Therion - Les Fleurs du Mal (2012)

Celebrating their 25th year anniversary, today we have Therion and their latest opus “Les Fleurs du Mal”. In this very unique release, we have Therion doing what Atrocity did with their “Werk 80” release, but with French songs from the 60’s and 70’s, going for an even more retro approach. In the last release we thought that Therion was winding down since the album was “more of the same” and not much to write home about, but they have managed to revive themselves with this very interesting and engaging track that will have you falling in love with the band once again.

Cranking out fifteen tracks in 45 minutes, the band delivers quite a different spectrum when it comes to styles used in the covers of songs. Songs like the opener “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” have the signature Therion sound, but other like “Une fleur dans le cœur” show a completely different side of the band. We are most impressed with how Christofer Johnsson and company managed to transform these original French songs a bit into the Therion sound, and some of them even have a certain Victorian flair to them (like “Soer Angelique”). This makes this release quite a delight to discover how each of the songs presented in this release (if you know them from before) will sound with the sonic overhaul.

Sounds like “Mon amour, mon ami” are just majestic with the Therion treatment and the excellent vocal arrangements, both male and female. Other very well-known songs like “La Maritza” have been greatly improved by the instrumentation of the band and the beautiful female vocals of Lori Lewis, not to mention the dramatic male participation of Thomas Vikström. Reminding us a bit of Liv Kristine, “Lilith” is a another solid song that has great sounding guitar work and an overall interesting pace to it.

One of our favorite tracks is the very rich sounding “Wahala Manitou”. In this song the music is greatly enhanced and the dialog between male and female vocals is quite engaging. The heavy riffing and the epic closing just make this song even more magical. Another quite majestic track worth mentioning is “J’ai le mal de toi’, where we almost thought that a soprano la Andrea Bocelli was singing at times.

Breathing new life into the band “Les Fleurs du Mal” is an excellent release that takes us away from the band’s, as of lately, linear trajectory and delivers 15 excellent cover songs. With lush orchestrations, excellent instrumentation, and even more amazing vocal arrangements, this is probably the best Therion album we have heard since our favorites “Theli” and “Vovin”. If you are a fan of the band and Symphonic Metal, you cannot afford to miss this one.

Release: September 22nd, 2012

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Sweden