Therion – ”Blood Of The Dragon” (Stygian Crypt prods / Possession prods)
The information that came with this double album was sparse, to say the least. Part 1 is Therion covering the likes of Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Thin Lizzy and Accept. All the tracks are supposed to be from compilations, but I know the cover of Accept’s ”The King”, was a bonus track on Vovin, which was released 20 years ago. So they might all be old, for all I know.
Quality wise, as you’d expect, the covers are excellent. From the string led intro of ”Fight Fire With Fire” to the weird sounds of Therion covering Thin Lizzy’s ”Southbound” from 1977, with a slight country edge and the wonderful female vocal version of Accept’s The King (which was originally sung by Accept bassist Peter Baltes), it’s just about perfect.
When reach the 6th track, the studio versions are swapped for live tracks and we get Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Motörhead. Again, nothing wrong with the quality, but the live tracks do cheapen it, for me anyway.
Rounding off CD1, the cover versions of Therion tracks begin, with a Brazilian musician, Ivanubis Holland, from what I found online, he’s actually a music professor. Of his two offerings, Raven Of Dispersion is head and shoulders above his rendition of ”Perennial Sophia”.
So CD 1 is complete and it’s good, but not outstanding
CD 2 has 16 tracks and I think I only know a couple of the bands, so I really have no idea what to expect, in terms of both style and quality. But with the album 2 years in the making, you’d expect it to be good. While most of the performances are very good, some of the production is lacking a bit of oomph… which is understandable as I’m sure most of these bands had a recording budget of about zero.
Highlights for me are Day 40 who cover, ”Invocation Of Naamah”, from 1997’s Theli and I love ”Whirlwind Storm”’s take on ”Liusalvheim”, which is from my favourite Therion album, Secret of the Runes. And the best of all, is Imperial Age and ”To Mega Therion”’, which is just as well, as they are on tour with them, right now.
With most releases like this, there’s some good and some bad… but the material that I personally deem to be good, is actually very good indeed… and the rest of it, well, that’s what the skip button was invented for.
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