Live in Midgård

Despite having some rotten eggs of late in their mostly excellent discography, one thing’s for sure: Therion’s one helluva live band! It doesn’t matter which tour they are doing, they never disappoint while on stage. I’ve been lucky enough to see them perform on seven occasions at the time of this review’s creation, and while there have been some shows that were more memorable and enjoyable than others (it mostly has to do with the venues themselves, but sometimes the setlist, a particular lineup or even personal issues come to matter), quality is always delivered by Christofer and co. And this quality has been faithfully recorded for Therion’s first proper live album, the double-disc awesomeness that goes by the name of Live in Midgård. Throughout the twenty-four tracks recorded during their Secret of the Runes World Tour, we can appreciate Therion's different stages of musical evolution, while we hear the cheering and whistling of the lucky Colombian, German and Hungarian metal brothers and sisters whose attendance was immortalized here.

Recorded with what I consider one of Therion’s strongest live lineups ever, (I’m not too enthusiast about Mats Levén and the subsequent metal singers that have performed in Therion’s more recent tours) this double-disc offering starts with quite a powerful one-two punch combo. “Ginnungagap” opens the ceremony, and being the first track of the Secret of the Runes album, it’s not a big surprise. However, this live version utterly obliterates the original one. The introductory buildup has an amazing atmosphere, with the Colombians screaming “Therion, Therion!” and when those drums and bass hit the first notes I always get the bumps. But then the whole thing just explodes at 1:40 as a powerful fill heralds the coming of the guitars. And man, they sound fuckin’ HUGE! There’s no option but to headband like there’s no tomorrow. But in fact, all the instruments kick ass, you can hear them all loud and clear, and they’re not overproduced, they sound LIVE as it should be. The bass is monstrous, as we can experience at the 5:27 breakdown of the song. Actually, the instruments slightly overpower the operatic voices, but this works amazingly to make this record sound really heavy.

And then, the mighty “Invocation of Naamah” arrives, and that’s when we realize that the main singer’s vocals, whether the ones from Anders Engberg or Mr. Johnsson himself, are as loud as the rest of the instruments, that is, a bit higher in the mix than the rest of the singers. So no worries there, and this version of the eight track from Theli is also on par with the original, if not better since it’s a meatier incarnation given the album’s amazing production. And from there, classic after classic of Therion material is delivered upon our eager ears. Worth mentioning is the pre-Lepaca Kliffoth medley, starting with “Symphony of the Dead” and finalizing with “Baal Reginon”. Those old songs are given a nice touch here, and while incomplete, they serve their purpose of exposing old Therion to newer fans. Also, you’ve got to love Christofer Johnsson’s introduction to track number five:

“Hope you remember this one.
It’s called the riders of…
The riders of…
THESE FUCKIN’ RIDERS OF…
THELI!”

Ah, legendary stuff. Anyway, the second disc is no short of goodies, and truth is it’s even better. It starts more bluntly with a great rendition of “The Wings of the Hydra”, then a couple of the (at the time) newer tracks, and then, everyone’s favorite tune starts to emerge like the Hydra’s heads from the water on the Lepaca Kliffoth cover artwork: “The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah”, “Beauty in Black”, “Seven Secret of the Sphinx”, “The Wine of Aluqah”, and of course, “To Mega Therion”. I remember the very first time I heard that song was during this tour, and everybody went crazy as fuck. I hadn’t listened the Theli version yet, which is amazing, but live it’s even more powerful, its energy permeating every blessed soul at the gig. I also find fulfilling that this version of “To Mega Therion” includes the “Preludium”, creating another memorable buildup. After that eight-minute tour de force, “Cults of the Shadow” closes the setlist in magnificent form.

Live in Midgård is amply recommended, even for a Therion newbie, since it’s almost a sort of “Best Of” besides an amazing live experience on record. Only downsides I can think of is that it’s not as good as attending a Therion concert, but it comes pretty close. Also, the outstanding cover versions of Accept’s “Seawinds” and ABBA’s “Summernight City” are songs that had previously appeared in other releases, and they could have recorded other covers instead. To go no further, the songs played at my home city during that tour were none others than Iron Maiden’s “Revelations” and Accept’s “Balls to the Wall”, and they owned completely. I remember being totally amazed by Anders Engberg’s performance. He respectfully gained the motto of “El Pelón” (the bald guy, in Spanish), since most of us didn’t know his name. His versatility was outstanding and I wish he had stayed longer with Therion, maybe even become a permanent member, but that didn’t happen. Anyway, the rest of the band was astounding as well, and that’s well documented in this live double-album. You won’t regret getting this!

Playing everywhere from giant areneas to smaller scenes, Therion still manages to get a more-than decent sound on this live recording. The vocals are hard to hear on some of the tracks though. The band meant this as a documentation of all their gigs in Hungary, South America and Mexico.

The cover artwork looks good on the front and the back of the CD-case - but in between... Therion usually makes better covers than this. But over to the actual music: Four people playing instruments and a six-person choir behind Christofer Johnsson makes some different sound than the usual Therion symphonic sound. There's no orchestra here. But they get it off well, just as they are supposed to do. And I missed Christofer's vocals a time, nice to have them back, but on Cults of the Shadows - no. Dan Swanöö's voice was much better.

All in all, a nice live album with a favourite band of mine, but not as good as the studio albums. This is not the album to start with. There are no real downhills on this album, but again there's no special top either.