GOTHIC KABBALAH

A double symphonic metal concept album about how divine wisdom percolates down to humanity with a gothic aesthetic and flirtations with more progressive music styles? Ah, it must be a Therion project - and on Gothic Kabbalah, late-period Therion turns in perhaps its most complete album. Does it merit being a double album? Well, no. There's plenty of fat here and there that could be trimmed, and whilst it feels more varied than much of the band's post-Theli output, at the same time it feels like the band trying out a wide range of experiments without quite getting deep enough into any of them to really polish them fully. It isn't quite Therion going prog, but it's perhaps the closest they'll come to it, and whilst it's an interesting listen I can't help but think that if they'd condensed it down to one disc and really polished everything up it'd be a great listen.