{"id":38950,"date":"2015-12-02T15:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=38950"},"modified":"2015-12-01T20:55:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T02:55:28","slug":"the-lyrics-corner-therions-cult-of-the-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/the-lyrics-corner-therions-cult-of-the-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lyrics Corner: Therion’s “Cult of the Shadows”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“La tapallah puluthu,\u00a0Utukke lemnuti Apkallu”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Therion<\/strong> is one of the most famous acts in Swedish metal. Guitarist and main composer Christopher Johnsson created the band in 1987 and set the table for all of symphonic metal when he explored, alongside plenty of other musicians, the use of orchestras and choirs to add a grandiose effect\u00a0to\u00a0compositions.<\/p>\n

If you are a casual Therion listener you might have missed out on their\u00a0lyrics. On\u00a0closer examination, it can be said that the lyrics are mythical ensembles that employ different resources of occultism to exalt the numerous magic practices and also to support the allegorical\u00a0language of the most descriptive pieces. The writing style of the band walks a line between mythical speech and incantation of spells; it all\u00a0adds another layer of perception to their songs.<\/p>\n

Thomas Karlsson<\/strong> is a\u00a0close collaborator to the Therion project and has provided the lyrical topics to all of the albums since 1996. He is a writer of the esoteric and is the founder of an occult organization named Dragon Rouge<\/a>, rooted in Left-Hand Path philosophy and empiric occultism. In his academic work he has studied the Gothic Kabbalah and its rune system from a historical and metaphysical point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cCults of the Shadow\u201d is the song we will analyze today in The Lyrics Corner<\/a>. Released on Theli<\/em>, this killer cut involves a simple scheme for empowerment through\u00a0the mix of English, Akkadian, Sumerian and Latin phrases sung by the large choir. The male lead vocals were sung\u00a0by Dan Sw\u00e4no and Piotr Wawrzeniuk.<\/p>\n

The left-hand path is a common notion in Western Occultism, and this album and this particular song deal with several symbols that are repeated in these multiple traditions. Set, the Egyptian god of the desert, is viewed as a force of chaos; meanwhile, the Sigil of Baphomet and Babel are name-dropped too, in an attempt to reinforce the ethos of this magic framework that deals with an individualistic philosophy. It should be kept in mind that\u00a0the dichotomy of Left and Right hand paths is not a “good vs. evil” fight; instead they are different sets of practices and studies that reveal different truths in different ways.<\/p>\n

Written in a style reminiscent of\u00a0cryptic occultist books, the lyrics in this song point to the spiritual journey through the \u00a0left-hand path magic initiation, the one that employs the Alchemy philosophy frame to use secret codes in order to discover the unseen\u00a0spiritual world. In fact, “Cults of the Shadow” is one of the confusing books of the occultism author Kenneth Grant (a former student of the famed Aleister Crowley), in which he describes his interpretation of diverse ‘magick’\u00a0schools, including some references to Ancient Egyptian religion. It is good to note that Thomas Karlsson’s work is influenced by the Thyphonian school of Grant, and this book, and this song, probably serves as a historical reference to what they are trying to conceive: a path that connects the primitive forces of Chaos with personal enlightenment and the transformation of the soul through the Alchemy.<\/p>\n

In the lyrical narrative, this is probably a resume of the story behind the myriad of symbols:<\/p>\n

Starting after the\u00a0putrefaction process, the soul’s initiate (the subject of the lyrics) will cross the Styx river, the border that leads to the Underworld, in an attempt to unveil the alchemic secrets. The foreign and exotic chants reinforce the notion of the dark forces that terrorize and seduce through the walk, and the ancestral beings are named in the form of the Sumerian and Akkadian figures: the Utukke Lemnuti, the demons on those mythologies. The initiate invokes primal forces to gain the ultimate truth and guard himself\/herself with pledges to ancestral\u00a0beings like Apsu, the male principle, and the Apkallu, the Seven Sages of Sumeria; the usage of these symbols was not chosen from a random caprice; conversely, those names represent those kind givers who endowed mankind with the gifts of civilization and understanding. In the end of the lyrics, old Sumerian purification prayers\u00a0and empowering recitations probably set the mood for a victorious final clash of the initiate against the dark forces, conquering dark through dark.<\/p>\n