Therion prove to be quite the draw!
This being the final and 106th show of the Lemuria/Sirius B tour, the final show in which band mastermind Christofer Johnsson will play older material or perform his death growls again and of course this being the final set of the first ProgPower UK, Therion have a lot to live up to. Fortunately, Therion pulled out all of their musical skills and took the crowd on a journey through the highlights of their discography, which was far and far by the best performance of the day.
Opening with a majestic 'The Rise Of Sodom and Gomorrah' (including strange belly dancers who would reappear throughout the set) Therion set out precisely what they would be entertaining us with for the next hour and a half; top notch symphonic metal with live soaring choruses. The inclusion of the 4-person choir is of course one of the better aspects of Therion's live performance, whilst the orchestration of the music is not live, the choir add that extra dynamo to the live performance and stop it being simply an orchestra CD played back with added guitars. The efforts of lead female singer Karin Fjellander were of special note, with her clear beautiful vocals rising above the orchestral metal beneath to an almost album level quality. With performances of all my personal favorites such as 'Ginnungagap' , 'Uthark Runa' and a grindingly heavy 'Typhon' this was a great set which managed to translate the bands musical quality to the live environment with no noticeable flaws.
The sound cannot be faulted, something I personally was glad of due to problems earlier in the day with Firewind and Secret Sphere. The guitars were suitably heavy, thankfully the drums were not overpowering and the choral and growled vocals were always audible. The bands performance too lived up to the sound they were provided with, whilst the chorus was fixed in place, the rest of the band enthusiastically charged around and across the stage to entertain us.
Closing with a superb rendition of the classic 'To Megatherion', Therion proved to be worthy headliners for ProgPower UK. The power of their song writing and playing abilities, the energy of their performance and many other factors added up to make this one great set. Whilst they are retiring for the summer to record the follow up to the Lemuria/Sirius B double album set, we can only hope that in the winter and new year Therion grace our shores with their appearance one again.