As much as I admired the impetus behind Therion’s passion project Beloved Antichrist, I must confess to a certain relief that the band have returned to the bombastic operatics of Theli. Although there are numerous bands that engage with classical music, Therion stand alone in their deft integration of elements, and the band remain peerless when it comes to vocal arrangements and execution. Leviathan is the band’s seventeenth full-length offering, and it sees a much more direct approach than the six-years-in-the-making opera that preceded it, with Chistofer Johnsson declaring this to be the first time the band had intentionally packed an album with hits.
Certainly, the album gets off to a thrilling start. The Leaf On The Oak Of Far is quite the most rock song the band have unleashed, at least since 2007’s Gothic Kabbalah and yet, for all that the track detonates with a certain force, there’s no sense that Therion have watered down the essential elements that have made the band special all these years. Rather, it seems, they have stripped down their song-writing to its essence, and the results are spectacular to behold. As if to prove that the opening track is no mere flash in the pan, the band launch into the strident Tuonela, enlisting the help of former Nightwish singer / bassist Marko Hietala to add some metallic heft to proceedings. The band’s stated intention to deliver an album of hits certainly helps to explain the title track’s nod to the gorgeous Lemuria, the piece offering a similarly stately pace and layered vocals. For the Therion fan, it feels like you’ve come home and the band seem relaxed in exploring a sound they have sought to champion for over thirty years. The album takes a more cinematic digression on Die Wellen Der Ziet, but it’s the explosive, Eastern-themed Ai Dahka which seals the deal, the stabbing riffs and prowling bassline drawn straight out of career highlight Voivin and setting the adrenaline pumping across it’s all-too-brief runtime. Happily, the band are on a roll and Eye Of Algol follows hot on its heels. Indeed, just as you thought the album had hit a peak, the band up the ante another notch, with Eye Of Algol a future Therion classic, delivered with a glint in the eye that is utterly irresistible.
A slow building number, Nocturnal Light harks back to Theli, the strings and woodwind providing a smooth backdrop for the more operatic vocal approach taken here. It offers a neat contrast for the darker, harder Great Marquis Of Hell which, with its Judas Priest vibe and sinister overtones, is something of a highlight. Psalm Of Retribution, relatively lengthy (at least by this album’s standards) at five minutes, keeps things heavy – the mid-paced guitars nailed by the taut percussion, and it’s easy to imagine the track whipping up a storm in the live environment (although that could be said for pretty much every song on the album). Unfortunately, the flow is somewhat interrupted by the trad-rock stylings of El Primer Sol, the album’s weakest moment, although you could argue that it parallels the approach taken on fan-favourite Summer Night City. Fortunately, the band pull out a blinder with which to close the album, the atmospheric Ten Courts Of Diyu redolent of the intoxicating aroma of the East and providing a powerful closing statement to an album that rarely dips in quality.
It is a matter of record that albums that are later seen to be packed full of hits are rarely conceived as such. Nevertheless, there’s a sense that Therion have taken a hard look at those engaging elements that have kept fans hooked over the years and, in the process, created an album that feels very much like a best of… From the vital bombast of Theli and Voivin, via the more traditionally operatic Lemuria and the rather more varied Gothic Kabbalah, Therion have refined those albums’ key moments in the creation of these eleven pieces. The results are mostly successful and sometimes exceptionally so, with only El Primer Sol lacking the grandeur found elsewhere. Whilst not, perhaps, up there with the band’s very best works, Leviathan nevertheless offers a concise take on Therion’s myriad charms and will delight fans and newcomers alike. 8.5/10
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