Beyond Sanctorum

by

Therion

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Despite negative press in the underground metal community, and somewhat lousy production to boot, Therion still succeeds in transending the usual tired crop of "look what I can do!" bands of similar build with "Beyond Sanctorum". The sound is very progressive and experimental, and I have to disagree with one of my fellow reviewers who called this a "transition to a transition album". True, this album falls right before Therion steers their sound into a tight symphonic metal outfit, but that is just how the chips fall. This is TRUE metal. Complex, brilliant, and often wandering into beatiful grinding sonic passages that one with an ear tuned to fine musicianship will appreciate. Need proof? Listen to "The Way", an astonishing 11-minute saga laden with perfectly layered guitar work and exotic insturments. Yes, the sound on this album is a little muddy, but don't let that detract you from experiencing one of metal's most overlooked and underrated death metal albums.

I know people who swear by this album, but for some reason, as far as I'm concerned, this album missed the mark. Therion attempted to keep very close to the death metal style that was started in their far superior debut album "Of Darkness", but Therion fails here to maintain both the strength in songwriting and the style that was present in "Of Darkness". They didn't lose their edge with this release, but there's just something missing (aside from the lousy production).

Of Therion's first three albums ("Of Darkness", "Beyond Sanctorum" & "Symphony Masses"), I think it's safe to say that this one is the worst. As odd as it might sound, I think it was because this album was a transition album for a transition album. By that, I mean that "Symphony Masses" was where they truly got more experimental and started the transition to a polished symphonic approach, and "Beyond Sanctorum" was simply a stunted attempt to get there. I also believe that, as experimental as "Beyond Sanctorum" may be, it was stunted due to the band members involved. Therion's frontman himself, Christofer Johnsson, states in the notes for "Symphony Masses" that "Symphony Masses" was the first album where he could truly experiment since most other band members had left at that point and wouldn't have approved of such experimentation had they been there. I think "Beyond Sanctorum" was the result of Johnsson trying to be progressive but was held back by the people he was working with. The end result is exactly that - a subpar execution of ideas. I absolutely love Therion's debut "Of Darkness" and I think "Symphony Masses" definitely has its strong points, especially for a transition album, but "Beyond Sanctorum" simply fails to meet expectations as it's the 'transition for a transition'.

The overall feel to this album is that it's another death metal contribution, but in songs such as the title track, it becomes obvious that there were songwriting discrepancies and difficulties. Had Johnsson been able to experiment on this piece as he wanted, who knows how it would have turned out, for better or worse. One thing is for sure, though - "Beyond Sanctorum" is beyond help. Even when it's remastered.