Search - Therion :: Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas

Black Metal with some Gothic and Rock influences.

Focusphere | 04/21/1997

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A great CD with a more unique BM sound. Mixing Black Metal guitar with more Rockish beats and a bassist who actually sounds 'alive', haunting keyboards and nice Black vocals; a near perfect BM CD. Therion uses less 'fuzz' on their guitars than most of their fellow Scandanavian's, and they are not afraid to epeirement with keybaords and symphony type vocals. The lyrics are of a darker fantasy style, with quite a few references to dragons. A must for BM fans. The CD's full name is: "Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas" END"

Therion's transition album

Focusphere | California | 09/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Somewhere between their Death Metal roots and their Symphony Heavy Metal to follow, Therion created this gem of an album that manages to incorporate both influences into a unique brand of metal.



This band's first two albums are excellent examples of Swedish death metal with an enlightened sense of inbedded melody within crafty songwriting. Therion manage to retain this quirky melodicity and original songwriting and blend it with older styles of Heavy Metal thundering riffs and at times basic rock beats.



What makes this album special is in its ability to seamlessly transition from the death metal and heavy metal throughout the album. Never does Therion sound forced in marrying the two approaches, and the result is a melting of both styles into one unique offset of the metal genre. Adding to this originality is expert musicianship with technical abilities that only a few at the time possessed.



While later albums fell too much into the rockish Heavy Metal Symphonic cheese with much too predictable outcomes in themes, Symphony Masses represents the last spark of originality from this band before spiraling into mediocrity."