Therion - Theli

This album is not really something like what I usually listen to. But when I heard this for the first time many many years ago as an 8-year old it was quite something and it has stayed in my mind ever since. I recently listened to it for the first time in a long time.

Therion begun in Sweden way back in 1987 (under the name Blitzkrieg) as just another death metal act, they released a couple of records in this style but gradually Christofer Johnsson incorporate more symphonic passages into his music.

In 1996 this record "Theli" arrived, a massive, bombastic sounding album recorded in Germany with Dan Swanö, two choirs and an orchestra (really just keyboards and samplers, guess he couldn't afford much more). This album is a mix of death metal, choir singing, traditional heavy metal and touches of Egyptian imagery. It mixes these different sounds very good without sounding out of place or very strange, it's masterfully combined. Something I enjoy about this album is an overall feeling of melancholy in the songs (especially track 9). There's full of great melodic passages, solos and everything works really well between the choir singing and the "normal" singing. There's not really any lowpoints in this album (that would be the -ludiums, then) but the beautiful, melancholic, nearly 10-minute "Siren of the Woods" definatly stands out. After this very sad sounding song it finishes off with a bombastic "Grand Finale".

This is not just another stupid "symphony-rock" "opera-metal" (or whatever) album. This is actually very good and has a lot of atmosphere I think.