''Les Fleurs du Mal'' is a

cover album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

and the fifteenth full-length 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. It was released on 28 September 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band. Named after the 1857 volume of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

'', the album is fully sung in

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

. It consist of metal cover versions of French pop songs from 1960s and 1970s, mostly from the ye-ye genre.

Production

The album was financed by

Christofer Johnsson Christofer Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In 2006, ...

who considers the album a part of an art project.Christofer Johnsson
''Important news''
. 14 September 2012, accessed on 6 October 2012. It was made available for pre-order at Therion's webstore on 2 September 2012. Johnsson announced that the version sold at concerts with a different cover, would include a bonus track and a poster, and that his "aim is to sign and personally dedicate every single one of them at the shows".

Track listing

Personnel

The album was recorded by the following artists: Band *

Lori Lewis Lori Lewis is an American opera singer and soprano who is an official member of the Swedish symphonic metal band Therion. Lewis is also the former singer for Aesma Daeva, a band that toured as a supporting act with Therion in Canada and the ...

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 ...

and main vocals *

Thomas Vikström Sven Erik Herman Thomas Vikström (born 21 January 1969) is a Swedish singer best known for working with hard rock and heavy metal bands including doom metal bands Candlemass (during their initial final years, from 1991 to 1994) and power m ...

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

and main vocals *

rhythm guitars In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar) ...

, synthesizers, Hammond organ and programming, of tubular bells, timpani, clarinet, double bass and harp. Arrangements, audio engineer and record producer. *

Christian Vidal Christian Vidal (born 26 April 1972) is an Argentine guitarist, member of the symphonic metal band Therion. He has so far released two solo albums. Life and career Christian Vidal was born in Zárate, Buenos Aires Province. He started play ...

- solo guitars, electric sitar *Nalle "Grizzly" Påhlsson – 4 and 8 string bass guitars *Johan Kullberg - drums Guest musicians *

Snowy Shaw Snowy Shaw (born Tommie Mike Christer Helgesson on 25 July 1968) is a Swedish heavy metal musician (primarily a drummer) based in the port city of Gothenburg in the west coast of Sweden. He has played with many heavy metal bands, like King Dia ...

- vocals in "Initials B.B." and "Dis-moi Poupee" *Mari Paul - vocals on "Mon Amour, Mon Ami" *Johanna Najla - vocals on "Initials B.B." *Mattias Olsson - synthesizers,

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

and percussion on "En Alabama", "Mon Amour, Mon Ami" and "Lilith" *Mattias Torrel -

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

on "Mon Amour, Mon Ami" and "La Licorne D'or" *Stefan Jernståhl -

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

on "Wahala Manitou"http://ecover.to/?Module=ViewEntry&ID=664269 *

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

:* Anders Åkered :* Fredrik Syberg :* Hanna Ekström :* Isa Holmesund :* Lars Wehlin :* Natalia Migdal *

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

:* Anna Manell :* Pär Lindqvist *

Horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

:* Eva-Tea Lundberg :* Ida Freji :* Johan Ahlin :* Magnus Wretblad *

Trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

:* Kristoffer Siggstedt :* Magnus Werner :* Staffan Findin * Erik Rodell –

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

* Rolf Pilotti –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

* Johan Norin –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleurs du Mal Therion (band) albums 2012 albums Self-released albums