The Land of Pretentious Symphonic Metal

A few weeks back, Therion released a new album Sitra Ahra, the conclusion to a four-part epic starting with Lemuria and Sirius B back in 2004.  Now, I generally like Therion, but I am one to admit that there are many times when they go off the musical deep end, landing somewhere in camp show tunes territory, similar to acts like Haggard, Avantasia and Ayreon.  Although there are definitely things to like about the album, this is definitely one of the ones that takes a headlong leap into cheese, layering operatic vocals upon choirs, Thomas Karlsson trying to write some sort of ariosophic musical, and Christofer Johnson trying to ensure that one of every single instrument is used at least once. 

I've been listening to it off and on for the past few weeks, and I'm honestly not sure if I like it.  The music itself is quite good, I'll give it that, and despite the complexity of the instrumentation, you'll find that there are quite a few points that get stuck in your head.  And there's "Hellequin", which is just unintentionally funny.  I can appreciate some of what Karlsson is trying to do with the lyrics, weaving through some of the myth and philosophy that surrounds his own Dragon Rouge and beyond, but taken in pieces, most of it seems silly.  One of these days, I'll probably sit down with the lyric booklets and try to put together the narrative, especially some of the bizarre transposition of different mythological pantheons.

I will commend them for their ambition, at the very least, and it may sound as though I didn't like the album, but really, you have to be in the right mood to listen to it.