THERION Les Fleurs De Mal CD (Signed) 2012

Therion have been doing whatever they want since 1987, and Les Fleurs Du Mal is the record where Christofer Johnsson decided the whatever would be a covers album of French pop, chanson, and Schlager sung by operatic vocalists with full orchestration. Absolutely nobody asked for it. It is magnificent.

Named after Baudelaire's poetry collection and built from songs spanning Édith Piaf's orbit through to European pop obscurities, this is Therion at their most wilfully bizarre, which is saying something for a band who once scored an entire album based on Qabalistic mysticism. The arrangements are lush and absurd in the best possible way, proof that symphonic metal at its ceiling has more in common with theatre than with the riff-first world it emerged from. This copy is signed by Christofer Johnsson, Christian Vidal, and Nalle Pahlsson, three names that loom large across decades of Swedish metal history.

Full length CD, signed by Christofer Johnsson, Christian Vidal, and Nalle Pahlsson. Symphonic/operatic metal, Sweden. Released 2012.

Fans of: Moonspell, Nightwish, Epica, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Tristania.