', moreover, it needed this historical feel!

"Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by Angeln, Sachsen and Jüten (Germanic tribes, called Anglo-Saxons) and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. Although, for me, it meant digging my nose into my Old English books for weeks (and buying even more at Amazon),I feel that it was really worth it, moreover, it made so much fun!

"For me, having Norwegian and Danish parents and grand-parents, it's even more interesting that from the 9th century, Old English experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

"I highly recommend having a look at the book 'The Cambridge Old English Reader' by R. Marsden."

The deluxe box set of "Meredead" (pictured below) is limited to 1,000 copies and includes the mediabook CD including bonus track and bonus DVD, "Live At The Metal Female Voices Fest", plus pendant (Celtic cross with LEAVES' EYES branding).

Producer/co-vocalist Alexander Krull mixed "Meredead" at Mastersound Studio. The album's artwork was created by Stefan Heilemann and can be viewed below.

"Meredead" track listing:

01. Spirits' Masquerade
02. Étaín
03. Velvet Heart
04. Kråkevisa *
05. To France (MIKE OLDFIELD cover)
06. Meredead
07. Sigrlinn
08. Mine Tåror er ei Grimme
09. Empty Horizon
10. Veritas
11. Nystev *
12. Tell-Tale Eyes
13. Sorhleod (bonus track)

Norwegian traditional songs

LEAVES' EYES recently spent time in Gothenburg, Sweden filming a video for its cover of the MIKE OLDFIELD classic "To France" with director Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others. LEAVES' EYES states, "Patric also was responsible for the video of 'My Destiny'. The location, an impressive old castle is absolutely stunning and we're looking forward to seeing the end result!!"

Kristine previously stated about the upcoming CD: "As we began composing the first song ideas for our fourth full-length album, all of us were very eager to take another step in strengthening both the individual sound and concept of LEAVES' EYES, like we have done album by album. Along with the songwriting process, I made up my mind about the songs' themes, and drowned myself in different sources of literature. Some songs clearly needed lyrics rooted in northern history and culture, as well as having mystical themes.

"Being an Old-English fan, I decided to write some of the lyrics in Old-English, which, of course, included further studies of grammatical and phonetic knowledge, which I really enjoyed doing.

"Next to modern English and Old English, some songs are sung in traditional Norwegian, to keep their strong individuality and focus on certain themes from special genres in Norwegian traditional singing.

"The album is given the title 'Meredead', as one of the songs on the album. It is my own word creation (at least I haven't found it in a dictionary yet),and it may mean both 'dead by/in the sea,' or 'the mortal or killing sea.'

"In my lyrics, you will find traditional themes from Viking literature and Norwegian song tradition, moreover, tales from the Irish isles, some from already existing sources, some made up myself. Sometimes you will hear about men going on adventures, some ending up drowning in the sea, their wives, evil witches, three-headed trolls, or spell-bound princesses, as well as marble halls and blood-thirsty creatures.

"I allowed myself more freedom for the concept of 'Meredead', telling a number of different stories, real, mystical or sometimes maybe even both."