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Therion > Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas > Reviews
Therion - Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas

Beyond Sanctorum, Beyond Nocturnes, Beyond Death - 82%

bayern, October 10th, 2018

Christofer Johnsson, this tireless maniac; having started two projects at the same time in the late-80’s, determined to make a lasting trace on the scene. Some mourn for sure his abandoning the Carbonized stint early in the mid-90’s in order to concentrate more fully on the one under scrutiny here… since Carbonized was one of the bravest, most experimental acts at the start of the spaced-out, left-hand-path movement…

the one that came close to claiming Therion as well once the album reviewed here came out. Johnsson and Co. have never had any intentions whatsoever on following well-trodden paths on either front; Therion’s first two were already visionary, original death metal recordings which never fit into any of the running trends in their homeland, the one of the early pristine Swedish sound inaugurated by Entombed, Unleashed, and Dismember, and the other which took voluminous proportions and ruled the scene for a while, the Gothenburg melo-death wave as presented on the works of At the Gates, In Flames, and Dark Tranquillity.

I remember a friend of mine describing Therion’s early endeavours as “poor man’s “Nocturnus”, a description which kept me away from their repertoire for quite some time, until “Theli” reached my and many other fans’ ears in 1996, sweeping the scene with its encompassing, operatic swagger. That was one great band I had missed out on, and before you know it all their previous four albums fell into my hands. The Nocturnus reference made by my friend regarding the first two efforts was only a loose one, largely evoked by the use of keyboards/synthesizers by both outfits, as the Swedes had a bigger interest in creating atmosphere and mood than shredding with nocturnal… sorry, infernal complexity. Besides, their repertoire also included borrowings from doom and even black metal the final result being one diverse, enthusiastically assembled, extreme metal opera before this particular niche had even been conceived on the mental plane.

Yes, Johnsson and his cohort were pioneers in quite a few respects, including with the album reviewed here which was another addition to the “beyond death” listening experiences (Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues”, Cemetary’s “Godless Beauty”, later Sentenced’s “Amok”, Amorphis’ “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”, etc.) that had nearly become commonplace in the mid-90’s with quite a few acts looking to depart from their brutal deathy roots (for reasons which still continue to escape me).

And the wild beasts seem only too eager to join the instigated diversification campaign by throwing literally everything they have kept hidden from their arsenal, the first part a bizarre, dishevelled, but strangely listenable conglomerate of styles and influences, the brooding atmospheric doomisms of “Baal Reginon” co-existing turbulently with the brutal remnants from the guys’ death metal past on “Dark Princess Naamah”, with Johnsson not too willing to leave his vociferous growling death metal baritone behind; before “A Black Rose” throws in a thoroughly unheralded rock-ish psychedelic vibe with rowdy shades of early Venom, the surreal setting further aggrandized by the short outlandish symphonic sketch “Symphoni Draconis Inferni”. A larger-than-life stylistic concoction disorienting the listener big time as the old fans would have realised that death metal land would be a “no go” territory from now on. The delivery nicely gets stabilized mid-way (“Dawn of Perishness”, “The Eye of Eclipse”) these cuts the first genuine harbingers of the band’s later inordinately attractive symphonic/operatic metal, again something not exactly heard before, the dark bursting thrasher “Powerdance” another plus with its brooding undercurrents bringing sweet memories of British stalwarts like Deathwish and Sabbat, the contrasting finishing stroke thrown by the title-track, a compelling eccentric amalgam of macabre doom and more optimistic operatics.

The audience must have been quite befuddled, to put it mildly, by this eclectic combination of genres and moods which was swinging in any existing at the time direction without holding onto a particular motif or nuance for too long. For some this may have been the ultimate display of artistic genius, with the lustrous albeit subdued production definitely working in the guys’ favour, provided that the new music order of the 90’s showed tolerance towards all kinds of blends as long as they were not obeying any strict classic canons… however, how open the mind of the average early/mid-90’s fan was to absorb this exuberant metal symphony, that remains quite debatable as the band weren’t targeting any particular niche; they were simply playing with possibilities and configurations, taking full advantage of the amorphous times… some of them they developed further on subsequent releases, some they abandoned right after use, the final result here not as overwhelmingly consistent as Cemetary’s “Godless Beauty”, or as instantly memorable as, say, Sentenced’s “Amok”, but by all means worth remembering as an important footnote from this small rebellion stirred within the death metal roster once upon a time.

Johnsson helped his colleagues, also with his vocal talents, from Messiah with the stirring of another similar cocktail on “Underground” a year later before embarking on one of the most impressive careers in the annals of metal with his main band with which he reached several heights (the extraordinary “Vovin”, the 2004 double-disc masterpiece “Lemuria/Sirius B”) and continues going strong regardless of whether he sings odes to Jesus Christ and his miracles, or chases mythical dragons over the fields, mountains and far away. The man survived one of the riskiest, most eventful transitions on the scene; the untamed wild beast within would definitely lead him and his team to other daring musical metamorphoses.

Experimental but with a sloppy song writing - 52%

kluseba, August 26th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2000, CD, Nuclear Blast (Reissue, Remastered)

On its third output entitled Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas, Therion slowly starts to sound the way that most fans of the band are used to. This album still features some death and gothic metal influences however, especially in the form of powerful growls. The guitar work has become much more melodic, though. There are still a few faster riffs, but also classical-sounding melodies and some moments of melancholy. The twin guitar solos through this work recall several NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, and the use of keyboards becomes more prominent as well, in the form of atmospheric, instrumental soundscapes.

These aren’t the only changes. Christofer Johnsson remains as the only founding member on this record, and even though he recruited new bassist Andreas Wahl, drummer Piotr Wawryeniuk, and guitarist Magnus Barthelsson, Symphony Masses… is pretty much a solo album where the band leader experimented with effects and sounds in a way that old members never would have accepted. The song writing also changed as Therion moved even further away from standard song structures in verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus form. The new songs have a more narrative feeling and aren’t really catchy at all. Several tracks have direct transitions, as witnessed by the title track in two parts. The songs have also become much shorter and the eleven tracks here clock in at slightly below thirty-eight minutes. The lyrics remain occult, but feel much more elaborate and serious than before, relating to different ancient civilizations.

Therion clearly made a step forward here, and Christofer Johnsson describes this release as being perhaps the most experimental album Therion ever did. Despite all these positive innovations, I don’t like this release as much as its predecessor Beyond Sanctorum, or even as much as the band’s goofy but consistent and honest debut, Of Darkness.

How come? I simply feel that Christofer Johnsson wanted too much on this record. He wanted to experiment with new effects and sounds, while recording an album without any compromises by heading in a new direction. This album feels completely like an overambitious and directionless one-man project. Even after multiple spins, the eleven new tracks rush past me without leaving any deeper impression. There are no atmospheric goosebump moments, no catchy choruses or sing-along passages, and I miss the emotional, pitiless vocal outbursts of the first two releases. The keyboards are overused and sound pretty artificial, which wasn’t the case on the previous albums where they were used sparingly in the background where one wouldn’t hear how cheap they actually sounded. The death metal riffs are rehashed from past efforts, and only the new solos are convincing on this release. The rhythm section is less energizing than before, and sometimes doesn’t have much to do at all. In a few songs, the bass guitar breaks through the exchangeable riffs and keyboard layers and is able to prove itself with solid musicianship, but it’s not the standard. Finally, the growls are less brutal than before, but the few clean vocal parts work well and add an almost sacral tone to the record.

The few songs that unite sacral vocals, melodic guitar riffs and solos, and a few breaks for the rhythm section to shine show the enormous potential of early Therion. The highlights on this release are the hypnotizing and well-narrated “Dark Princess Naamah”, the short atmospheric “Symphoni Draconis Inferni” (that would later inspire bands like early Septicflesh), and the epic “Dawn Of Perishness”, due to its outstanding instrumental qualities. A couple of other songs have short interesting passages, but suffer from directionless song writing where too many ideas are put into a single track, or where passages drag on for far too long. Ironically, the shorter songs feel too short to develop their few promising ideas, while the longer tracks feel stretched and imprecise.

In the end, Therion wasted a lot of potential on its third record because of this imprecise song writing. The three songs I mentioned are brilliant, while the rest sounds half-hearted and unfocused. The experimental side of this release can be seen as a step forward toward Therion’s newer, unique sound that would guarantee the band’s international breakthrough. Many people will tell you that this is the best chapter of Therion’s early days. I can’t agree at all: I think Therion made one step forward but three steps back with a lack of gripping atmosphere, emotional, honest, and simplistic musical outbursts, and truly memorable music. I would only recommend this symphonic gothic metal release to die-hard Therion fans and those who are really into stuff like early Amorphis, Atrocity, Celtic Frost, Eternal Tears Of Sorrow, Paradise Lost, Septicflesh, and the like. After all, this is more of a transitional release in Therion's career which was probably very important for Christofer Johnsson himself but which isn't easy to digest for most of the listeners.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

The Call of the Red Dragon - 92%

Sean16, August 6th, 2009

Hailing Symphony Masses – Ho Drakon Ho Megas as the first genuine Therion release may appear at first glance strange. After all the two preceding straightforward death metal efforts aren’t less legitimate. It isn’t either the big watershed Theli will be. The lineup is completely different than on Beyond Sanctorum, however Therion lineup has always been anecdotal and no musician here will last long anyway, even while remaining conscious Piotr Wawrzeniuck has been an important figure in Therion’s own little world. Therions’s little world indeed – that may be the key word here. With lyrics for the first time exclusively dealing with the Occult, with extensive research for alien (especially mid-Eastern) sonorities, this album has to be the point where said little world is taking shape.

Ignoring the fact Christofer Johnsson is one of the highest-ranking members of Dragon Rouge (Red Dragon), a Swedish occult order deriving its name from (if I’m not mistaken) an old alchemy book, an order of which the grandmaster is no other than Thomas Karlsson who was soon to become Therion’s main lyricist, would prove a big mistake. Why? HDHM may still be classified as experimental/melodic death metal, but it’s a rather restrictive tag; some parts aren’t even metal to begin with. It is, above all, an ode to the Red Dragon. Look, the beast itself fills most of the cover artwork (the original, not the re-release), and even if half of the lyrics will forever remain a total mystery what you may grasp of them can’t suffer any contestation – On the back of the red great dragon / I am daemon Tabaan, or later The eyes of (...?) / The eyes of the Red Dragon – without forgetting titles like Symphoni Draconis Inferni or Ho Drakon Ho Megas which could hardly be more explicit.

Along with Him the Dragon has already brought all this strange bestiary which was soon to become mandatory in every further Therion release – Baal, Naamah, Theli, Qliphoth, be sure you’ll hear of them at one moment or another. The band’s personal niche is now fully set, the invocations can begin. At that time, and in spite of the timid experiments from the previous album, opera singers were still out of question. Christofer Johnsson is the one credited for all vocals here, still this doesn’t prevent this opus from featuring a good deal of intensively dark, low-pitched, incantatory clean chanting. Even setting apart the hypnotizing title track, Dark Princess Naamah or the gloomy Symphoni Draconis Inferni would work as textbook examples. Besides, talking about this interesting vocal work one couldn’t avoid mentioning the insufferable distortion on A Black Rose without which, like it or not, this mad metal dance wouldn’t be the same. If Johnsson has never been a stellar singer with his fairly standard bestial death growls, at least no one would deny he’s a pretty imaginative man!

Of course if the vocals perfectly complement the lyrics, the music in turn had to perfectly complement the vocals; meaning, be altogether bestial, oddly melodious and occult. This sounds like a weird combination, and HDHM is indeed nothing but a weird combination, but a weird combination which manages to remain fully homogeneous and fascinating. Even what’s probably the most messy track here, Dark Princess Naamah which mixes its majestic opening with an utterly brutal blast-beating middle part debouching without warning on the incantation, doesn’t strike as particularly incoherent. Neither does the intrusion of the mid-Eastern flavours of The Ritualdance of the Yezidis, nor the monolithic title track, hardly metal save for the opening doom riff, founded on an obsessive, resounding programmed drum, a synthetic trumpet as well as the sick, exalted voice of the officiant apparently on the verge of sacrificing himself (personal interpretation, but there can hardly be another explanation)... provided you’ve accepted the initial postulate this is more than an experimental death metal album, this is a ceremony glorifying the Red Dragon.

The production hasn’t been neglected, beautifully raw if it makes any sense. All the instruments are clearly heard, including the bass which plays a non-negligible part in the overall ambiance, but everything shows a raspy varnish which couldn’t be more fitting. Chanting keyboards were mandatory to provide this work with the majesty its sacred purpose required, far echo of the orchestrations the band will later be famous for, but they’re only punctually used in their proper time and place. Because there was no way they’d occult the fact this album features amongst the best riffs Therion ever came with, and it’s saying much. They are numerous, and only very few of them are kind of predictable – perhaps Procreation of Eternity, in spite of a nice old-school vibe, is a tad too mechanical. But when a release can together boast the riff orgy of Dawn of Perishness, longest song as well as monstrous pinnacle complete with cheering crowd samples, the monumental doom verse of Baal Reginon, the raging death metal assault of Eye of the Eclipse or the wonderful Powerdance as short as it’s rich, nitpicking about a few weaker moments becomes futile. Otherwise the solos are all pretty solid, and behind the drumkit Piotr W. sounds as inspired as usual but as said before, the true interest has to be found elsewhere.

Perhaps this review should be dedicated to all those people who bitched about Gothic Kabbalah being not symphonic, not operatic enough. Therion doesn’t need an orchestra or opera singers to sound like Therion. Symphony Masses doesn’t need this to sound, well, symphonic in its own twisted way. Understand this, you don’t even have to be deep into death metal to enjoy this little (38 minutes!) gem. This isn’t death metal. This isn’t opera metal. This is Therion, enough said.

Highlights: Baal Reginon, A Black Rose, Dawn of Perishness, Powerdance

Well… it’s some fantastic odd shit. - 94%

Corimngul, March 5th, 2006

Symphony Masses is one of my absolute favourite Therion albums. Admittedly, it’s no Theli, but it’s excellent in its own right. The original artwork looks great, and the music sounds just as great. Christofer Johnsson has later stated that he “As the old members had left the band I tried all the weird ideas I had in my mind that the earlier members never would have accepted. Perhaps the most experimental album Therion ever did.” Keep that in mind. It truly is an experimental album, and just as every other such experiment you either love it or you hate it.

It was an experiment in so many ways, and in a way an in-between album. The death metal-isms from Of Darkness and Beyond Sanctorum are still here, but the keyboard parts have been expanded, and elements have been collected from symphonic rock and heavy metal. All this makes Ho Drakon Ho Megas a very odd listen at first; sounding somewhat like experimental symphonic doom would do now, fifteen years later.

All the uncomercialisms and oddities made Symphony Masses flop, and led Therion to plan a split-up after Lepaca Kliffoth. People just didn’t understand this piece of art. Perhaps bass solos aren’t common enough to sell, I don’t know. In truth, the bass on this album is special. Andreas Wahl gives us some solos, uncommon lines and is much higher in the mix than what’s usual. It certainly adds to the character of this album.

More on, Therion became rather unfaithful to the death metal scene they used to dominate. There are signs of the things to come – Dark Princess Naamah is the first, but not the only song incorporating some very Therion-esque keyboard tones – especially in the intro. Still the death metal influences are apparent with grunted vocals, distortion and blastbeats.

The following description is bound to sound contradictive, but hey, if The Ritualdance of the Yezidis provides enough psychedelic oddities for an entire album, then you can barely imagine the full picture. Deep down (in some songs at least, A Black Rose for example) there’s a tone of classical metal underneath a more modern, brutal exterior which is once again flavoured with exquisite keyboard tones. Basically they were changing inside out, and this resulted in quite a dynamic album where the classic Theli keyboards first surfaced – listen to Ho Drakon Ho Megas and tell me I’m wrong!

I might be one of the few persons liking every part of this album, from the bass solo which starts the slow, bass-marked Baal Reginon, to the mother of the pulsating keyboards to be heard in Therion’s best song ever, Cults of the Shadow, Ho Drakon Ho Megas. If you only liked Therion for their pure, true death metal material, then this is probably not your cup of tea. If you’re a fan of Deggial and have little taste in extreme metal at all, well then you shouldn’t even touch the biscuit. If you appreciate Lepaca Kliffoth though, then you wouldn’t want to miss this one.

A unique album in (death)metal - 96%

Egregius, May 26th, 2003

This is the kind of album that showed the boundaries of death metal weren't completely explored, as Therion had already partially shown on their previous death metal albums where they were one the unique few bands that combined death metal with keyboards.

On the other hand this album showed that Therion had progressed out of the death metal stage where they had gotten the fame of being original within the boundaries of the genre, while still keeping a lot of the elements that were being heard on the previous effort.

The style change has effected itself most notably on the lyrics theme. The story behind it was that during the black metal heydays of 1992 when the church burnings in Norway were front page news and seemed to centre around Varg Vikernes, Therion as a Swedish death metal act, weren't considered 'true' enough. If you look for example to the lyrics of the first full album, the lyrics centered around how government=shit and that in a death metal band. Eventually a girl, who apparently was trying to impress Varg Vikernes in who she had a love-interest, set Christofer Johnsson's (the main member of the band) house on fire, with the note nailed to his door that if he didn't improve his act 'the Count' would be back (in another version of the story she just scorched his door and nailed a Burzum album to it).

A lot can be said about this sequence of events, but one thing that can be said is that it improved the music (note that Beyond Sanctorum was far from a bad album). Christofer Johnsson eventually moved to another country and joined the Swiss magickal cult of 'Le Dragon Rouge'. The third album, Symphony Masses, deals with various occult rites and occult subjects, as reflected in the song-titles. The lyrics are kinda hard to separate per song as they're all written in one line without separations and seem to be praise to various occult beings and gods (Lilith, Baal), partially in Hebrew and Aramaic as well.

The music itself could best be described as 'dark metal' (a genre I'd put Opera IX, Root and Master's Hammer in as well, and not simply because they all kick ass...or maybe because they do after all). It's not death metal, not heavy metal, and not exactly a mix either.
As said, this album takes a lot of elements from the previous album, and introduces a number of new elements, a lot of which return on the following albums.

The best part of this album, in my opinion, is its solidity in all possible ways. The song compositions are varied and original. Sometimes the ending of a song sounds totally different than the beginning, or even various parts of the same song differing almost completely without really making nonsensical song structures. In fact, the songs make perfectly good sense. Sometimes, for example, you'll hear the guitars play a chugging riff, then go into tremolo solo mode and then do a typically heavy metal melody.

The guitar play, with Christofer Johnsson being the guitar wanker he occasionally is ;), is interesting and original while being fitting to the music. The same could be said of the drumming, which I consider some of the better drumming in metal, not because it's ear-shatteringly brilliant, but because it fits the music so perfectly while keeping it interesting. Another strong point of the album is the audibles of the bass. Occasionally the album had me stunned because, unlike I'm used to, the bass was suddenly in the foreground doing a solo, after which it returned to play some unusual bass lines!

Christofer's vocals are a bit of gruff grunts or a grunty scream. On some tracks he uses a really dark low voice which I assume to be a bit studio-enhanced. The best description I could give of his vocals overall is that they hang halfway between his Beyond Sanctorum and Lepaca Kliffoth vocals (did that help?).

One final note on the keyboards: the fact that this album has keyboards doesn't mean they dominate the sound. On the contrary, they are only used very sparingly and on just the right occasions as well, I might add. If they're not subtle in the background, they usually fill up a lull in the music or do a lead into a new part of a song.

I hope I've piqued the reader's sufficiently enough to get him interested into the album, for it certainly deserves being checked out. This is the kind of album that you'll like if you like anything symphonic, bombastic, and/or anything with a tad of occult atmosphere. Or if you liked any of the Therion albums, basically. I can only imagine hardcore black metal fans being totally turned off by this (their interests being totally different) and death metal fans who mourn the demise of the Therion that did the first 2 albums or think this effort is too soft. Okay, maybe thrash diehards wont be interested either. This album is interesting on the basis of the sound alone (it has occasional nicely done sound effects).

Anyhow, if possible try to score the original release, not the Nuclear Blast re-release. In contrast with the re-releases of the first 2 albums, this one doesn't contain any bonus tracks, the original production *definitely* didn't need any remastering, and it would be a shame to have the excellent cover-art of a massive 'drakon' facing(?) a massive army of skeleton musicians. Not to mention the picture of a weird rite on the back of the booklet, and the fact that the re-releases don't have the lyrics.