''Lepaca Kliffoth'' is the fourth studio album by Swedish

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

band Therion. The title refers to the

Qliphoth In the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, the ''qliphoth/qlippoth/qlifot'' or ''kelipot'' ( ''qəlīpōṯ'', originally Aramaic: ''qəlīpīn'', plural of ''qəlīpā''; literally "peels", "shells", or "husks"), are the represent ...

. Stylistically, it retains the aggressive riffing and sheds the harsh growls of the band's previous

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

output, while also incorporating more elements of traditional heavy metal and more pronounced

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

elements, often leading to this album being viewed as a transitional album in Therion's discography.

Reception

For Metal Storm, the album "stands between the band's more Death roots and later symphonic grandiosity" and "turns out to be a fine piece of work, the great songwriting, mixed with Arabic-influenced keyboards is remarkable, and those mysterious lyrics just add more charm". Deathmetal.org states that ''Lepaca Kliffoth'' "should be avoided by the serious listener" because the structural genius of earlier Therion albums is here only available as distracting ornamentation, rendering it "very cheesy radio

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

Track listing

Lyrics and Music by Christofer Johnsson, except where stated. *"Enter the Voids" was previously released before only on the original LP version of "Lepaca Kliffoth" *The first release of digipack from November 15, 1996, has a black tray and missing #8 track "Sorrows of the Moon" on the back cover. The second release (ca. 1999) has a clear tray, fixed track listing, and additional pictures on the inside cover.

Credits

* Christofer Johnsson -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

s and

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Piotr Wawrzeniuk Piotr Wawrzeniuk (born 1971 in Warsaw) is a Polish historian and musician. He is best known as a member of the symphonic metal band Therion, and as a member of Serpent, Carbonized, and The Robots. Music career Wawrzeniuk was a member of Swedish ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Fredrik Isaksson Fredrik Isaksson (born 1971, in Stockholm), also known as "Freddan", is a Swedish bass player in Subztain, Berzerker Legion and Dark Funeral. He has also previously been a member of symphonic metal band Therion (in 1994), and heavy metal bands Gr ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Harris Johns - engineering, mixing (except "Darkness Eve")

Guest musicians

*Hans Groning -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

vocals ("The Beauty in Black", "Evocation of Vovin") *Claudia Maria Mokri -

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

vocals ("The Beauty in Black", "Evocation of Vovin", "Black") *Harris Johns -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

(first part of solo in "The Beauty in Black") *"Jan" - additional vocals (chorus parts of "Wings of the Hydra", "Sorrows of the Moon")

Single

* "

The Beauty in Black "The Beauty in Black" is the first single released by Swedish heavy metal band Therion. Track listing # "Arrival of the Darkest Queen" # "The Beauty in Black" # "Evocation of Vovin" # "The Veil of Golden Spheres" Personnel * Christofer Johnsson ...

Cover

Qliphoth

Album's inlay contains eleven pointed star,

hendecagram In geometry, a hendecagram (also endecagram or endekagram) is a star polygon that has eleven vertices. The name ''hendecagram'' combines a Greek numeral prefix, '' hendeca-'', with the Greek suffix ''-gram''. The ''hendeca-'' prefix derives fro ...

, which is the symbol strictly related with the band. Every triangle and space between include

's name (see image on the right). The list contains following names: * Lilith * Naamah *

Thaumiel Keter ( he-a, כֶּתֶר, Keter.ogg, link=yes, ''Keṯer'', lit. "crown") also known as Kether, is the topmost of the sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. Since its meaning is "crown", it is interpreted as both the "topmost" of the Sep ...

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

Moloch Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ‎ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly co ...

Ghagiel ''Chokmah'' (Hebrew language, Hebrew: חָכְמָה ) is the Biblical Hebrew word rendered as "wisdom" in English Bible versions (LXX ''sophia (wisdom), sophia'', Vulgate ').''Strong's Concordance'H2451 "from H2449

* �ָכַם ''chakam'' "wise ...

Reception

Track listing

Credits

Guest musicians

Single

Cover

Qliphoth

Credits

References

External links