Beyond Sanctorum

Beyond Sanctorum is the second studio album released on January 1992 by Swedish band Therion. The album was re-released on November 27, 2000 under Nuclear Blast label as a part of The Early Chapters of Revelation box-set. It contains remastered songs, as well as four bonus tracks.

Recording and production

The band signed a contract with Active Records after the deal with previous label Deaf Records was signed only for one album and relations between band and label [Deaf] weren't positive. Therion began to record a second full-length album in The Montezuma Studio in 1991. Before the recordings started bass guitar player Erik Gustafsson decided to leave the band in order to return home to the U.S., but Therion continued as a trio with Peter Hansson, Oskar Forss and Christofer Johnsson filling in on bass guitar.

Songs, lyrical themes and influences

In Beyond Sanctorum Therion began progressively including classical and other elements to their sound. The record shows a more experimental edge to the death metal music, with keyboard instruments, clean male & female vocalists used sparingly, and also some Persian folk music tunes. However, the riffing sections can be compared to most Stockholm death metal (see Scandinavian death metal) bands with power chord riffing in classical harmonic sense, its melodiousness, and lead riffing focusing on melodies. Overall structuring of narration and music dynamics is quite similar to European death metal conventions. The sound is comparable to the band's earlier productions, having typical sound for Sunlight studios.