Therion – The Fridge 2007

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Although Therion acknowledged their 20th anniversary back in January with a stage banner proudly displaying the years 1987 and 2007, they didn’t really go much further towards marking the occasion as the tour was primarily to support their new album Gothic Kabbalah. This tour, dubbed the ‘Adulruna Tour’, was specifically undertaken to celebrate the band’s 20 years, with special guests, extra long shows and a host of other surprises, their aim was to make it one of the most memorable tours they’ve ever undertaken.

The details of exactly what the tour would include were announced piece by piece on the band’s website, the first of which being that part of the show would be the entire Theli album, the record widely credited with defining the band’s now famous classical-meets-metal sound, in its entirety. Support would come from The Vision Bleak and Sirenia and there would also be some changes of vocalists once again as Mats Leven (Krux) announced his departure from the band. His replacement is former Candlemass and Stormwind singer Thomas Vikstrom.

Soprano singer Katarina Lilja also didn’t take part in this tour, leaving Lori Lewis to handle all the soprano vocals by herself. The rest of the band, including former Dream Evil drummer Snowy Shaw on vocals remained unchanged. In addition to these ‘regulars’ there were to be many special guests. For the entire tour multi-instrumentalist and current Axel Rudi Pell/Rough Silk keyboard player Ferdi Doernberg would be playing keyboards, with many of the songs rearranged to include new keyboard parts specially for this tour, while the other guests were to appear at selected shows. One of these was Mats Leven, but he was unfortunately not appearing in London.

Sirenia were forced to cancel their involvement on the tour and instead of finding a replacement Therion elected to play an even longer set, stretching to nearly three hours. Personally I was a little concerned this would be too long for me, unfamiliar as I was with most of Therion’s pre-Lemuria material, but I needn’t have been. The band and the show were simply stunning.

Led out by two female flag-bearers in ornate headdresses the band took the stage to a typically grandiose symphonic intro tape before starting The Rise of Sodom And Gomorrah from Vovin with the help of special guest dancer Arien. The setlist for this tour, minus Theli, was voted for by fans on the band’s website. People were asked to select their favourite albums, and their favourite tracks from those albums. The band then played the three most popular songs from the most popular albums, and less songs from the less popular ones, making sure every album post-Theli was represented.

Theatrics were minimal as the band let their musical performance do most of the work. Snowy sang Wisdom And The Cage from Gothic Kabbalah (not played live until this tour) from a set of stocks after being attacked by the two flag-bearers, who had remained stock still on pedestals on the front corners of the stage for five songs. He was freed at the end by Thomas. Otherwise it was all about the music. Vikstrom is a much better singing partner for Shaw than Leven was. Leven was too ‘rock ‘n’ roll for Therion’s music, but Vikstrom’s voice is better suited, being lower and more operatic. Also with Leven not there to adopt the front-man role, Shaw took over with relish. Having seemed a touch unsure of himself on the Gothic Kabbalah tour, several months of touring as a singer seems to have instilled plenty of confidence (not that Shaw is naturally a timid man).

Shaw introduced the band before bringing out the evening’s other special guest, former Candlemass singer Messiah Marcolin, who sang Kali Yuga parts one and two before departing (to be seen later happily greeting random members of the audience), leaving the band to play Kali Yuga Part 3, the as-yet-unreleased third part of the trilogy.

A small delay followed as, while setting up chairs and acoustic guitars for Lemuria, band leader Christofer Johnsson dropped his guitar, cutting his hand. After patching it up with a plaster they continued, with Shaw and Doernberg also playing acoustic guitars. Doernberg had a short organ solo, throwing in Rule Britannia, before Via Nocturna and Arrow From The Sun, then Shaw did an immense job on Typhon, comfortably switching between death growls and clean vocals. Ginnungagap played out the first half of the show and the band departed for a short break to prepare for Theli.

Theli, of course, begins with ever popular live favourite To Mega Therion which the band launched into following the Preludium intro tape. Shaw had changed into his famous thigh-length bear-skin boots for this performance and Vikstrom’s Punisher-to-Nosferatu transformation was complete as he emerged in a white frilly shirt. A few personal theatrical and comedic touches (Shaw fighting to burst a balloon with a staff and Lewis and Vikstrom emotionally acting out The Siren of The Woods) permeated the Theli performance, which was flawless and left many fans in gaping disbelief.

The other song the band had promised to play from Gothic Kabbalah, also not played on the last tour, was the epic Adulruna Rediviva, the namesake of the tour, and they closed this second set with it in grand fashion. Just enough time for a short encore with Marcolin rejoining the band to sing a cover of Mercyful Fate‘s Black Funeral with Shaw, who was once their drummer, before a huge rendition of their popular version of Abba‘s Summernight City, ringmaster Shaw getting the most out of the crowd on the final choruses.

This show was one of the best performances by anyone all year. Every member of the band was on amazing form (some of Kristian Niemann’s solos were breathtaking) and their music is so powerful and involving that knowing the songs inside out really isn’t necessary. A perfect way to end the gigging year of 2007.

“ simply stunning ”

Setlist: The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah / Son of the Sun / Midgard / Asgard / Wine of Aluqah / Wisdom And The Cage / Kali Yuga part 1 / Kali Yuga part 2 / Kali Yuga part 3 / Lemuria (Acoustic) / Via Nocturna / An Arrow From The Sun / Typhon / Ginnungagap // 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

Photo(s): Johan Eriksson | www.rockersdigest.com

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Symphonic, Therion