THERION: 'Gothic Kaballah' Listening Party Launched

In an exclusive partnership between Nuclear Blast Records and MP3.com, THERION's latest studio album, the dual-disc "Gothic Kaballah", will be available for streaming in its entirety for seven days prior to the album's North American street date of February 6 at this location.

"THERION are never predictable," writes Decibel magazine in their 8/10 review, "and they pull the rug out from under us again on 'Gothic Kaballah'." Inspired by the life of 17th century Swedish antiquarian, runologist, and mystic Johannes Bureus, founding member/guitarist Christofer Johnsson states in his March 2007 Decibel interview that the Kaballah "is a topic that interests me. Most people into esoterism have not read enough about the topic."

Founded in Sweden over twenty years ago and rooted in death metal, Johnsson has since catapulted THERION to the outer reaches of progressive/classical rock music. In the band's recent cover feature in Metal Maniacs, Johnsson explains the stylistic shift for the album (which fans have come to expect) and how it is not "gothic" at all in the musical or image sense:

"It's completely different from anything else we've done. We had five writers working on this album; we only had three core band writers before, so that has expanded our horizons. We have also opted for more typically rock vocal styles. We are influenced by quite a lot of '70s bands like URIAH HEEP and [even] have HEEP's Ken Hensley [guesting on the album]. The title is a translation from Swedish and 'gothic' is the closest English word used to describe the Kaballah, so that's why we used it."

"Gothic Kaballah" will be available for streaming between January 30 and February 6. Fans are encouraged to sign up for a free MP3.com account and participate in the "Press Pass: Your Take" function to write their own review.