June 2020 Feature Release - The Guardians Edition

It's now June which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.         

This month's feature release for The Guardians is 2001's classic "Secret Of The Runes" album from Swedish symphonic metal gods Therion. We've previously featured Therion's universall praised 1996 album "Theli" & there's been a lot of debate over which of these two albums is actually the pinnacle of the subgenre over the years so have your say & tell us which is truly deserving of the title.

https://metal.academy/releases/3656

I didn't know anything about Therion before checking out this record from them and my initial reaction was...these guys were influential?

I've listened to many power metal/symphonic metal bands during my lifetime, specifically those European groups that came out during the 90s (Nightwish, Epica, Rhapsody). But upon hearing this record, I found it super boring. The songs themselves are very redundant, the melodies are quite simple and forgettable, and their is very little (in any) variety between tracks. I now know why this group avoided my radar during my symphonic metal binge back in the day

5/10

I think I'll try to write out reviews for Theli as well as Secret of the Runes in the next few days, but as I said before I really disliked Therion before coming back to their material. I can see where Saxy is coming from with their music being a slog as I grew up with Nightwish/Epica/Rhapsody as well, but I think Therion represents a very classic version of Symphonic Metal that is wholly different than the standard modern version of the genre. This style is less riff based, slower and heavier, and draws more inspiration from older styles of Metal rather than trying to completely modernize. With Nightwish exploding onto the Metal scene with 1998's Oceanborn and 2001's Wishmaster they proved themselves to be much more accessible than Therion, and for good reason. Nightwish's sound is overly bombastic in a different way than Therion's, which leans closer to Power Metal and really aims to showcase their fantastic female vocalist. Most Nightwish-esque Symphonic Metal is high tempo, high energy, and takes advantage of more memorable riffing as the orchestration takes more of a backseat compared to the vocals. I think Therion's approach showcases the Symphonic Metal package much better than Nightwish/Epica even though it is admittedly less exciting at face value. Secret of the Runes is a surprisingly beautiful album and while it lacks some of the energy that Theli had it does a fantastic job at really merging the orchestra with the Metal based songwriting. The bouncing male choir and female operatic voices also give it a unique feel as well. 

4/5

After writing out my review and listening to both Theli and Secret of the Runes many, many times as well as checking out Vovin (What happened there guys, god that was boring), I have to say I prefer Secret of the Runes even though it's very close. Theli is the classic Symphonic Metal experience with galloping riffs and bombastic strings, but Secret of the Runes really brings a progressive thematic element to Therion that I really enjoy. I love the premise behind this album of being about the nine realms of Norse Mythology and even though it can get repetitive I think the tracks are meant to share some similarities to really sell the theme. It's a totally unique Symphonic Metal album that, in my opinion, goes hand in hand with Theli to show how classical music influences can work extremely well with darker and more mysterious themes.