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[miko2]

Today's Song: Quetzalcoatl by Therion

Therion - Quetzalcoatl (Again, set to anime & gaming images.)

Therion is another band that I discovered via iTunes last January, and in this case I actually went out and bought a cd of theirs, Lemuria. I have yet to decide how much I like the band, but several of the songs on the cd I have are ones that I like a great deal. One of them is Quetzalcoatl, which demonstrates pretty clearly how Therion is more of a symphonic/operatic metal band than a goth metal band (officially they are labelled a symphonic metal band, and indeed are considered one of the founders of the whole genre).

In particular they like to employ full choirs, sometimes for all the vocals in a given song. At other times the band leader sings in his death metal growl, but usually trading off with choirs still. His voice usually sounds like it's been processed a bit. Really, their whole sound has a processed feel to it, which makes you wonder how it comes out live. But I don't have to wonder... here's the band performing Typhon, another favorite of mine from Lemuria, and they have a male and female vocalist with them on stage to help pull it all off. The sound, while harder to hear in a live concert setting, is actually pretty close to the original studio sound. Quite impressive.

Therion - Typhon

This is a highly orchestrated brand of metal, similar in some ways to Nightwish, Within Temptation, Tristania, and also to things like Avantasia, but Therion has their own sound that helps them stand apart from the crowd. In part I think it's their very heavy use of choirs for the vocals, which is unlike most bands. As far as I know this band doesn't contain a full-time female singer or even a full-time "clean vocal" male singer; instead they bring choirs and orchestras into the studio when they record, and have vocal "collaborators" that even go out on tour with them.