Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Therion
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2007
Therion is a name that stands for quality. In their 20-year career, Therion have never put out a real letdown, and they keep surprising us with serious progress in their sound and top-notch quality in the music itself, the vocal work and the lyrics too. They left their death metal years behind long ago, but this time they’ve also pushed the symphonic sound that marked Therion’s middle period, roughly from the album Theli onward, off to the side. And it’s precisely the fact that Therion have almost abandoned their trademark sound this time that will lead to some seriously mixed reactions from fans. An even bigger blow for fans was the news that the central figure and main songwriter of Therion’s material, Christofer Johnsson, is saying goodbye to singing and will focus only on writing, composing and playing guitar. So the interest in the successor to the excellent 2004 twin albums Lemuria/Serius B was even bigger, all the more so since it was supposed to be the closing part of a trilogy. But Christofer changed his mind this time and pushed the finale off into the future, and Gothic Kabbalah was born. The name itself is actually a bit misleading for more casual Therion listeners, since this is the least “gothic” album of the band’s career. The name has nothing whatsoever to do with any description of a genre direction. It’s a concept album about the Swedish mystic and rune scholar Johannes Bureus, and about a movement founded in 16th-century Sweden, Gothic Kabbalah.
Enough of my philosophizing, let me get to the point. It was hard to believe that Gothic Kabbalah would reach the excellence of the 2004 twin set Lemuria/Serius B, but the new double album, with a full 85 minutes of excellent music, easily matches it, if not outright tops it. It’s definitely worth saying that this is an album that may not hit you right away. It’ll take repeated listens to uncover all the layers Gothic Kabbalah has to offer. I admit that the album didn’t strike me as anything special after the first listen either. In fact it even let me down, because I missed that real Therion sound. But the point of good music is that it doesn’t hand you everything on a platter, right? And Gothic Kabbalah too, after just a few spins, creeps under your skin and stays there! Mighty, emotional, killer, magical, fantastic are the adjectives that come to mind when listening to this record.
Christofer has more than filled the gap left by his decision to quit singing, and he did it with no fewer than two vocalists. The vocal duties this time went to multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw (Dream Evil, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond) and Mats Leven (At Vance), who’s considered one of Sweden’s best vocalists, as he proves on this album too. Nothing less than top quality was to be expected from guest vocalists Katarina Lilja and Hannah Holgersson either. This time Christofer and Kristian Nieman managed to write some of the best riffs we’ve had the chance to hear from Therion so far, and drummer Petter Karlsson added the lion’s share to the writing as well. All things considered, Therion present themselves this time perhaps even for the first time as a real band, not just Christofer plus the rest. To put it better, this time Therion work as a true whole, there’s less emphasis on the symphonic parts, and the album is the work of the whole band, not just Christofer, and as he says himself, that’s something he always wanted.
So what about the music and the songs themselves? They say the best is saved for last 🙂 The album has a truly majestic, epic touch that not many bands deliver. Even though Therion have veered slightly off their symphonic/operatic path, they’re still one of the most unique groups in metal, except that this time you can hear more rock influences, and the record sonically flirts above all with the rock of the seventies. These influences blend in wonderfully in “Tuna 1613”, whose intro recalls Queen’s vocal harmonies, while the Hammond sound adds even more to the vintage feel. The folk elements blend in great too, not to the extent of Secret of the Runes, but still enough to be audible and to serve as an excellent upgrade and addition to the album’s wild atmosphere. Especially in “Trul”, with its incredible guitar lines, choir singing and a flute that gives the track a real Jethro Tull feel. The title track is definitely one of the best on the album, it gets into your ear right away, and it’s already here that Mats’s incredible vocals show up, intertwining with the gentle female ones, which appear on the album several times. You can’t get past the excellent guitar work, especially the incredible soloing by Christofer and Kristian and the magical riffs. A real blessing for the ears! One of the prettiest songs on the album is definitely “The Perrennial Sophia”, again with indescribably wild vocals, both male and female. “The Falling Stone” serves up a proper Uriah Heep rocker, which is no wonder, since Ken Hensley took part in the album. But don’t worry, Therion are still a real metal band, as the hard-hitting “T.O.F. – The Trinity” proves, with killer Symphony X-style arpeggios and soloing, except that here the track is even more majestic and mighty than anything Symphony X themselves would write. “Three Treasures” is a bombastic reminder that Therion haven’t completely forgotten their symphonic side, with mighty male choir parts and whispered inserts. As if all that weren’t enough, Therion serve up one more thing at the very end, the album’s 15-minute magnum opus, “Adulruna Redivivia”. An epic in the true sense of the word, with a crazy atmosphere and plenty of twists and interweavings.
The really good album also benefits from the excellent, crystal-clear production from the hands of Stefan Glaumann (Evergrey, Europe, Rammstein) and, once again, the superb lyrics by Thomas Karlsson, which offer more than enough material to dig into, for those who are a bit more curious, of course.
A new chapter in the book of Therion has been opened with the album Gothic Kabbalah. Like I said, it’s an album that needs repeated listens, but once you win it over, it hooks you for good. Wearing the disc out in your player is guaranteed. We’ll be able to see how the “new” Therion sound live very soon. On January 31, together with Grave Digger and Sabaton, they’re coming to Ljubljana’s VPK Media Park. Until then you’ve still got time to let Gothic Kabbalah win you over and hook you!
Lineup
Christofer Johnsson – guitar, keyboards, organ
Kristian Niemann – lead and rhythm guitar
Johan Niemann – bass guitar, guitar, acoustic
Petter Karlsson – drums, guitar, keyboards, lead and choir vocals, percussion
Mats Levén – lead and choir vocals, guitar
Snowy Shaw – lead and choir vocals
Katarina Lilja – lead and choir vocals
Hannah Holgersson – lead and choir vocals, soprano
Production
Stefan Glaumann
Track list
CD 1:
1. Der Mitternachtlöwe – 5:38
2. The Gothic Kabbalah – 4:32
3. The Perennial Sophia – 4:53
4. Wisdom and the Cage – 5:13
5. Son of the Staves of Time – 5:10
6. Tuna 1613 – 4:21
7. Trul – 5:11
8. Close up the Streams – 3:55
CD 2:
1. Wand of Abaris – 5:50
2. Three Treasures – 5:30
3. The Path to Arcady – 3:53
4. TOF – The Trinity – 6:17
5. Chain of Minerva – 5:28
6. The Falling Stone – 4:50
7. Adulruna Rediviva – 14:36
Duration:
CD1 – 38:53
CD2 – 46:24
Total – 85:17
