OF DARKNESS

"Of Darkness..." is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Therion. The album was released through Deaf Records in February 1991. Since forming in 1987 under the Blitzkrieg monicker, and shortly working under the Megatherion monicker in 1988, before changing their name to the current one, Therion released three demos and the 1990 "Time Shall Tell" EP, until being signed by Deaf Records for the release of "Of Darkness...".

All 8 tracks on the 39:29 have appeared on the early releases by the band. The 4 tracks from "Time Shall Tell" (1990) are featured here in re-recorded versions. "Morbid Reality" and "The Return" are culled from the April 1989 "Paroxysmal Holocaust" demo, "Megalomania" are taken from the November 1989 "Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness" demo, and finally "Genocidal Raids" first appeared on the 1990 "Rehearsal" demo.

So there isn´t anything new here if you own the previous releases, but the versions of the songs on "Of Darkness..." are all re-recorded tracks, recorded in August?September 1990 at Sunlight Studio, Stockholm with producer Tomas Skogsberg. Although it doesn´t beat some of the earliest Swedish death metal albums in terms of release date (albums like "Dark Recollections" by Carnage and "Left Hand Path" by Entombed were both released in early- to mid 1990), it is still one of the early Swedish death metal releases, and considering that Therion formed as far back as 1987, they were arguably quite an influential part of the early Swedish death metal scene.

Although the sound production and the musicianship are decent enough, "Of Darkness..." falls a little short in the songwriting department. Re-recording demo material that wasn´t that great to begin with maybe wasn´t the best choice that Therion could have made, but that´s what they opted to do on "Of Darkness...", and as a consequence it´s not a particularly strong death metal release. There are too many unremarkable tracks and sections and not many tracks leave a lasting impression either. So it sums up to a decent but not great release, and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)