Therion
Vovin

THE REVIEW

It is difficult to review an album by Therion.

Their music has the ability, every time its echo is heard, to astonish, and it has the merit of revealing new details previously unknown within itself, enveloping complex and lyrical compositions with charm and great refinement, inspired by a genius unknown to most, invisible, that is certain, unless one sits down and sharpens their ears well to understand all the different facets and all the areas and recesses. Although admitting all this, it must be said, with Therion, is easier said than done.

"Vovin" is the album that was released, in its time, immediately after the experimental and very successful "Theli". Even though comparisons between the two albums are absurd, it can be stated with certainty that the undefined edges and instrumental density of the band, in this work, have grown and strengthened enormously. To the ancestral, arcane, and decadent lyricism of the songs, that ever-serpentining touch of immense nostalgia and sadness is added; a bit like wanting to express a work in concepts using metaphors and tricks masterfully connected to each other. A symbolic path pervades "Vovin," which walks along a liquid and enchanting orchestral balance and unravels along rocky riffs of guitars, powerful, well-structured, and precise to the millionth of a millimeter.

"The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah" is the prelude to a masterpiece studded with sonic gems and precious baroquisms that never appear boring, even if, in their obsessive and lively sonic exploration, they might be judged, at times, bewildering. But ultimately, this is precisely what is expected from Therion: that they astonish, that they are always superlative, that they know how to seamlessly merge junctions between different genres without being able to tell where the firsts begin and the seconds end. And, if I may, with "Vovin" they certainly succeed, creating a pure work of atmosphere, a complex and yet stunning puzzle of sounds, expressing a refined art fueled by the genius that possesses them. It’s pointless to describe the album song by song, I will only mention those that most succeed in immersing the individual in that very particular atmosphere I mentioned above, but, let it be clear, only by way of example and not to belittle the others because, let it be known, for those who have not yet listened to "Vovin," each song is a piece in itself, imbued with incredibly sophisticated magnificence and sublime decadence, which can only ensnare.

And so, let yourself be enchanted by "Clavicula Nox," by "Black Diamonds" (never was a title more fitting for a song that well expresses the concept I would like to communicate for the entire work), by "Black Sun/Draconian Trilogy," by "Wine of Aluqah," by all the others still, wishing you, if only it were possible, that the dream described here never ends.