Writing - Music

Who listens to music anyway?

Tuesday, 19th August

My early experiences of music were different to most of my friends. As a teenager I was just not into it. This was the late 90s and early 2000s, and I just didn’t get what the fuss was about with bands. There was a cartoon called Oscar or something about a sentient piano in a world where music was banned by a villainous tyrant. I thought this wasn’t all that bad. I hadn’t found music that spoke to me.

Gradually this changed, The music I had most exposure to through my friends that I actually enjoyed was Peter Gabriel and Metallica. The first passion for music that I discovered for myself was the beautiful piano, string and vocal arrangements of Yuki Kajiura, epitomised by Canta Per Me. It was with these, plus country/folk legends Joan Baez and Maddy Prior, that I came to university.

At uni I quite suddenly had exposure to a Lot of music, and by my third year I knew 5-6 bands in particular that I found quite special. But these were not bands like the ones my classmates had listened to at school, or at parties. They didn’t sing about jilted love, or booze-hazed masculine self-analysis (looking at you, Nickelback). No. They sang about myths and stories.

One band in particular sang about the Great Work of Alchemy, the Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah, Gods, Goddesses, and the realms of Norse mythology. But enough clues, I am talking about Therion.

Therion. Stirring, operatic, powerful vocals used as much as an instrument as any other. The finest traditions and instruments of rock (and a little metal) meeting choral vocals, a sing-song whirling wheel of sound and melody that fully embraces its subject matter - myths and legends.

One of the best things I found I liked about music was its ability to take my imagination on journeys. Therion does this so well, without restricting its narrative to a particular story. It’s so engaging, beautiful and carries me along as I listen to this day.