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Thread: Featured CD - Therion : Lemuria and Sirius B

  1. #1
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    Featured CD - Therion : Lemuria and Sirius B



    The wonderfully bombastic, over-the-top twin-CD set from Therion. (This was very impressive on stage, too.) Per SoT:
    You want an elegant and mystical musical journey? Then Therion's got what you're looking for right here, boys and ghouls. Over 100 minutes of darkened majesty that has elements of metal, power metal, black metal, progressive metal, progressive and folk with a dash of folk metal on the side. It's fitting that the lyrics appear to deal with fantastic elements as the music is nothing short of that and had, say, someone like Al Jourgensen (Ministry) been hired to direct Lord of the Rings it seems likely that he would have asked Therion to do the score. It's that grand.

    Highlights? "The Dreams of Swedenborg," "Uthark Runa" and Feuer Overture/Prometheus Entfesselt" from Lemuria, plus "They Khlysti Evangelish" and "Call of Dagon" from Sirius B. Don't underestimate this one, it's worth the time, money and emotional investments. Maybe the best record that Nuclear Blast has unleashed since Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness, maybe the best of Therion's career so far, and undoubtedly a record by which future records like it will be measured.
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    Regards,

    Duncan

  2. #2
    Member Just Eric's Avatar
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    Thirteen years ago I discovered that Prog was not dead by stumbling onto Spock's Beard's The Light on Napster. The next day I ran to the record store to find more of this great music and came home with Therion's Deggial. It was love at first hear, similar to hearing ELP's PAAE back in the 70's. Who would've thunk that modern music had followed through on the promise of the 70's to continue to experiment.

    The whole point of that mini-story is that I became hungry for more Therion and this double CD was my eventual next purchase, albeit years later. These two albums are a great representation of what you'll get from Therion, bombastic and gritty, operatic and black, progressive and traditional, all at the same time.

    If you need a starting point or want to get right to the best, start with Theli from 1996.
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    OK, add this to the list of future purchases....

  4. #4
    Simply put, these two are a remarkable achivement, among the best in the annals of rock music. They are that good.

  5. #5
    I have only heard Vovin. I am not a metal fan but I have to admit, Therion have an odd appeal to them.
    Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...

  6. #6
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Why do female singers on metal albums sound like they're ready for the Met while guy singers all gargle razor blades before they sing?
    "Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)

  7. #7
    Member Yanks2014's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasKDye View Post
    Why do female singers on metal albums sound like they're ready for the Met while guy singers all gargle razor blades before they sing?
    This is sometimes referred to "beauty and the beast" metal. I'm sure you can figure out which is which. A band like The Gathering started out that way, but eventually dropped the beast part, and eventually the metal part as well. But a lot of bands employ this. I'd say a good example still doing this is Epica. But I'm not into this scene, so I couldn't name too many others off hand.

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    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yanks2014 View Post
    This is sometimes referred to "beauty and the beast" metal. I'm sure you can figure out which is which. A band like The Gathering started out that way, but eventually dropped the beast part, and eventually the metal part as well. But a lot of bands employ this. I'd say a good example still doing this is Epica. But I'm not into this scene, so I couldn't name too many others off hand.
    Sorta-kinda.

    You're right, in that the beauty-and-the-beast genre really refers to heavy death or black metal with full-on death growls (cookie-minster, if you will) - and a soaring soprano. The stark contrast between the 2 extremes makes the the sounds more brutal and angelic respectively. All very "gothic".

    IMO, Therion's sound is too rich for a true beauty-and-the-beast sound, and the "beast" part isn't a fraction as demonic as the best of that breed.
    Regards,

    Duncan

  9. #9
    Therion started out as straightforward death metal with just male growl vocals, and then morphed into symphonic metal using clean vocals. By the time this album came out, Therion hadn't used growl vocals for quite a few years.

  10. #10
    Therion bringing in Thomas Vikstrom to do the lead male vocals has swung things the other direction, since he can operatic male vocals.

    Up until these albums, Christofer Johnsson did all the lead male vocals. When he decided he couldn't do it all anymore, he brought in Mats Levin with these. Vikstrom is the first singer who has been given full member status in the band.

  11. #11
    Never heard of this band. Listened to the beginning of Lemuria above. Still laughing.

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