SIRIUS B

This is a quite decent album, but somehow the songwriting leaves me cold. It's also quite ordinarily structured, with songs mainly consisting of verse/chorus sections with alternating moods (usually power metal/male metal shouting vocals vs. symphonic power metal/female and male operatic vocals both in choir arrangements and solo). Harmonically it's quite tame, using chord progressions well known from other symphonic metal bands like Rhapsody and Nightwish, and of course also Therion's previous albums. Instrumentation is quite reduced compared to other symphonic metal albums - they're essentially just using drums, bass, guitars and vocal arrangements, keyboards and orchestra instruments are rarely used except for intros, outros and short interludes.

I'd definitely recommend their 2007 album Gothic Kabbalah instead of this one, but if you're a fan especially of Therion's early albums you'll also enjoy this one as well.