Support: The Devil
Manning Bar, Sydney University.
Saturday, 15th September
To say that Swedish symphonic metal band founder Christofer Johnsson had undertaken an ambitious project with Beloved Antichrist in an understatement. The monster body of work was inspired by Russian philosopher Vladímir Soloviov’s A Short Tale Of The Antichrist and moulded into something of a modern rock opera. As Therion finally were able to take advantage of touring arrangements to China to make it to Australia for the first time, the set list was looking to be vast indeed especially since the band has played over fifty countries.
Johnsson’s approach for this tour was to present a wide ranging selection of material from his back catalogue and to intersperse various scenes from his yet to be fully realised metal opera to provide an immersive taste of his project and where it has evolved to at this point in time. So, three vocalists were present with this tour and they all added unique aspects to the old and new material. The result being that it was effectively a five piece band format with the singer spot being shared and combined amongst three singers. It was the end of their Beloved Antichrist tour with this show being their 94th show of the year.
Getting things moving tonight was a reportedly international band named The Devil whose whole look was similar to Ghost in that the five-piece all wore silver devil masks and were non-descript, dressed in black trousers, long sleeve shirts and playing all black instruments. The five-piece consisted of two guitarists, a bassist, keyboardist and drummer. To provide another level of visual interest, a rear projector screen flashed up various images such as space race themed visuals and the like whilst the band played their instrumental pieces accompanied by some snippets of pre-recorded dialogue. Their final song of the set was very similar to early Metallica instrumentals in tone, approach and attack. As they bowed to wander off, the audience, whilst entertained, appeared slightly perplexed.
Therion were soon onstage with no change to the drum kit but the backdrop projection was variable with flames visuals as the band appeared to open the show. As they kicked off with latest release track ‘Theme of Antichrist’, more rock attire oriented lead guitarist Christian Vidal got into the feel of the song at stage right, whilst Johnsson, resplendent in hat, glasses, vest, long sleeved shirt and trousers, let chords ring out on his red flying V guitar. Bassist Nalle ‘Grizzly’ Påhlsson was situated at stage right in black vest and black leather pants, in sync with drummer Sami Karppinen.
Lead vocalist Thomas Vikström sang brilliantly, decked out in scarf and regal jacket to soon be joined by soprano Chiara Malvestiti in a suitably gothic inspired long dress. The black metal tinged ‘Der Mitternachtslöwe’ from Gothic Kabbalah was next and introduced third vocalist Linnéa Vikström in a black dress, enjoying her final live performance with Therion. The blonde singer proceeded to bang her head with clenched fists as she traded vocals with Vikström with both Påhlsson and Vidal providing back vocals as Johnsson played the haunting melody line.
Thomas Vikström introduced the melodic ‘Son Of The Sun’ from Sirius, encouraging an audience sing along. Johnsson removed hat and glasses to play harmony parts with Vidal who coaxed the crowd to sing whilst the three vocalists sang together. Theli track ‘Invocation of Naamah’ was a heavier piece with strong drumming and a distinct neoclassical guitar feel against a driving, galloping rhythm figure that morphed into a musical interlude which offered up solos from both Vidal and
Johnsson.
The slow building ‘Clavicula Nox’ from Vovin followed and was led by Linnéa Vikström and also included some tasteful guitar work. Heavier material resumed with two Secret of the Runes tracks. First up, ‘Asgård’ provided harmonised guitar parts against soprano vocals as Johnsson ventured to the front of the stage. Secondly, three vocalists shared duties during the eerie ‘Ginnungagap’ celebrating the gods of the North of Sweden with the backdrop showing a scroll and band moniker.
Guitar playing was executed very well during this track with rousing guitar rhythms and solos.
The next track of ‘The Khlysti Evangelist’ was a set highlight with great song structure on display. The chorus rhythms were heavy whilst chiming spatial verses allowed the vocals room plus Karppinen’s cymbal work and drumming was on point with some expressive guitar soloing from Vidal. A couple of tracks from Lemuria followed with the operatic yet heavy and aggressive ‘Typhon’ led with ferocity by Linnéa Vikström and the gentle album title track led by Malvestiti and included more melodic guitar work.
Another Lemuria album song was soon heard with the moody, soprano led ‘An Arrow From The Sun’ which invoked audience handclaps but not before the much heavier Vovin track ‘Wine Of Aluqah’ was delivered with a muted rhythmic gallop and some melodic soloing from Johnsson casually throwing out a plectrum or two as the song hit double time.
‘Temple of New Jerusalem’ returned to the latest release and masterwork Beloved Antichrist. Once the song got going, it certainly had a very Accept based feel to it with Johnsson relishing the riff on his red flying V guitar. Theli track ‘Cults Of The Shadow’ continued in the heavy metal approach with plenty more band interaction as the well-rehearsed material also benefitted from pre-recorded keyboard lines before more traded guitar lines amongst the Eastern influenced track.
Another show highlight was the very heavy metal and hard rock sounding ‘Flesh of the Gods’ track from Deggial. Whilst there were plenty of fast tapping solos from Vidal, the band cranked out the rhythm parts side by side at centre stage, clearly enjoying themselves. To close out the main set, ‘Son Of The Staves Of Time’ from Gothic Kabbalah the stage was lit orange, led with soprano vocals, keyboard washes and a driving guitar figure with the rhythm section holding down the fort as vocalists traded parts with utmost power matching wide vibrato guitar lines and screaming harmonics.
Returning for the encore, the hypnotic ‘Rise Of Sodom And Gomorrah’ from Adulruna Rediviva & Beyond powered along with a canter as the band swayed left to right. A brief chat from Johnsson ensued with him thanking people, discussing recovery from neck hernia and farewelling Linnéa Vikström. The final track of the night had to be ‘To Mega Therion’ from Theli and was started with a song title call and response yelling contest. As the song progressed, vocal parts were traded then combined as the band crowded together during the harmony section. As the song concluded after some quick soloing, guitars were briefly played with teeth after which Johnsson held his guitar up high, pointing it skyward.
Although it was a slightly stripped back stage production, the musicianship and discography coverage was remarkable playing for around 105 minutes all up. Unless the touring gods align again in the near future, this may well have been the one and only time that Australian audiences will see Therion live. It was worth the effort of getting them down here because they delivered a superb show.
Theme of Antichrist
Der Mitternachtslöwe
Son Of The Sun
Invocation of Naamah
Clavicula Nox
Asgård
Ginnungagap
The Khlysti Evangelist
Typhon
Lemuria
Wine Of Aluqah
An Arrow From The Sun
Temple of New Jerusalem
Cults Of The Shadow
Flesh of the Gods
Son Of The Staves Of Time
Encore:
Rise Of Sodom And Gomorrah
To Mega Therion.