Therion

Beyond Sanctorum (1992)

On Beyond Sanctorum, Therion maintain their roots in Celtic Frost as a foundation for a lot of their riffing, merged with Swedish melodic sensibility and write darkly ominous, constantly shifting death metal. The real trick to their success on this release is that they give their compositions more room to breath, whether this is with longer, more epic song formats (see The Way or Symphony of the Dead), or at times stunning melodic (reverb backed) mid-paced sections (see the back-end of the opening track or Cthulhu). The album is full of life, and a high level of dynamism, for instance Gothic moments are occasionally incorporated, as are symphonic deviations and progressive elements (both from within and outside of Metal). The song-writing is of course top notch, with mood changes used to fit the context of the experience being communicated, rather than them being the experience itself. This subtlety means all the difference here.