Band:	Therion
Album:	Leviathan III
Style:	Symphonic metal
Release date:	December 2023

01. Ninkigal
02. Ruler Of Tamag
03. An Unsung Lament
04. Maleficium
05. Ayahuasca
06. Baccanale
07. Midsommarblot
08. What Was Lost Shall Be Lost No More
09. Duende
10. Nummo
11. Twilight Of The Gods

Yep, that's a “III” in the album title. As the final part of a trilogy, are there any surprises in store for us on Leviathan III? Well, actually…

Actually, the album even starts out in a quite surprising way, with “Ninkigal” being a tribute to the Babylonian queen of the underworld that goes by as quickly as it comes, throwing everything from Nightwish-style “ooh, aah”s and, as always, impeccable singing by Lori Lewis to prominent black metal screams and a scathing-through-melodic guitar solo at us. Now, I hardly have anything bad to say about a band like Therion, but when said band is closer to two dozen studio albums than it is to, uhh, one dozen studio albums, and on top of that releases a trilogy of albums, I can't help but expect Therion by the numbers, and though “Ninkigal” is far from the only song of theirs that feature harsh vocals, it's a rare enough event at this point in the band's career. I don't know about you, but stuff like that makes me sit up and take notice, and raise my expectations quite a bit.

We enter more stripped down territories with “Ruler Of Tamag”, which reminds me more of Gothic Kabbalah than any other Therion album. Its main elements are an acoustic melody that soon turns into (predictably half-assed production-wise) distortion backing up some pretty classy choirs. In contrast, “An Unsung Lament” comes as close to arena rock as this band is ever likely to come, with a main riff taken straight from the 80s hard rock cookbook, but containing enough twists and turns to remain interesting enough throughout, even though feeling a bit jarring with all of the implausible elements fighting for attention.

It is here that I start to really wonder about the wheres and whys of the entire “Leviathan” process. Let's have a quick look back on the previous instalments in this series, shall we? On the first album, to quote Radu’s review of it, “Therion give you exactly what you want”, which is a fair assessment, as it was basically a cavalcade of potential singles. In contrast, the second album felt more like a band doing what they felt like and are good at, reaching back into the discography to pluck some of the lower-hanging fruit in there to bring into the current decade. So, if number one was the sound of a band giving you what you want, and number two the sound of a band giving themselves what they want, what about number three?

I'm not sure there even is a way to summarise this album in as succinct a way as the first two albums of the trilogy, but listening onwards, as I reach the hypnotic, memorable and unpredictable centrepiece “Ayahuasca” (don't try DMT at home, kids, or actually, that's exactly where you should stay if you do try it), I start to arrive at some sort of conclusion: Leviathan III is the sound of a band more or less doing whatever the hell they want. Now, it might very well be that this album consists of leftovers and b-sides that didn't make the cut on the previous two albums, but if that's the case, Therion could've fooled me, because the more experimental and unpredictable nature of the music here compared to previous albums make Leviathan III come off as a surprisingly non-superfluous instalment in the trilogy.

It does not pass the test without a bunch of remarks, however, my main gripe being the still-way-too-flat production. I think I get what Christofer and the gang are aiming for here, but their attempt at combining symphonic metal with a retro-sounding hard rock soundscape doesn't work nearly as well as they seem to have hoped for, and I vastly prefer the lusher, more thunderous production on for example Lemuria and Sirius B. One thing that speaks in this production’s favour however is that the guitar sound makes for some guitar solos that really sound like they're on fire, but the riffs are a bit on the weak side and the vocals, although they as always are the main pulling factor, are a bit too loud in the mix, making the entire “metal” aspect of the music drown somewhat.

Another gripe I have is that the second half of the album isn't as interesting as the first half, which is a shame, as Therion albums tend to be anything but front-loaded, often hiding their best cuts towards the end of the tracklist. Most of these songs are shorter, vocals-focused pieces that are all catchy enough but after a while start to sound a bit interchangeable. The doom-meets-ABBA on the closing track and the dramatic “Duende” are notable exceptions, the latter being introduced by operatic, tortured lyrics in Spanish backed by flamenco guitar. While perhaps not the best, these are some of the more interesting Therion songs I've heard in a while.

This goes for the entire album, in fact. It's not the best Therion album I've heard, but it's one of the more interesting ones, containing some very good songs but sadly being dragged down by a multitude of shorter, less interesting songs that do seem like b-sides from earlier recording sessions. When it's good, it's great, and when it's not, it's at least very well performed, but I wouldn't expect anything else from Therion.