Lion's Roar

When one thinks about progressive rock, it's easy to imagine it as an almost academic pursuit with groups of men, armed with degrees in composition and Chapman sticks, trying to convert the secret math that rules the universe into musical notation. Playing against this seeming lack of approachability, Cynic deliver Kindly Bent to Free Us, an album that, while most definitely in the realm of prog rock, has the kind of open, unpretentious air that makes Rush such an easy-to-love band. Though Cynic continue to stray further from their heavy metal beginnings, they still haven't abandoned them, fusing layers of melody and jazzy chord progressions with searing, distorted guitar work, perfectly combining both sounds without letting one distract from the other…

When 15 year old prodigy Christofer Johnsson founded THERION as a death metal band in 1987, little did he know that exactly 30 years later he would put the final touches to a project that will go down in history as symphonic metal’s most ambitious release. While ‘rock operas’ are no longer an unusual concept, this term will now receive a new meaning when the curtain opens for Johnsson’s lifelong creation: »Beloved Antichrist« is the title of his spectacular brainchild, consisting of 3 full-length CDs. It is more than just a concept album; it’s a complete rock opera unveiling a sweeping story inspired by Vladímir Soloviov "A Short Tale Of The Antichrist".