BEYOND SANCTORUM

Beyond Sanctorum is the second full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Therion. After a brutal old school Swedish death metal debut which put a smile on my face, as I´m a fan of bands such as Entombed, Carnage and Dismember, Therion retured later that same year with their sophomore album.

Like the debut Beyond Sanctorum doesn´t hold any progressive elements. The vocals are mostly brutal growls only contrasted by very few sections with clean male and female singing. The sporadic addition of keyboards doesn´t mean the album sounds more progressive than the debut. The riffs are crushingly heavy and the downtuned guitar sound is brutal. Just what you´d expect from an old school Swedish death metal album. While I do enjoy albums like this, there are very few of them that stand out and I wouldn´t call Beyond Sanctorum one of them. A 2 star rating is warranted. For fans of latter day operatic metal styled Therion this album might not be the best investment.