Vovin - Dark Publications

Location: Home » music » Death Metal » Vovin

Similar Items:

•	Theli
•	Deggial
•	Secret of the Runes
•	Lemuria/Sirius B
•	Gothic Kabbalah

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
A string orchestra glides alongside an electric guitar. A choral vocalist sings over propulsive rock rhythms. Symphonic speed metal comes to life on Vovin. Bandleader Christofer Johnsson has fashioned a powerful classical-metal hybrid that displays how the potent elements of the two divergent genres can be fused. Indeed, the recording is so cohesive and robust that it feels like the strings, choral singers, and band are performing simultaneously. Other surprises include the scarcity of rock vocals throughout and the charming Middle Eastern overtones found on the opening track, "The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah." Purists may find Vovin unacceptable, but that's the price of progress. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

What...!? January 17, 2003
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I just picked this up today, and let me say as a hardcore tristania fan, this makes "Beyond the Veil" sound like "Follow the Leader." "Beyond the veil" is my favorite tristania album, and was also my fav opera-metal band until i picked up this gem. This is simply the most amazingly constructed orchestra/opera/metal hybrid compilation i've ever lent my ears to. All the songs are great, but in my opinion, the best song is "Wine of Alvqah," track 3, it's very catchy and will energize you and make your foot tap like crazy throughout the whole song. Track 5, "The Wild Hunt," sounds like Iron Maiden kidnapped an operatic choir and went on a mescaline binge for 3 days, then wrote a song, it's crazy but in a really cool way. This CD's good. I'm talking "Blackwater Park," yes...it's possible to get that feeling again. Have you any dignity? The sooner you buy this CD the less time you'll have to think about having it, just get it now for the love OF GOD!

5 out of 5 stars

It grows on you April 21, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

When I first heard this album I didn't like it. I knew it was good music, it just didn't hit me the way Theli did. I was looking for more of the same. I hate people that talk about themselves in reviews, But I'm going do it because this album is so special. It deserves that kind of perspective.

When I first bought it, I lived in a big house in the woods and was just blasting thrash constantly on a ridiculous sound system. I literally scared away all the wildlife from anywhere near my house. That's the mode I was in at the time and that's why Theli didn't grab me. I acknowledged it was a good album but shelved it, only pulling it when I was trying to get laid but it didn't really do anything for the Alabama girls I was using it on ( I later learned that european and some asian girls do appreciate it)

A couple years later I hit bottom and found myself living a 12 square foot transient hotel in NJ with nothing but junkies and roaches for neighbors. I had no money, a fairly advanced case of Lyme disease and a broken hand I couldn't afford to stop working long enough to let heal. Everything I owned had either been broken, stolen or lost somehow. Vovin was one of few cd's nobody bothered to steal from me. For one horrible winter I listened to it constantly on a really bad bookcase stereo. Broke, hungry, lonely, in constant physical and spiritual pain - no heat and a broken window in a NJ winter - this album literally carried me through one of the darkest periods in my life. At the time it seemed very morose, with just a touch of spiritual upliftedness. I connected to the darker mood and escaped at the more uplifting points.

Now, years later again, I see it quite the opposite. I now live on a tropical island, have recovered from my physical ailments and once again have a ridiculous sound system to listen to my music on, this time watching the sun rise and set on a beautiful south pacific lagoon without a single care in the world. Vovin continues to stir emotion, although now it sounds to me very uplifting, at times triumphant, with only a touch of the morose.
It's amazing how some pieces of music can encompass such a wide range of often-conflicting emotions and allow the listener to zero in on the ones that dominate his or her life at the time. Vovin is one such album, you hear in it what you want or need to hear. because the lyrics are so ethereal, they make no literal connection to any normal person's daily life, hence the power of the music. it's all in the mood and the tone, you are never led into the artist's problems or experiences, unlike most common albums. It leaves you free to enloy your own, or wallow in them, as your mood and need suits you, and your experience of the music will definitely change with the circumstances in your life.

I think the final testament to how much I love this album is the fact that I now have over 1400 albums digitized and at my disposal, by remote control, and I still keep returning to this one. Even though I could easily change it to any of 1400 other albums at any time, I play it to the end every time. I do tend to start it at track 2 though. Track 1 is kind of a jarring start, albums comes off smoother if you skip it.

I'll leave the musical critique to other here, did it better than i could anyway. i just wanted to talk about the emotional impact.

4 out of 5 stars

Very good music, but vocal repetition gets irritating April 3, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I won't deny Christofer Johnsson's musical abilities and genuine skills as a composer and guitarist. The music to this piece is absolutely fabulous. The problem is the vocals. I like the idea of using choirs, although I'd have liked a more Benedictine-style male choir (a la Tristania's Beyond The Veil) in preference to the one used on here. The problem is that they don't vary their singing enough. Some more solo vocals would've helped the variety. Take the song "Birth of Venus Illegitima" for example. It's one of my favorites on the album, but the choirs keep singing the same pattern over and over. But aside from that, the voices themselves are very good, the guitars are fantastic (if you consider Therion a "gothic" band, then you'll be happy to know that the band doesn't follow the gothic trend and has no problem performing guitar solos), and the composition as a whole is top-notch. I'm still debating putting forth more funds for new Therion CDs, as I need money for my own musical ventures, but I definitely recommend this album for fans of good orchestral/symphonic metal.

5 out of 5 stars

How can you not like this album November 14, 1998
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I honestly must say that this is one of the best Therion albums yet. A wonderful fusing of classical elements,Opera, and wonderfully dark metal. I find this album to be better then Theli as the sound on this album is far fuller and it flows better then Theli. I don't think you can listen to this album as songs, it's a whole flowing work of art. I am always impressed with this band and I feel that metal fans and fans of classical music can both find something to appreciate from this album.

5 out of 5 stars

Play this album for anybody who think that metal is crude. November 21, 2000
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Therion might have started out as just another Black Metal act, but they have evolved into something much darker, and far more beautiful.

The operatic metal of _Vovin_ is a true treat that evokes memories of classic 70s progressive bands like King Crimson and Renaissance, yet also invokes the hellacious fury of Black Sabbath, Venom, and Mercyful Fate. Yet in _Vovin_, Therion summons a sound that transcends both influences in a kind of auditory alchemy that left me breathless.

Highlights include "Wine of Aluqah" with its stirring violin and guitar finish, the dark sweetness of "Clavicula Nox", the driving beat of "The Wild Hunt" and the sheer foreboding of "Black Sun". However, if you only listen for the highlights, you miss the greater beauty, for _Vovin_ is on the whole one of the most elegant black metal albums ever released, surpassed only by _Deggial_.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic