{"id":40532,"date":"2014-05-20T06:25:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T11:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=40532"},"modified":"2014-05-20T06:25:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T11:25:24","slug":"therion-theli-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/therion-theli-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Therion | Theli<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TherionYou wouldn\u2019t think that as late as 1996 a new metal album could come out and completely define an entire genre, but that\u2019s exactly what happened when Swedish metal band Therion released their fifth studio album, titled Theli<\/em>. The band already had a few albums to its credit, and over the course of those albums you could see them evolving from a simpler death metal sound into something grander and more ambitious. With Theli<\/em>, that transformation was complete, and Therion had (along with Finnish band Nightwish, whose debut wasn\u2019t far behind) set the standard for the new symphonic metal genre.<\/p>\n

Therion mainman Christofer Johnsson clearly had a vision that brought heavy metal and classical music together in a way that had never been seen, and he made that vision a reality. Theli doesn\u2019t feature an actual orchestra backing the main band. Instead they used keyboards and sampling to mimic the classical instruments. They did bring in nearly a dozen male and female choral singers to deliver operatic vocals. Edge of Sanity vocalist Dan Swano also guested. <\/p>\n

The various elements used here \u2013 the conceptual\/opera-style composition, traditional heavy metal instruments and vocals, symphonic arrangements, and choirs \u2013 all came together brilliantly. This was the complete integration of heavy metal and classical music. It was epic and ambitious, yet still worked as a headbanging heavy metal album; and songs like \u201cTo Mega Therion,\u201d \u201cNightside of Eden\u201d and \u201cInvocation of Naamah\u201d remain touchstones of the genre.<\/p>\n

Therion made a powerful mark on the metal world with Theli<\/em>, and influenced just about every band who decided to wade into symphonic metal waters. The best part is that the band would only get better from here. As amazing as Theli<\/em> was (and it holds up remarkably well all these years later), later Therion releases like Vovin, Secret of the Runes and the double album Sirius B\/Lemuria would show just what this band was capable of. Calling Theli<\/em> a must have album for symphonic metal fans is an understatement. Without it, there may not have been a symphonic metal genre. There\u2019s no excuse for not owning a copy of Theli<\/em>, especially now that it has been reissued.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: Nuclear Blast\u2019s deluxe reissue of Theli<\/em> comes in a gatefold digipack with expanded liner notes. The main CD features the full Theli album plus three bonus tracks: \u201cIn Remembrance,\u201d the European Metal version of \u201cBlack Fairy\u201d and a cover of The Scorpions song \u201cFly to the Rainbow,\u201d all of which originally appeared on the Japanese import version of Theli<\/em>. Disc 2 is the real bonus, as it is a DVD featuring a live performance of Theli<\/em> in its entirety. It\u2019s a fantastic reissue all around, and has more than enough extras to make it a worthwhile upgrade for most fans. <\/p>\n

Genre: Symphonic Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nChristofer Johnsson (v) (g) (k)
\nPiotr Wawrzeniuk (d) (v)
\nLars Rosenberg (b)
\nJonas Mellberg (g) (k)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tPreludium
\n2.\tTo Mega Therion
\n3.\tCults of the Shadow
\n4.\tIn the Desert of Set
\n5.\tInterludium
\n6.\tNightside of Eden
\n7.\tOpus Eclipse
\n8.\tInvocation of Naamah
\n9.\tThe Siren of the Woods
\n10.\tGrand Finale\/Postludium
\n11.\tIn Remembrance
\n12.\tBlack Fairy (European Metal version)
\n13.\tFly to the Rainbow<\/p>\n

Label: Nuclear Blast<\/p>\n

Website: www.megatherion.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — You wouldn\u2019t think that as late as 1996 a new metal album could come out and completely define an entire genre, but that\u2019s exactly what happened when […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9324,8763,2317,339,1100,9323,4088],"class_list":{"0":"post-40532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-9324","9":"tag-8763","10":"tag-cd-review","11":"tag-nuclear-blast","12":"tag-symphonic-metal","13":"tag-theli","14":"tag-therion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}