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Wednesday 20 January 2021

Reviews: Therion, Conviction, Here Lies Man, Dragony (Reviews By Paul Hutchings, Richard Oliver, Paul Scoble & Matt Bladen)

Therion: Leviathan (Nuclear Blast) [Paul Hutchings]

Back in the mists of time, Therion were a death metal band. Over time, under the careful tutelage of founder Christofer Johnsson, the band has pulled away from that style and is now rightly regarded as one of the founders and leading lights of the symphonic metal movement. Yet with a little careful research you’ll find links to magik, occultism and a focus on ancient writings. Leviathan is the 17th album for the band which released its first record Of Darkness … 20 years ago. Johnsson’s voracious work rate belies the fact that he curates records of incredibly complexity and intricacy. The use of choral, operatic, and symphonic elements alongside more traditional power and heavy metal means that it’s not unusual to hear flute, dynamic brass sections and sweeping orchestral movements in parallel with thick, chugging metal riffs and thundering double bass kicks. 

Leviathan is, according to Johnsson, “the first album that we have deliberately packed with Therion hit songs”. Now, I’m no expert on the band, having been aware of them but rarely having had any encounter other than mild skirmishes in new release lists, so I don’t know what a Therion hit song sounds like. What I do know is that if you like excessive, dramatic, and stirring symphonic metal music, then Leviathan should be on the pre-order list already. It’s magnificent in its opulence and drama and as the album develops it becomes more and more decadent and extravagant. The signs are there early with the imperious The Leaf On The Oak Of Far which opens the album. A racing riff holds the attention, the duelling female and male vocals capture the interest and the soaring choral backing soon takes centre stage. Fans of the band may well trace this interaction back to early works such as 1996’s Thelli. It’s followed by a more traditional Therion track, Tuonela, with the soprano tones of Lori Lews, the band’s female voice for the past decade, jousting vocally with Nightwish’s Marko Hietala. It’s already anthemic, majestic and quite ludicrously over the top. 

The sonic warblings and real operatic vocals arrive on Ai Dahka which is where things go completely over the top. It’s a hard rock song with some fantastic guitar playing, the vocals transport the track far away, backed by angelic choruses. Eye Of Algol brings a slice of Eastern promise with it, the darkened feel making it one of the standout tracks on the record. For much of the album, the atmosphere is that of a cinematic film score. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than on Nocturnal Light, which opens in glorious style before receding into almost musical territory. There are hooks a plenty, the melodies are fantastic and yet, it’s so incredibly excessive that it is almost impossible to take it seriously. Johnsson’s passion for classic voices, choirs and orchestral movements shines through from start to finish. His core nod to Wagner remains unrestricted, something that is unlikely to change. Leviathan is named after a giant sea monster from Judeo-Christian myth that has roots in Babylonic lore. I imagine this will be a huge favourite with the band’s legions of fans. It is impressively constructed, and even though it leaves me somewhat cold, for many this album will be one of the highlights of the year. 7/10

Conviction: Conviction (Argonauta Records) [Richard Oliver]

In the most dreary and depressing month of the year (before any of the covid shite we are dealing with) it is apt to have a stonking piece of doom metal to listen to in the form of the self titled debut album from Conviction. Conviction are a four piece from Normandy in France who formed in 2013. After a demo and a handful of singles and compilation appearances 2021 sees their first full length debut and it’s a bit good. Conviction performs a very straightforward and unrelenting style of doom which evokes the classic doom sound of bands such as Saint Vitus and Candlemass but also takes some influence from the death doom sound of the early material of bands like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost especially in some of the crushing riffs and mournful melodies.  The result is crushing, melancholic and monolithic doom metal with harsh, suffocating riffs but with the majority use of clean vocals by frontman Olivier Verron which are very much in a Scott “Wino” Weinrich style.

There are also some effective backing vocals from bassist Vincent Buisson and guitarist Frédéric Patte-Brasseur. The songs are all weighty in length which is usually part of the parcel when it comes to doom but there are enough tempo changes, riff assortments and interesting melodies to justify these song lengths. If anything this album flies by and I found myself very enraptured throughout. Songs such as Voices Of The Dead, Outworn and My Sanctuary are oppressive crushing pieces of doom which have an unrelenting bleakness to them but these are also met by songs such as Castles Made Of Shame which is more upbeat and has major Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus vibes whilst Curse Of The Witch is a pacier number (for doom anyway) and very much is reminiscent of classic Candlemass. 

There isn’t much I can complain about here. The performances are tight and there are some absolutely smoking performances especially in the guitar work and the songwriting is absolutely on form with a collection of long songs that kept me not only interested but enthralled throughout. I’m quite picky over my doom but this album ticked all the boxes for me. Conviction have a fantastic debut album here which plays to a lot of influence from classic doom but does it in fantastic style. 9/10

Here Lies Man: Ritual Divination (RidingEasy Records) [Paul Scoble]

Ritual Divination is Here Lies Man’s fourth album. The band is made up of members of the band Antibalas. Here Lies Man claim to mix Afro Beat percussion with Black Sabbath riffing. Although there is some influence from the doomy midlanders, a lot of the riffing, and there is a lot of riffing on this album, it feels far more rooted in late sixties and early seventies psychedelic rock. This is ably demonstrated by the song I Told You (You Shall Die) which is a fantastically uptempo exercise in fast, bouncy riffing. The percussion is impressive, most of the songs have a driving beat, backed up by extra percussion that is lower in the mix. The song What You See has some very impressive percussion which helps to drive the track along in a pleasingly head nodding way. 

Vocally thing are a little strange. The vocals are either gang vocals or they are multi-tracked, so they come across more like chants. This means that the songs feel more like a series of huge choruses, rather than songs. The riffing also emphasises this as the songs tend to only have a couple of main riffs that are repeated. This isn’t a problem as the riffs are very good, so they improve with repetition rather than getting boring. In many ways its the less obvious elements of Here Lies Man’s sound that keep changing and keep things interesting. The extra percussion might be quite low in the mix, bit there is always something interesting going on that adds more layers of interest. The psychedelic parts; keyboards and electronics also helps to keep things from getting boring. The track I Wander is a good example of this, the riffing takes a back seat, feeling more minimal, as the electronic elements dominate. 

Another track that lets the riffing slide and allows the psychedelia take over is the track Disappointed. However, this style does seem to obey the law of diminishing returns. Everything is fairly simple, so the fact that the album has 15 songs and is over an hour long, I did find my concentration waning in the last 15 minutes of the album. The material is also very similar to the band's last album, so if they want this to keep peoples attention developing some brevity might be a good idea for Here Lies Man. A very enjoyable, if over long album. 7/10

Dragony: Viribus Unitis (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]

Austria seems to be something of a symphonic/power metal heartland with bands such as Serenity, Edenbridge and Visions Of Atlantis all well respected in the genre. Dragony are from Austria, if you weren't sure this album opens with On The Blue Danube, and they have been dealing in melodic power/symphonic metal since 2007 formed by ex-Visions Of Atlantis singer Siegfried 'The Dragonslayer' Samer he has brought on members who have done their time in many of Austria's metal bands. Surprisingly Dragony have only released three albums since 2010 with Viribus Unitis their fourth record. On this album, their first for Napalm Records, having only signed in June of last year. 

They have returned somewhat to their roots, coming back with a conceptual piece around Emperor Franz Joseph, giving a different (fictional) version of what happened to their son which involves black magic and demonology as well as zombies and cyber-punks. So it's a record that really stretches the historical narrative into the fantastical. Musically they have brought a cinematic sound with huge sweeping orchestrals backing the melodic power metal that Dragony have been honing for over 10 years, Samer's vocals are brilliant having that sonorous croon of Georg Neuhauser who helps out vocally on the track A.E.I.O.U while the band are well drilled, powering through the 12 songs on this record. 

Concept aside, the tracks here stand up enough by themselves outside of it skillfully mixed and mastered by Sebastian “Seeb” Levermann (Orden Ogan) at Greenman Studios in Germany, Viribus Unitis is a big, ballsy, bravado-filled debut on Napalm Records by Dragony, that will hopefully raise them up a little higher in the melodic/power/symphonic metal scene they inhabit. 8/10

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