Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas

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Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas
Studio album by Therion
Released	April 1993
Recorded	December 1992–January 1993 The Montezuma Studio, Stockholm, Sweden
Genre	Avantgarde metal Progressive metal Death metal Doom metal Symphonic metal
Length	37:34
Language	English, Egyptian, Hebrew
Label	Megarock Records MRR 002 Nuclear Blast (reedition) NB 579-2
Producer	Rex Gisslén, Therion
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Therion chronology
Beyond Sanctorum (1992) Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas (1993) Lepaca Kliffoth (1995)
Alternate cover
The Early Chapters of Revelation reedition cover

Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas is the third studio album released on April 1993 by Swedish band Therion. The album was remastered and re-released by Nuclear Blast in 2000 as part of The Early Chapters of Revelation box-set.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Recording and production 3 Songs, lyrical themes and influences 4 Reception 5 Track listing 6 Personnel 7 Release history 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Etymology

In Ancient Greek Ho Drakon Ho Megas means "The Great Dragon". Uttering Ho Drakon Ho Megas is typically used at the end of ceremonies and rituals when conjuring Draconian force in a magical order Dragon Rouge, in which head of the band Christofer Johnsson is a member.^[1][2]

[edit] Recording and production

Active Records, Therion's music label decided to scale down their operations and the band was switched to the new owners, Megarock Records. The band was recording the album from December 1992 to January 1993 in The Montezuma Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, with the aid of engineer Rex Gisslén. Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas was released under changed line-up, only Christofer Johnsson remained. During the playing Beyond Sanctorum tour, band ran into a few personnel problems. Oskar Forss decided to leave the band, Peter Hansson quit the band after health problems. Piotr Wawrzeniuk, from the band Carbonized in which Johnsson also played, took up drumming duties. The guitar was taken up by Magnus Barthelsson, an old school friend of Johnsson's, while Andreas Wahl took up the bass.^[3]

[edit] Songs, lyrical themes and influences

The album is band's departure from the typical death metal into experimentation of traditional doom metal, goth rock, progressive rock, jazz, industrial, symphonic classical, Persian music, Arabic music, and 1980s heavy metal music inspired by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.^[3][4] Lyrical themes had changed from societal and environmental, and now revolves around the Lovecraftian fantasy and concept of qliphoth with occurrence of the mythological demon Lilith and Abyss (Thelema).

Japanese version released by Toy's Factory label includes three bonus tracks—"Enter the Voids" and 1991 demo versions of "Beyond Sanctorum" and "Symphony of the Dead", both from Beyond Sanctorum album. A 2006 Therion's box-set Celebrators of Becoming includes following songs from the album—"Baal Reginon" (recorded in Zug, Switzerland, 1994), "Dark Princess Naamah" (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995), "A Black Rose" (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995), "Dawn of Perishness" (Huddinge, Sweden, 1993 and Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995).

The song "A Black Rose" has been included in a Nuclear Blast DVD compilation Death... Is Just the Beginning Classics released on March 25, 2002.^[5]

Song lyrics has been published officially for four songs only—"Baal Reginon", "Dark Princess Naamah", "Powerdance" and "Procreation of Eternity".

[edit] Reception

Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas mostly gained very positive reviews. A metal webzine Tartarean Desire rated the album as maximum rate 10/10.^[6] A Ranging Metal depicted album as adventurous and also rated with maximum rate of 5/5.^[7] The album has been also recommended by American Nihilist Underground Society's review.^[8]

It has received 4 of 5 rating by All Music Guide with songs "Dark Princess Naamah", "Dawn of Perishness" and "Ho Drakon Ho Megas: The Dragon Throne/Fire and Ecstacy" picked by its staff,^[9] and 3.47 of 5 by Rate Your Music community being #473 in its 1993 ranking.^[10]

[edit] Track listing

All songs were written by Christoffer Johnsson.

1. "Baal Reginon" – 2:11
2. "Dark Princess Naamah" – 4:18
3. "A Black Rose (Covered with Tears, Blood and Ice)" – 4:01
4. "Symphoni Drakonis Inferni" – 2:33
5. "Dawn of Perishness" – 5:51
6. "The Eye of Eclipse" – 5:01
7. "The Ritualdance of the Yezidis" – 2:08
8. "Powerdance" – 3:06
9. "Procreation of Eternity" – 4:05
10. "Ho Drakon Ho Megas" – 4:19
    • Act 1: "The Dragon Throne" – 1:26
    • Act 2: "Fire and Ecstasy" – 2:53

[edit] Personnel

Therion Christofer Johnsson – vocals, guitar, keyboards Magnus Barthelsson – guitar Andreas Wallan Wahl – bass guitar Piotr Wawrzeniuk – drums

Production Rex Gisslén – engineer, producer Cover design Kristian Wåhlin – cover illustration Mikael P. Eriksson – cover photographies and design

[edit] Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog	Note
Sweden	April 1993	Megarock	CD	MRR 002
U.S.	January 24, 1994	Pavement	CD, audio cassette	76962-32203	"Ho Drakon Ho Megas" song as a single track.
Japan	December 21, 1995	Toy's Factory	CD	FCK-88770	"Ho Drakon Ho Megas" song as a single track. Three bonus tracks: "Enter the Voids" – 4:18 "Beyond Sanctorum (1991 demo version)" – 6:07 "Symphony of the Dead (1991 demo version)" – 2:31
Germany	1997	Collectors Picture Disc Series	Vinyl LP, picture disc	CPD 005	Limited edition of 500 copies. The second part of "Ho Drakon Ho Megas" is missing.[11]
Europe	November 27, 2000	Nuclear Blast Europe	CD	NB 0579-2	Remastered. 3rd of 3 disc of The Early Chapters of Revelation box-set.
Russia	January 2001	IROND	CD	IROND CD 00-22
U.S.	April 17, 2001	Nuclear Blast America	CD	NB 0579-2	Remastered. 3rd of 3 disc of The Early Chapters of Revelation box-set.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Granholm, Kennet (2005). Embracing the Dark. The Magic Order of Dragon Rouge—Its Practice in Dark Magic and Meaning Making (digital), Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press. ISBN 951-765-252-6. OCLC 62706461. 

[edit] External links

• Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas at the official website
• Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas at Discogs

Audio samples

• Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas at Amazon.com

Therion
Members
Christofer Johnsson
Discography
Albums: Of Darkness... | Beyond Sanctorum | Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas | Lepaca Kliffoth | Theli | A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming | Vovin | Crowning of Atlantis | Deggial | Secret of the Runes | Live in Midgård | Sirius B | Lemuria | Gothic Kabbalah | Live Gothic
Compilations and box-sets: Bells of Doom | The Early Chapters of Revelation | Atlantis Lucid Dreaming | Celebrators of Becoming
Singles: "The Beauty in Black" | "The Siren of the Woods" | "Eye of Shiva" | "Wand of Abaris" | "The Wand of Abaris / Path to Arcady"
Demos: Paroxysmal Holocaust | Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness | Time Shall Tell
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