Ayreon vs Therion

I watched patiently as one classical piece after another was played and I began to long for 'Sirius B'. I had to skip through the classical stuff. It was painful to listen to that tenor and those screeching violins.

Finally, the second part of the set began. 'The Blood of Kingu' is belted out. The singer springs out from the wings and bangs his head trying to get audience members to do likewise. They comply like angry goats. The orchestra members look at one another in bemusement, some look like they want to escape through the nearest rabbit hole. It is quite amusing and worth a look if nothing else for that particular moment. My wife watched and said, "Those orchestra members look so worried, like a fish out of water," I think she nailed it. The whole performance is out of place. It would have been better to just have this set and nothing else. Talk about waking up your audience after all that sleepy Wagner! 'Sirius B' is next and it is incredible. Then one Therion treasure after another is given the full blown orchestra meets metal treatment. Nothing wrong with that but it's all too late. I had already been frustrated out of my mind with the first set. The other great tracks include 'Eternal Return', 'Draconian Trilogy' and 'Schwarzalbenheim (Svartalfheim)'. It is a great concert in this section and worth a curious look. However the problem is the opening section is really so geared towards lovers of classical opera that metal fans are going to be turned away. Therion are operatic metal but this is taking it too far.

Unfortunately, the CD package is only available in this expensive box set and not worth the trouble.