What can I say about this album? This album is so great that it’ s hard to clearly describe how amazing it is. Theli is simply one of the best albums I’ ve ever heard in my whole life. When I listen to music, I always want to imagine that I’ m entering another world where the music guides me to, and that’ s the reason why the unity of the album plays an important role in my music taste. Theli is definitely the album which can fully satisfy my strongest thirst of music, everything in this album is perfect, not only the music itself, but also the lyrics and album art.
How the music in Theli sounds like? To explain it generally, is symphonic operatic metal on melodic death metal root with lots of neo-classical and progressive influences. Therion was a death metal band before, but from now on, they start to abandon their death metal sounds, and become much more symphonic and operatic. Theli is their first attempt to this new style, and it’ s pretty successful. The intro “ Preludium” is a pure symphonic instrumental, sounds weird, but very enjoyable. The mighty opener “ To Mega Therion” is one of the best tracks on the album. It has powerful operatic female chorus and heavy guitar sound wall, melodic catchy middle part, and dramatic ending. Especially the last minute of the song, finish with neo-classical guitar and keyboard solos, absolutely mind-blowing. “ Cults of the Shadow” is another highlight of Theli, Therion add many progressive elements in it, to make it sounds more mysterious, Therion also use symphonic keyboard line and female chorus together to create powerful atmosphere. The last 30 seconds is my personal favorite, it just like an unexpected present, surprises me at the first time. Therion truly show their talented creative songwriting skills here. You can sense the same feeling in songs “ In the Desert of Set”, “ Nightside of Eden”, “ Invocation of Naamah” and “ The Siren of the Woods”.
Another strong point of this album is the variety of style. As I mentioned before, Theli contains several different styles such as symphonic, melodic death, progressive, neo-classical and power metal. “ To Mega Therion” is kind of typical symphonic power metal with operatic vocals. “ Cults of the Shadow” sounds progressive and beautiful. “ In the Desert of Set” and “ Nightside of Eden” are melodic death base songs, but with many neo-classical performances. “ Invocation of Naamah” gains the power and speed of power metal, but combines with classical. “ The Siren of the Woods” is the longest and slowest song on Theli, it also has the most beautiful melodies and the greatest arrangement on the album. You will not lose your attention while listening to it. The rest of the songs are instrumentals, they make Theli become a complete album. Don’t skip them if you want to enjoy the well-crafted unity of Theli.
Let’ s talk about the lyrics and the production. The lyrics are well-written. All of them are based on different mythologies, including ancient Greek, the bible, and many more. It’ s hard to understand all the meanings of them if you are not a professional mythology researcher. But it doesn’ t matter, because these lyrics are flawlessly fit the songs, so you can just enjoy the music without reading the lyrics. If you are interested in their lyrics, it’ s also a good chance to increase your knowledge. The production of Theli is great, too. The guitar sounds crystal clear. You can also distinguish the bassline and double-bass easily. Therion spent much money on making this album, hiring guest musicians and North German Radio Choir. I’ m glad they did. These guest musicians have done a great job here. The operatic vocals and symphonic arrangements are simply amazing. They put this album to the highest level.
Theli is just like a grand metal opera. It isn’ t a concept album, but it’ s successful to create a different new world, a world full of myths and imagination. The catchy melodies and chorus make the songs memorable, and the variety of the style can satisfy different taste of music lover. It’ s one of those few albums which will completely astonish you at first time. Theli marks an important turning point in Therion’s career. It’ s the beginning of the golden era of this mega beast, and one of the many quintessential Therion albums that everyone should own. If you haven’ t heard it yet, just give it a try, this is an instant classic.
Official promo video:
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