LEAVES' EYES: 'To France' Video Released

LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — 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. You can now watch the clip below.

"To France" comes off LEAVES' EYES' new album, "Meredead", 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.

The deluxe box set (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

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."

LEAVES' EYES last year parted ways with bassist Alla Fedynitch "for personal reasons." The group played the last show of 2010 — at the Metal Female Voices Fest on October 24 in Wieze, Belgium — with Dutch session bassist J.B. van der Wal (ABORTED, DR. DOOM).

J.B. van der Wal previously played with LEAVES' EYES at the Bloodstock Open Air and Summer Breeze festivals as well as on the band's last U.S. tour.