OF DARKNESS

Though it came out in 1991, apparently the songs on Therion's debut album were composed between 1987 and 1989. I can well believe this, since this is fairly primitive death metal material which is competently delivered - as you'd expect for songs Therion had been refining for a couple of years before they entered the studio - but which doesn't really display much in the way of creativity. More or less anything the band do here was done better by earlier death metal pioneers like Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Death - or, for that matter, the then-latest wave of death metal as represented by the likes of Deicide or Morbid Angel.

Though Therion would eventually find a distinctive sound through the incorporation of symphonic and gothic influences, there isn't a whisper of either on this album, leaving it a decent but disposable example of straight-ahead death metal which would probably have been entirely forgotten were it not for Therion's subsequent achievements.