LEVIATHAN

A return to form for Therion. The songs are almost as good as the Vovin/Crowning/Deggial/Lemuria/Sirius B era. I'll put them at 99% close. Interestingly some of the best material on this album was written by Thomas Vikstrom (Nocturnal Light and Ten Courts of Diyu- although the one hit Tuonela was Christofer Johnson). Yet they primarily use prerecorded symphony clips, which again is maybe 95% close to using a real string quartet or real symphony but just doesn't quite sound as good. Then to top it off the guitars are mixed into the background so the symphony is more prominent but overall the sound is less heavy and weaker. All of it together the album can only come maybe 95% close to the glory days of Vovin, Secret of the Runes, Lemuria/Sirius b. But coming close is still a damn good album. An improvement compared to what they have done since the line up change (sitra ahra, Les fleurs du mal, Beloved anti-christ- which were good but not as good as the Nieman brothers era). Beloved anti-christ is my second favorite album after secret of the runes IF you have to cut out over half of the material and only listen to the hits (this is if you like more classical/opera side of therion) but I'll still place Leviathan as a solid performance above Beloved anti-christ because there are no bad songs on it. The sound mixing on Leviathan is closer to Beloved anti-christ than it is to the Niemann era- guitars and drums put into the background as just one instrument of many and the symphony really coming out clearly to the front. But the problem here is the symphony is mostly sound clips (with the exception of a real violin solo in psalm of retribution) they used and while it is quite good in places just doesn't compare to some of the amazing symphony or keyboards of previous albums. I believe the lack of real symphony and the weak mixing is keeping this album from greatness more than the song writing itself. As soon as Therion ditched the real symphony back on Gothic Kabbalah they started going downhill. But at least with Gothic Kabbalah they used a really great keyboard player. On this album we don't even have a real keyboard player. Just various symphony clips pieced together into the songs. Well, like I said, this is the strongest album they have made since Lemuria/Sirius b but still doesn't top the old stuff. I'll give it four stars instead of three just based on two excellent and unique songs (although all songs are good they aren't essential). Nocturnal Light and Ten Courts of Diyu. Tuonela is also a great Nightwish style song which is the main hit of the album.