Therion / The Vision Bleak

Therion / The Vision Bleak
16 December 2007
The Fridge, Brixton, London

It seemed pretty apparent that The Vision Bleak were new to most people in The Fridge. Whilst the reception wasn’t as icy cold as the venue on entrance (living up to its name), after each sudden burst of applause following each song, the Germans were met with a collective silence.

Markus Stock and Tobias Schönemann (or Ulf Theodor Schwado and Allen B. Konstanz if you prefer) were joined by a session guitarist, bassist and drummer to convey their vampiric metal. Their short set touched on all three albums, though it has to be said each song did feel familiar to the last, with each centred round a mid pace stomp and similar patterns of the vocals. Having said that, with good sound, The Vision Bleak’s brand of gothic doom was fairly entertaining. Schönemann did his best to get the crowd involved, jumping in the photopit twice, though his attempts to get the crowd to shout “Kutulu!”, were met with an embarrassing silence.

The Vision Bleak set list:
The Demon Of The Mire / Carpathia / The Grand Devilry / Kutulu! / By Our Brotherhood With Seth

After a half hour break, during which roadies in hooded cloaks set up Therion’s elaborate stage, two women wearing an elk and baphomet mask strode onto the stage with flags and were chained to poles at either side on the stage. Rise Of Sodom & Gomorrah opened the set with Arien, a belly dancer, at the front swirling gold wings.

Tonight Therion consisted of core members Christofer Johnsson and Kristian Niemann on guitars, Johan Niemann on bass and Petter Karlsson on drums. For this tour Therion were employing live keyboards rather than backing tapes and it has to be said Ferdy Doernberg did a great job in allowing the band to sound more fluid. The vocal team consisted of Snowy Shaw, Thomas Vikström and Lori Lewis, with a special guest to appear later.

Lewis took the main vocal role for Son Of The Sun, whilst Shaw headed to the front to gee up the crowd. This was a role Shaw took for the duration of the show along with master of ceremonies. With an excellent sound, Lewis vocal could shatter glass and was amazingly sharp.

The pairing of Midgard and Asgard followed, with Johnsson headbanging furiously centre stage to the later which Kristian Niemann wrapped up with an excellent guitar solo. Arien the dancer returned for Wine Of Aluqah and the uptempo nature of the song got a good reaction from the crowd. Towards the end of the song, the elk and baphomet became restless with their chains until they had broken free and captured Shaw, putting him into a set of stocks. With the elk gripping his hair, Shaw sang the Wisdom & The Cage whilst captive. This song was a personal favourite of mine on the Gothic Kaballah album and it was great to hear it performed live. Towards the end of the song, Vikström emerged with a whip, fighting off the elk and baphomet and freeing Shaw.

Having thanked his rescuer, Shaw went on to introduce the whole band, but it was also time to introduce a further guest, Messiah Marcolin, of course formerly of Candlemass. In his usual monk’s attire, Marcolin hit the stage in his typically mad style, shouting “Doom dance” and indulging in his trademark stomp. Singing for the duration of Kali Yuga parts I & II, Marcolin’s rich voice really added to the performance. As Marcolin departed Therion continued with part III or the Kali Yuga trilogy which has not yet been committed to cd.

Chairs were brought out for an acoustic version of Lemuria, though there was a slight delay when Johnsson dropped his guitar, cutting his hand in the process. Jokingly Shaw asked the crowd if they had any plasters and astonishingly a box was thrown onto the stage. With Johnsson patched up the song was played with Shaw and Doernberg also playing acoustics.

Doernberg then took the limelight on his keyboards. Mock church organ pipes were the backdrop to his podium and a solo of the organ followed, with Rule Britannia cheekily included before the band joined in with Via Nocturna.

The tale end of the first set was a treat with An Arrow From The Sun getting the crowd clapping and Typhon picking the pace up. Shaw handled the gruff and tenor vocals for Typhon and his growth in vocal range has been impressive. In addition to those styles he was also comfortable with falsetto when required. The mere introductory riff off Ginnungagap received a huge cheer from a crowd who were soon chanting “hey, hey” as the first half of the show drew to a close.

After a short intermission, as had been promised Therion returned to play Theli in its entirety. Shaw emerged in white fur chaps and arm bands whilst wearing the baphomet mask as the Preludium introduction commenced. To Mega Therion has generally been one of the set closers when I’ve last seen the band and the reaction of both band and crowd shows it is a favourite. Johnsson played his guitar behind his head at one point during the song. Cults Of The Shadow saw Shaw and Vikström jigging and swinging each other round. Meanwhile the hilarity continued during In The Desert Of Set, when Shaw tried unsuccessfully to pop a balloon which had drifted onto the stage with his mic stand. Such light hearted moments gave warmth to the performance.

With a cheeky grin, Niemann seemed to slip a bit of Mr Crowley’s solo into Nightside In Eden and the dancer returned for Opus Eclipse. Vikström took the lead vocal for Invocation Of Naamah with Shaw handling the gruff vocals for this uptempo number.

The Siren Of The Woods was like a mini West End show all on its own. Commencing with Johnsson and Niemann bathed in atmospheric green light, Lewis and Vikström acted the song out like an excerpt from Phantom Of The Opera, with Vikström lying in Lewis arms on the stage in the solos. Wrapping up Theli, the three singers together with a raven haired woman, previously the elk, emerged with black flags for Grand Finale / Postludium.

Thanking the audience for coming to see Therion on their 20th Anniversary tour, Shaw noted the tour was entitled Adulruna Rediviva, and said song followed. During the song, a Santa hat was tossed on stage and caught by Shaw. Putting the hat on, in a falsetto voice, Shaw proclaimed himself “Evil Santa!”.

There was still time for a couple of covers to close the show and the first of these was very special. Messiah Marcolin took to the stage once more for an awesome run through of Mercyful Fate’s Black Funeral. The combination of Shaw’s falsetto with Marcolin’s deep tone worked a treat and Niemann took pleasure ripping through an excellent solo at the end.

Not wanting to end things on a funeral note, Therion wrapped things up with a song from a very famous band from their own country. Abba’s Summernight City shouldn’t have worked, but in Therion’s hands it did and the band took great pleasure having their crowd sing along with an Abba song. As he addressed the crowd at the end of the show, Johnsson noted “I guess I achieved something, getting metalheads to bang their heads to Abba songs”. Signing off with “Thanks for the last 20 years, I’m looking forward to the next 20.” I can only echo that final comment based on tonight’s spectacular.

Therion set list:
Rise Of Sodom & Gomorrah / Son Of The Sun / Midgard / Asgard / Wine Of Aluqah / Wisdom & The Cage / Kali Yuga I / Kali Yuga II / Kali Yuga III / Lemuria / Via Nocturna / An Arrow From The Sun / Typhon / Ginnungagap / Preludium (Intro) / To Mega Therion / Cults Of The Shadow / In The Desert Of Set / Interludium / Nightside Of Eden / Opus Eclipse / Invocation Of Naamah / The Siren Of The Woods / Grand Finale / Postludium / Adulruna Rediviva / Black Funeral / Summernight City


LINKS:
Therion
The Vision Bleak