Therion - Leviathan II (2022)

Therion is one of those bands that is always consistently good and when they set on producing a trilogy of releases that consolidated the style of their most popular songs, they were not messing around. With “Leviathan II” the listener gets treated to over 53 minutes and 13 tracks of superbly catchy Symphonic/Operatic Metal they basically invented and have been refining over the years. As a quintessential release for any of the band’s fans, this release should be in your collection.

Kicking off the release we have the lively “Aeon of Maat”, a song with a very crafty tempo and the band’s signature dueling Heavy Metal and operatic vocals courtesy of Thomas Vikström and Lori Lewis. This formula gets nicely complemented by lush choir arrangements and dramatic use of classical instrumental elements, as we can hear in “Litany of the Fallen”, “Alchemy of the Soul” and one of our personal favorites “Lunar Coloured Fields”.

With a rather simple and catchy Hard Rock/Heavy Metal core, perfectly adorned by lavish atmospheric elements, the band effortlessly delivers very streamline and engaging pieces that always make you remember their past discography, while adding twists and turns to make them into new songs. The very familiar “Lucifuge Rofocale” and the moody “Marjin Min Nar” are perfect examples of the band’s timeless sound and elements perfectly re-arranged to produce exciting and new pieces.

Our favorite tracks in this release have to be the superb “Codex Gigas” and its haunting vocal melodies, alongside “Pazuzu” and its superbly catchy choir arrangements. Both of these tracks show Christofer Johnsson’s ability to craft very simple and yet very engaging melody lines that just make songs magical. As a whole, “Leviathan II” is as good as the first part, and it also delivers some of the most catchy Therion songs to date, so don’t miss out.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: October 28th, 2022

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Sweden