Therion – Live Gothic [2CD/DVD]
Nuclear Blast Records
(4/5)
Swedish Symphonic metal band Therion has just gone live…again! This is actually the band’s second live album and is entitled Live Gothic. Although I have not been known in the past to have much Symphonic metal in my arsenal of music, this 2 CD/DVD release is definitely one I’ll be experiencing for quite some time! One great aspect of this release is the fact that a DVD was released along with the 2 live CDs to give you a better overall experience of the entire set. Overall, it’s definitely a great buy for previous Therion fans or for Symphonic metal fans period. Having a history of changing line-ups quite often, Therion is a hard band to name who is actually IN the band, but for this performance, the band consists of Christofer Johnsson (guitars, keyboards, and organs), Kristian Niemann (lead/rhythm guitars and keyboards), Johan Niemann (bass, guitar, and acoustic guitar), and Petter Karlsson (drums, guitar, keyboards, solo/choral vocals, and percussion) as well as the four solo/choral singers Lori Lewis, Katarina Lilja, Snowy Shaw, and Mats Levén. Out of the four singers, I have to say I prefer the guys voices. I had never heard Therion before, but I recognized Mats Levén’s voice from At Vance’s album Chained and Snowy Shaw’s lower singing really caught my attention as well as his physical appearance on the DVD. As far as the entire album goes, I have to say that no one song is more important to me than any of the others because of the fluidity of the performance, but I do really like the songs “Der Mitternachtslöwe” (Track 1) and “Schwarzalbenheim” (Track 2) as my top 2 favorites. All in all, this Live Gothic is a great buy and I recommend it to Symphonic metal fans everywhere!
