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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah (06:45)
(The) Sun enter the Capricorn (and) the Star of Sin will shine
The King of Sodom drink again
Lady Babalons wine
(One) Hundred and Twenty days in the Depth of the Dead sea
And walk the Path of Peccatus
(and) the Setian alkhemy
Rise of Sodom
and Gomorrah
Reveal the gnosis
of Borora
The princess Justine
sing a song of her sin
of pleasure and pain
and (the) virtues in vain
to the ear that will hear
and the one without fear
to the old fallen ones and the forbidden thing they all have done
(The) Sun enter the Capricorn (and) the Star of Sin will shine
The King of Sodom drink again
Lady Babalons wine
Rise of Sodom
and Gomorrah
Reveal the gnosis
of Borora
Hear the king Bera
cry out in the land of Canaan
and the daughters of Lot
cry for their father and their god
('The Cry of Complaint of Sodom and Gomorrah
yes, it's loud and their sins are heavy')
02 Birth of Venus Illegitima (05:15)
Aphrodite is rising from the shell.
A newly born to be seen to expel from from the paradise,
to drink from her well.
O Venus illegitima
Born again without shame
Child of sin is my name
Aphrodite is falling into the hell of her sins and the lust
for that spell of the forbidden nectar from her well
03 Wine of Aluqah (05:04)
El-A'awer. Talbis Iblis.
Gulshan-i Raz. Zat-i Shaitan
Ya Zat-i Shaitan.
Drink the Wine of Aluqah and breathe the secret smoke of God.
Intoxicated by the green shadows of the Paradise.
Know that nothing's true and that everything is Permitted.
So read the Old Man of the Mountain in his Book of Lies.
El-A'awer. Talbis Iblis.
Gulshan-i Raz. Zat-i Shaitan
Ya Zat-i Shaitan.
Drink the Wine of Aluqah and breathe the secret smoke of God.
Intoxicated by the green shadows of the Paradise.
Know that nothing's true and that everything is Permitted.
So read the Old Man of the Mountain in his Book of Lies.
The Nectar Of Aluqah will run down my dreams.
The spring of this paradise hide deep inside unknown unconscious streams
04 Clavicula Nox (08:50)
Dark horizons come close to me and
magick will be my key
I will travel through the gate
to be the finder of my fate.
Nox, the night and key
I will open your old mistery
key of night, open up!
Deep abysses I sink into
and behind the light I go
my long journey never ends
but I will receive what I send.
Nox, the night and key
I will open your old mistery
key of night, open up!
05 The Wild Hunt (03:49)
Hunted by the gargoyles through labyrinth,
Loosing Arianes thread.
I'm gone astray!
Tumbling into chaos without anything
And my holyguardian angel has walked away.
ch:
I'm chasing my shadow inside my own soul,
I am the presecutor of myself in the wild hunt.
The horned God takes me through infernal journeys.
The dogs are barking and the owls cry at loud,
Shadows are laughing and screaming in my ears.
I see the outline of the horned Man-in-Black.
He strech his hand to my left shoulder in fear.
ch: ...
I throw mysels into all the demons,
I cast myself into the wild hunt.
The forest is the labyrinth of fear
And all the dead is running in the hunt.
I give myself unto all my demons
And let them eat of my mind and soul.
I will gain strange powers in this ravage,
I cast myself into the wild hunt.
ch: ...
06 Eye of Shiva (06:19)
Triunity of space
Inside the sacred maze
Shiva in the cosmic dance
The divine eye gaze
Eyes of Shiva dance the world
Lightening flashes from your eye
Destroy the ilusion
All destruction by a glance
Set the world in a trance
Inside the sacred maze
Shiva's cosmic dance
Eye of Shiva dance the world
Bom bom Shiva bom shankara
Bom bom Shiva bom rudra
Bom bom Shiva bom vama chara
Kala Tattwa
Great eye of Shiva, Thunderbolt rudra, unveil lady maya
Great eye of Shiva, dance the wolrd into the cosmic maze of outer space.
Unveil lady maya
11 Raven of Dispersion (05:57)
Fly alone into the dark and the cloud of memory
to see the world and angels be hurled into the sea
of misery and cease to be
Black bird fly, rise very high
to a place above (the) sky
Take me away, lead astray
where I find another day
Fly high to a place above the sky
Fly away where I find another day
Black bird fly, rise very high
to a place above (the) sky
Take me away, lead astray
where I find another day
Fly high to a place above the sky
Fly away where I find another day
The Black Bird carry me on it's wings
to a place beyond the flood of memory.
The Raven of Dispersion from
A'arab Zaraq fly in ecstacy.
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