Composer/Musician Reacts to Therion - Via Nocturna (Part I and II) (REACTION!!!)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Via Nocturna (Part I and II)
ORIGINAL VIDEO: • Via Nocturna (Part I a...
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Twitter: critreactions

[@tor-sverresveinsborg8087]

Fun fact: Therion started up as a death metal band. Try Haggard, another great mix of metal and symphonic music.

[@Moose1223]

Agreed, Haggard, excellent suggestion. "Eppur si muove" or "Per Aspera Ad Astra"

[@BogdanOlteanu]

@Tere Neckla Fun fact, Haggard started as a death metal band too.

[@Lobogo311]

@@BogdanOlteanu lol yes! metal have class...but THERION is another Class in metal music...is DARK SIDE OF ABBA!

[@melchiade13]

@@Lobogo311 Therion is out of this world CLASS. There is nothing out there that comes remotely close to Therion! And from Haggard - Herr Manneling.

[@uaputte]

Yes that to, an mix of them i think...

[@rafaelsmerdoufranke6157]

Yes, Therion, best band in the world and Mr. Cristopher Johnson most talented composer on earth... Please try their more heavy side: "To Megatherion", "Abraxas", "Ginnungagap", "Adulruna Rediviva", "Son of the Sun"... You will find the best orchestration background in symphonic metal (together with Haggard) and the best choirs... Greetings from Spain...

[@sebastianschulz5835]

Unbelievable enough, this song is already 20 years old, the Album "Deggial" where this track is from was released back in 2000. Christoffer Johnsson is the name of the Composer/Songwriter and also founder of the Band, who writes all the music for Therion. Other Songs I would highly recommend would be "Wondrous world of Punt", kind of in the same vein as this one, maybe a little bit more "song"-like, nonethless a really wonderful Song, and "Birth of Venus Illegitima" and "Eternal Return" ... ok, maybe "Eternal Return" is even more in the same vein as "Via Nocturna" than "Punt". :D Thumbs up for you man, really like your Stuff!

[@RemigiuszBanaszak]

Totally agree, however my personal favourite would be their version of "O Fortuna"

[@therionlospadresdelmetalsi1790]

Hail To Mega Therion!

[@fantomeduchateaux8136]

There is no doubt my favourite Symphonic Metal Band (and I agree, their compositiom moves between symphonic/progressive/folkloric/ metal and classical music with metal elements) .It's amazing the magnitude and diversity of their repertoire, sometimes dark, brutal, atmospheric or elegant and exquisite. The magic in their composition is how conventional metal instruments, orchestras, folkloric instruments, choir and single voices have an opportunity to talk between them and have dynamic protagonism. And, as a lover of strong melody, this characteristic is always present even when a song have a crazy and changing structure.

[@robpaul7544]

Great reaction. Therion is one of the frontrunners in mixing metal with classical music, and yes their frontman and composer is magnificent. For decades now the choir has played a big role, the orchestra's role shifts from album to album and song to song. Some recommendations for further listening ; To Mega Therion, Ginnungagap, Summer Night City (yes.. Abba) Oh, and this song is pretty old, must be two decades old at least. Therion has been doing this for a looong time. 😅

[@satanihelvetet]

Very well described about Therion and their music. I would also recommend to check out Caligula knox. If you want more metal and less orchestra, try anything from the album Secret of the runes, for example Ginnungagap or Asgard. A great song in more straight metal style with great solo singer performance is Son of the staves of time. Therion also have done a couple of live recordings with full orchestra and choir, I recommend to check it out to.

[@andyventures6574]

Kali yuga live Budapest 2007. No greater vocal performance exists (outside the obvious gls wacken 13)

[@perennialcoma]

Been an avid fan of Therion since 1996 and I've followed them throughout their existence. One of my absolute favorite bands. Enjoyed this video a lot. Deggial for me is one of their most underrated albums.

[@pietrayday9915]

Great reaction to one of my favorite bands - and it's a very interesting song choice, too, glad someone picked this one! The songs are mostly (if not entirely) composed by the rhythm guitarist, Chris Johnnson. Therion originally started as an extreme/thrash/death metal outfit before dabbling more and more in avant-garde elements through their first few albums, before more or less codifying "symphonic metal" in its current form - they might not have been the ones to invent it (Celtic Frost might hold that distinction - and would be one of Therion's chief inspirations - but I think Therion and Celtic Frost alike would be more than willing to admit that they were just building on the sort of thing that the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, etc. were doing in the '60s and '70s, which in turn were built on an earlier foundation of rock music with orchestral elements, which in turn borrowed from even earlier pioneers in futurist and avant-garde music. Therion were struggling with record sales when they first took the plunge into full-on "symphonic metal": they had a lot of tough competition from popular thrash and death metal acts, their peculiar experiments with gothic, doom, and folk elements weren't really gaining them much traction, and they were beginning to suspect that their days as a signed band were probably numbered, when Chris took a proposal to the record label to take a chance on orchestral elements, which would have been a pretty expensive chance to take! Fortunately for us, someone at the record label had the vision to take that chance, and Therion took advantage of it to release the first of a series of pretty successful albums, including this one! To date, they've released dozens of albums, and seem to still be going strong, changing their formula a little bit with each record, but mostly staying pretty solidly in this symphonic niche; a few years ago, they released an album of cover songs of obscure 1960s-era French art-pop songs reconstructed in a variation on this style of music - it's one of the band's strangest experiments, but (for me at least) quite an interesting listening experience - great songs, and it's easy to forget that they're over 50 years old and written by someone other than Therion!

[@user-kh7zp8ko3t]

The greatness of THERION !!!!

[@cwm8565]

These guys are the inception of symphonic metal (they pioneered the genre). Giants and legends for sure. Sirius B and Lemuria are massive albums as well.

[@a.s.vieira7846]

You should try the Miskolc Experience where they play with a full orchestra and play some classic stuff as well.

[@paraisoperdido4687]

I love therion !! My best band fron my 20 years old ... now l have 42

[@AlanKey86]

I've been watching your videos for a few months and I just wanted to say that I really enjoy them. It's been really interesting to see how this series has developed and you've clearly picked up lots of new terminiology along the way - it's really cool when you reference bands you've listened to already. I think your willingness to listen to so much unfamiliar music is fantastic - a sign that you a true music lover. Can I request that, at some point, you give us a "Bryan Week" where you react to music that *you* love? I, for one, would be interested to learn about what your "normal" taste is.

[@thawolf5921]

I've been waiting for this one. They are amazing. Really glad to see you liked it.

[@meshuggagah4118]

What's funny about my pseudo :) It was difficult to name a song because there are too many. More than 15 albums from pure Death metal in the beginning to an album which contained remix of old popular french songs. The metal part is often more present. There is 1 main singer (and main composer I think) and usually 2 female singers live. If you want a few recommandations: "the Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah" "to Mega Therion" "Birth of Venus Illegitima" "Ginnungagap".

[@meshuggagah4118]

I prefer the original version but Therion made the song "Clavicula Nox" only with orchestra and choir. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h33GpoqpoNp5q7s

[@mjw4000]

You need to do some Ayreon. Multiple popular singers. Like a rock opera

[@ExoriaBandai]

Ayreon would be amazing, got some new music coming soon so maybe a good time to jump into the ayreonverse

[@charliebrayson]

100% agree, my favourites are Theory of Everything and The Human Equation, both are masterpieces.

[@yotambraunshtein9786]

Metal opera

[@brianfleitman9668]

Do the Ayreon song "Loser" - features both Devin Townsend and a didgeridoo!

[@markototev]

You should check out The Gathering - Travel. Studio is a bit more atmospheric, but the live version from the A Noise Severe dvd is also amazing.

[@ScarsUnseen]

Seconding this, absolutely. I'd also recommend the hidden title track from the same album (How to Measure a Planet?), but it's largely instrumental, and it'd be a shame to miss out on Anneke's fantastic singing.

[@fantomeduchateaux8136]

If you are interested in more Therion. Some suggestions (the first are more strong in classical elements and the later more metal or excentric ) - Eternal Return (Deggial) - Ship of Luna (Deggial) - The Shells Are Open (Sitra Ahra) - The Wondrous World of Punt (Sirus B) - Schwarzalbenheim (Secret of the Runes) - Adulruna Rediviva (Gothic Kabbalah) - Draconian Triloyy (Vovin) - Morning has Broken (Beloved Antichrist) - Clavicula Nox (Vovin) - Land of Canaan (Sitra Ahra) - Kingd of Edom (Sitra Ahra) - La Maritza (Les Fleurs du mal) I would aldo recommend another band called Angizia. Interesting and very melodic avant garde - Anatol (Des winters finsterer gesell) - Zúgellos (Des winters finsterer gesell) - Schaukelkind (Ein Toter fährt gern Ringelspiel)

[@satanihelvetet]

This was a great reaction and a very good pick of song. I totally agree that this song is mainly built on the orchestral komposition with the traditional heavy metal instruments accompaning, rather than the oposite. This is pretty typical for Therion in comparing to other bands in the genre. But Therion has a large range of their music with a lot of differents between song and especialy albums. So they also have songs based on more rock/metal with the orchestral instruments accompaning and also songs very much based on the singing from choir. Christofer Johansson is the founder and the main songwriter of Therion, plays several string instruments at the recordings and one of the two electric guitars at stage and live concerts. Christofer is the only steady member through times, but some members have been steady for a period of time. Right now the band has a male singer, a female singer, two guitarists, one bass player and one drummer. Sometimes they bring in a second female singer and a keyboard player. Earlier they often had two male singers, two female singers and a small choir. Except for the full orchestral live shows, the orchestral parts often is sampled with synthesizer, played as play back or just played with guitars and keyboard when the band play live on stage. I would recommend you to look and listen to the songs 'Rise of Sodom and Gomorra' and 'Clavigula knox' from any of the full orchestal live recordings. Other very good songs is 'Raven of dispersion', 'Birth of Venus illigetima', The sirens of the woods', 'Son of the staves of time' and 'Asgård', for wich I all recommend the studio version. You should also check out the live versions of 'Lemuria', 'Ginnungagap' and 'Harlequin'. Therion has halso recorded several interesting covers, for example 'Summernight city', 'Mon amour, mon ami' and 'Crying days'.

[@Manonsilvermountain]

I lived on This, Draconian Trilogy and Adulruna Rediviva for some years.

[@dimitriid]

I am very glad you decided to check out this band and if there is one band that is extremely reminiscent of this style of Classical influence and orchestration with more straight forward "metal" elements in the background just serving the orchestration is *Lacrimosa* on songs like Alleine zu zweit, Halt Mich or anything from the Elodia album (First one recorded with a full orchestra). There's no gregorian chants but the vocals are a good mix of male and female vocals often depending on the song but a few of them with both mixed. Word of warning is that their first few record were straight darkwave: Wolff didn't shy away from being extremely minimalist often including nothing but synthesizers and vocals on fairly long compositions so very unlike their mid career records.

[@deepblack3852]

Interesting breakdown of the rock/metal/classical stuff 😁

[@CharlesEMurphy]

Man, I'm glad I watched this after Krallice and not before.

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

I'm glad I saw your comment and decided to watch krallice first.

[@andywarda1481]

This album was my introduction to Therion and has a special place in my heart. As good as this song is Seven Secrets of the Sphynx is my favorite on Deggial.

[@sebastianschulz5835]

Oh, and for another Band, this one: Waltari - "A Sign" You're in for a ride, really! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYC4i4iem8yfibM

[@tcarolina361]

Gracias por reaccionar a esta magnifica obra.Una de mis favoritas de Therion.

[@davidblanchard8529]

I think it would be cool to see you react to some more punk rock style bands. Maybe "Teen Age Riot" or any another song by Sonic Youth. Against Me!, Circa Survive, and Propogandhi might be good too, but they're less experimental.

[@agnaldosilva4114]

Perfect Therion 👏👏👏👏👏

[@u.v.s.5583]

There is this old, old band called Vanden Plas. They have loads of wonderful songs. Probably the first one to react would be the track On My Way To Jerusalem.

[@Kronida]

Totally agree!!!

[@ckokomo808]

I know you have songs picked out but recommend The Oceans’ new track for your own listening. I know you liked them. This’ll be their newest album and it’ll be a bit more experimental r to ban their last album (the first song you checked out was on that album).

[@melgibsonfan9082]

Gotta thank you for not just saying "okay now this is an E minor to a B flat to a chromatic scale" like some of the other channels doing this. Therion are awesome and you had a good analysis.

[@CriticalReactions]

To be completely honest, I don't quite have the ear for naming chords so I couldn't do that even if I tried 😅 I'm glad there are people out there providing that insight -- it's extremely useful and helpful as a composer to know why songs sound the way they do and chordal qualities tend to be what give sections their specific feels. I like to think I provide insight from the other side of the coin. If those channels are aimed at helping music theorists and writers understand music then I help the casual listener understand their favorite music; breaking down what's happening theoretically into easily digestible information. I'm glad it's appreciated.

[@spunky0201]

Now I'm thinking you should really check out Savatage. It would be good to start with "Chance", then "Morphine Child."

[@veitnottebaum28]

This comment gets more than my two thumbs :P

[@alex9euge]

Yes Savatage , anything from Gutter Ballet and afterwards when Paul (R.I.P) established his presence with Uncle John and they defined their multiple layered sound . They are so good and they are greatly missed but not forgotten .

[@natedurham2748]

Found Savatage maybe a couple months ago and they're great. Really love their album Dead Winter Dead.

[@FarazOloumi]

think about discovering this back in the 90s in Iran! how blown of a mind would you have hearing this as a teenager in a dictatorship?! props to my bro for introducing them to me in the first place

[@matthewcowell]

I want to know your issue with woodwinds. I personally have an issue with most of them too, aside from the flute, and sometimes, the oboe.

[@MightyPee]

Land Of Canaan should be on your Therion radar ;) I'll edit this post after I see your reaction. ***Edit : Big Therion fan here. At first, I thought this was an odd choice for a first sight at the band. Since you are a composer/musician, your ears are more trained for that kind of eclectic song, so you could embrace it more than average Joe would have. This album - Deggial - I felt was a "downgrade" from their previous work (Vovin or Theli) at the moment. Still today, I don't like it as much as other Therion albums. I feel we miss some layers out there, guitar work less interesting IMO. Something clear though, every Therion album sound is so different from one to another. Don't take one song/album as a "standard" Therion thing : that thing does not exist. I never thought of Therion as a symphonic metal band, never. Well, that's the etiquette the not-Therion fan can relate to. I could see Therion as the Mike Patton of symphonic metal maybe. Anyway, have fun on your journey ! I think you really can enjoy Land Of Canaan next ;) ***EDIT 2 : I really don't suggest you to go to the most viewed songs, since you'll get Rise Of Sodom And Gomorrah which is pretty straight forward. Anyway, their whole catalog is great

[@Koziolrh]

If you like this try their Gothic Kabbalah record. I'm not a fan of the band but that album is the peak of the concept IMHO and has some killer tunes on it. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.

[@cwm8565]

Storywise Therion is dark. Mostly pagan and witchcraft. This in particular narrates mostly a Hexentanz ritual.

[@desaturated-firefox]

Yeah it's an old song as others have said - Christofer mentioned something on FB about getting the rights to his older stuff back and doing a digital re-release, that's probably why YT says it's from this year. Really interesting how you as a composer talk about the song more as if you're co-composing it and exploring alternate ways of doing aspects of it while other reaction videos treat songs more as finished works of art and approach it purely from a listener's perspective.

[@Kronida]

Listen to the entire Vovin album and The Miskolc Experience DVD too. Is my suggestion for you according to your final comment

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

I went through these guys' discography years ago but I haven't gotten back to them. They have stuff that's more metal than this, but I think my issue is that their metal elements have always been pretty bland and if I wanted classical I'd just go listen to classical. I don't hate this by any means, but it's just music where I feel like I can get better metal elsewhere, better classical elsewhere, and better symphonic metal elsewhere. As an aside, I think my biggest problem with what I hear from most non-classical bands/musicians trying to write classical is that it seems their knowledge of the genre stops at about the early 20th century and you rarely hear them imitating any of the avant-garde composers of the last 70 years. There are a few exceptions to this (King Crimson, Toby Driver/Kayo Dot). However, when you're just writing neo-classical/neo-baroque/neo-romantic/etc. music you're inviting yourself to be compared with Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, etc. and it's hard not to pale in comparison most of the time and often the results are just kitschy, which is probably why classical fans ignore this stuff.

[@ScarsUnseen]

On the other hand, it'd be kind of interesting to see a metal band write something that compares to Aaron Copland...

[@paleposter]

that seems fair

[@rodrigoneto5850]

Must to check out up to netzach!!!!! And birth of venus ilegitima, both of therion!!! Hehehe

[@uaputte]

Yes spec when the band started in some kinda Blackmettal style.

[@charliebrayson]

I highly recommend checking out Native Construct, I bet you'd be interested by their chaotic styles and heavy jazz influence. I suggest Passage or Chromatic Abberation, the whole album is amazing so any song would do really!

[@CriticalReactions]

Not only have I checked them out before but there is a strong chance of them returning next week!

[@charliebrayson]

@@CriticalReactions I saw after posting this, been binging all your videos! I look forward to it man

[@gustavmetal]

@@CriticalReactions id recommend you then "Chromatic Aberration", their longest and more complex song in their album, in my opinion

[@FeroVlkolinsky]

Never heard of them, but with the description catching my eye, just gave it a try on bandcamp and man is that good! Thanks for the comment - it goes directly into my catalogue.

[@antoniocarlin5026]

I saw them, for third time last week here in México on their new tour! Their opened with O Fortuna...by Carmina Burana.Awesome show!

[@CriticalReactions]

I actually got to play Carmina Burana 1 year for a marching show. That's definitely a suite of songs that I was happy to be a trumpet player for! It's awesome that Therion chose to play that for their shows. I bet that was epic.

[@antoniocarlin5026]

@@CriticalReactions They recorded the piece on the album "Deggial" from 2000 you need to listening...

[@bellybutthole69]

Therion always had a perfect blend of metal, grandiose and catchy. A bit like a Rammstein but in a different style. Relatively simple, but always pleasant :)

[@alex9euge]

How can you put Therion and Rammstein in the same sntence , there is nothing grand in Rammstein

[@cameronwulff]

Therion is regarded by many to be the band that invented symphonic metal

[@paravarium]

I like the band but not with such long form material. Also feel like playing golden axe on Genesis now. .. the endings really grown on me though

[@Lobogo311]

YEEES Therion is DARK Side of ABBA!!!!!§

[@vishalkandulna5357]

React to blotted science

[@u.v.s.5583]

Spastic Ink is probably more interesting. Or the Solitary Speaking... thing by Ron Jarzombek.

[@redrabbit336]

Uhm.... Therion... my fav band ever, they made me feel for the classical singing with metal so bad.

[@q816qq]

3:21 to 4:25 = Last of the Mohicans

[@yotambraunshtein9786]

The metal part here is so small it better not be

[@cwm8565]

The fuck you’re talking about 😂