Therion - Lemuria/Sirius B

*=Staff's pick

Lemuria
Typhon*

Uthark Runa*
Three Ships Of Berik Part 1
Three Ships Of Berik Part 2
Lemuria*

Quetzalcoatl Kali
The Dreams Of Swedenborg
An Arrow From The Sun
Abraxas
Feuer Overtüre/
Prometheus Entfesselt

Sirius B
Blood Of Kingu*
Son Of The Sun

The Khlysti Evangelist*
Dark Venus
Kali Yuga Part 1
Yuga Part 2*
The Wonderful World Of Punt
Melek Taus
Call Of Dragon*
Sirius B

The Voyage Of Gurdjieff

Genre	Symphonic Opera Metal	Christofer Johansson	Vocals
Tracks	10/11	Christofer Johansson	Guitar
Runningtime	42/57 Min.	Kristian Niemann	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Johann Niemann	Bass
Release	24 May 2004	-	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Nightwish, Epica, Iced Earth, Wagner

Holy cow, that was my spontaneous reaction towards the new masterpiece from Therion.
With an ambitious effort the band included over more than 170! musicians to create an enormous beast. Mixing classic heavy metal with classical music and opera and they pull it off without falling into the trap of overdoing anything even though the recording sessions lasted for nine months. Epic is a perfect summoning on these two albums filled with operatic vocal performances, mighty choirs and a full orchestra on top of the foundations of great heavy metal. The latest album I heard from Therion was Lepaca Kliffoth (1995), and there has been some serious changes in the music since then, so even if you like me haven't paid any attention towards Therion over the recent years you better start right now.

Lemuria:
Typhon starts with a heavy riffing and then the magic instantly appears with one female and one male choir taking turns before the death metal vocals appear. Epic right from the beginning and the guitar line is simple but has just that little touch to make it perfect. With the next track the singing is greatly with a clean voice and yet the music is still mighty with guitarlines that are excellent just like drums are. It is great operatic heavy metal and not that much of death metal that I thought of Therion, apart from the first track the growling has more or less been put aside. The music is complex with choirs and orchestra and it all holds one hell of a power, it is majestic.

The title track Lemuria is brilliant, a calm track that starts with an acoustic guitar and with a female mezzo-soprano voice with a folk-music inspired lead. It is Nightwish beauty and as the drums enters and the music get backed up by choirs before a male voice enters and it turns to be even more epic. Slow and beautiful and this could just be one of the most mightiest things I have heard in a long time, it is perfection with the heavy guitars before the flute takes the last lead and brings this one home.

Sirius B:
The second album Sirius B offers a more direct metal approach, already with the opening Blood Of Kingu the mighty album Burnt Offerings from Iced Earth comes to mind. It is the same epic and dark touch and driving guitars but Therion has added so much more to the music giving it a great deal of depth. The darker Sirius B feels more even than Lemuria, it is more solid and direct metal that the foundations is laid upon, and it also feels more orchestrated than Lemuria. It also have more of might with more integrated use of the choir, although the highlights are found on Lemuria I wouldn't like to separate the two albums, even if they are to be sold separately later on I think they function best as a wholeness.

I never thought it would come to a point where I would compare Therion with Nightwish, but here we are. Both bands has a new and very strong release behind them with orchestra included and operatic vocals, and with the track Call Of Dragon the similarities are very close between Sirius B and Once from Nightwish. If all of the accessories in form of choirs, opera influences and orchestra would be removed this would still work as one serious great metal album, but included with those elements you have very strong candidate for album of the year come December.

The production is absolutely top of the line, a great sound-picture as all instruments and elements can be heard and are in perfect balance. It is a great concert hall felling that lies very fittingly over the two albums. The names on the track are among the coolest I've seen since Krux selftitled album, and there are more comparisons to be done as well, the complexity and the progressiveness is something that they both share. Even if Krux is much more doom than Therion there is heavy and slow parts to be find on this one as well.

I can understand if some might think of these album as too much and a pretentious effort that is completely overdone, but for me this is like heaven. With no expectations on Therion's new effort I thought that I was just going to browse through the album quickly but got immediately stuck and sat through the entire album with a gaping mouth, and when the last note faded I pressed repeat on my CD-player, and did it again, and again and still is.

Note: The promo version does not include the full versions of the two albums, so there might be some small adjustments that is needed to be done later on, so this review is based on 13 of the total 22 tracks. But when those are as magnificent as they are I don't really think the other eight tracks will change anything.

See also review of: Gothic Kabbalah , Secret Of The Runes

Production	Vocals	Compositions
10	9	9

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Thomas

This is a steady step forward for Therion compared to Secret Of The Runes, but i still fail to see the overwhelming brilliance in this. It is good, solid and atmospheric metal but I think it feels and sounds a bit edgeless and sometimes thin. There are a few gold nuggets to be found here, but overall it is nothing more special then what many other bands in the genre have to offer. The vocals are the best element, while the riffs and arrangements are highly average. I settle with "pretty good".//Tommy (7,5 of 10)