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Therion: Beyond sanctorum

12/07/10 || Daemonomania

Death metal from Sweden, circa the early 1990’s, is generally accepted as the best music of all time. There are some who disagree, but those folks are certain to meet with an unexpected accident in the near future. Go ahead and warn them to stay away from open windows and piano factories. Especially the open windows of piano factories. Won’t do ‘em any good.

That being said, one of the reasons old Swedeath was so fucken excellent was the concept of keeping things simple. By letting the listener have it with the same one or two skullcrushing grooves mixed with faster sections, hits for the ages were created. Therion decided to keep things complicated. Avril Lavigne would not be pleased. What should have been an album full of wonderful, memorable tunes by some clearly talented musicians is ruined by attempts to jam the kitchen sink and two ovulating hippos into every nook and cranny.

The average song from “Beyond sanctorum” will open with a cool groove, move into some grindy territory, spazz out for a bit, get into a classic Scandinavian pounding with eerie guitar solo hovering overhead, then abruptly end. A few tunes feature female vocals, keyboards, and even the rare but cool Middle Eastern moment via “The Way”. But none of it truly sticks to your ribs. Muddy production alone is not to blame. No wonder these dudes eventually went gothic. And double no wonder Demonoid, made up of mostly Therion members, stuck to straight death/thrash and ruled hard.

Let’s compare this to a blind date (though Daemo hasn’t been on an actual date in many moons – being married to an incredibly hot woman an’ all). You pick her up at her house. She answers the door dressed damn sexy in a boob-displaying cutoff Grave t-shirt and tight jeans. Upon arriving at the restaurant, she declares her hatred of capitalism and kicks the maître d’ in the face. Then she pulls out some Tarot cards and declares loudly to anyone who will listen that the future holds immense, rotting, impaled death for all. You drive her home, and on the way she starts giving you almighty ROAD HEAD. Victory! Just as you’re about to bust she disengages, slaps you hard in the family jewels and jumps out of the car. What in za shit just happened?

I wish I could love this. Hell, the demo versions tacked on show an even more intense side to tracks like “Cthulu” and “Symphony of the dead”. Intelligent and inventive bunch of Swedes for sure. But in the end I’d much rather remain unchallenged by monuments like “You’ll never see…”, “Where no life dwells”, and “Osculum obscenum”. Old school Sweden is godly thanks to a sloped forehead and a wooden cudgel, not plucked eyebrows and a concealed dagger.

6,5

Information
Released: 1992
Label: Active Records/re-released by Nuclear Blast
Website: www.megatherion.com
Band
Christopher Johnsson: vocals, guitars, bass
Peter Hansson: guitars, bass, keyboards
Oskar Forss: drums
A few guests with lots of umlauts in their names: guitar solos and vocals

Tracklist
01. Future Consciousness
02. Pandemonic Outbreak
03. Cthulhu
04. Symphony of the Dead
05. Beyond Sanctorum
06. Enter the Depths of Eternal Darkness (generic metal song name extravaganza)
07. Illusions of Life
08. The Way
09. Paths
10. Tyrants of the Damned
11. Cthulhu (demo)
12. Future Consciousness (demo)
13. Symphony Of The Dead (demo)
14. Beyond Sanctorum (demo)

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