Artist: Therion
Title: “Live Gothic”
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 8/6/2008
Genre: Progressive Symphonic Metal
Rating: 4.5/5
Always an impressive idea in the musical sense the one and only Therion have paused between studio albums to deliver to us “Live Gothic”, an album that captures the band onstage and focusing on their previous studio epic “Gothic Kabbalah”. Those who have known about the band are already aware of the very big production that they put on and this combination double CD and DVD film bring you right into the crowd at a spectacular show performed in front of a diehard audience in Warzaw, Poland. The release that this tour supported had a very stage performance feeling to it, and I don’t just mean in the quality of its songs but also in the manner in which I felt it was being delivered. To me this was as much a Symphonic Metal album as it was something akin to the Broadway stage so when it was announced that there would be a live DVD film for it I was rather excited. The performance while done in support of the “Gothic Kabbalah” album only features six tracks from the release and chooses to mix up a wider number of songs from the bands earlier years. This appealed to me as I was a latecomer to what they could do in their music so hearing any older track performed live was quite the treat. Fans know that the core membership of Therion is Christofer Johnsson (guitar/core composer), Kristian Niemann (guitars/keyboards), Johan Niemann (bass/acoustic guitar) and Petter Karlsson (drums) and these players are always joined by a company of singers and sometimes additional musicians as necessary.
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Therion is always an interesting musical experience and their return to NYC was highly anticipated. The show also featured Aesma Daeva and took place at the Highline Ballroom. We made sure to document the proceedings for your Metal viewing pleasure so scroll past the logo to learn and see more about the show.
Artist: Therion
Venue: The Highline Ballroom (New York, NY)
Opener: Aesma Daeva
Date: 11/1/2007
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
For much the world’s Metal community, the band Therion is the primary reason that the whole Symphonic Operatic Metal genre started in the first place and when you listen to their music its easy to see how this could be the case. Originally begun as more of a Death Metal band they began to introduce orchestrations and choirs into their sound about fifteen years ago and when you listen to how their albums progressed over time it becomes quite an interesting Metal study. Had they not undertaken this approach in their composition I think that we would have seen a very different Symphonic Metal genre or one that did not begin to manifest itself as early as it ended up doing with their input. Therion had only visited New York once before and the appearance was at B.B. King Blues Club. It would be the full band along with a four member choir and a soprano vocalist. The show was quite good but the band was a little restricted in movement based on the number of players and the space available amidst all their gear. This evenings show would be at the recently opened Highline Ballroom and given the venues larger stage would make this a lot more interesting in my opinion. Therion would also bring with them the band Aesma Daeva from Minneapolis.
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