The first day of February was a date that Croatian metalheads have been waiting for for a while. After many years of underground gossip about Therion coming to Croatia, it has finally become true – they have confirmed the Croatian date months ago. During that time, many were prepairing for the great event. And, as if Therion wasn’t a big band itself, the good ol’ heavy metal folks, Grave Digger, have decided to join them on the same tour. Along with these two bands, came the Swedes Sabaton.
Most of their fan base from Zagreb came – they were well-aware of the fact that it would be unforgivable to miss that concert, no matter what. So, Boogaloo was full until the last square meter, as a band like Therion deserves to have such an audience. There’s a reason why they’ve been enjoying such popularity in Croatia, and in the rest of Europe, too – they really are a great band on-stage, even though I would dare to say that the sound is better on the studio records. But, that’s something we’re already used to.
Therion are not just “just another Swedish metal band”. They’ve been playing for moer than a decade – which isn’t that much compared with who they shared the stage with – Grave Digger – but still is quite a while. In that time, they managed to become well-known in the European scene.
The first to play were Sabaton, whose show we didn’t manage to see. After them, it was time for Grave Digger to rock the auditorium, which they did pretty well, I must admit. These German metalheads have been doing the hard’n'heavy pretty much from the early days of the metal era. Their show has almost literally put the club in flames, as they showed what they do best. Chris Boltendahl demonstrated what makes a good power/heavy vocalist. Impressive. He communicated well with the audience, which was almost in extasy by the very beginning of their show. Some songs were accompanied by flames bursting around Chris. Okay, we’ve seen that one at metal shows before, but still, it was nice.
The feeling in the audience was great. People were singing, jumping, some were even waving a Croatian flag, that Chris later took onstage.
It was aroung 11 pm when Therion hit the stage. Everything was already well prepaired for the long-awaited Scandinavians to finally do a great show for their Croatian fans.
Therion are one of today’s best symphonic metal bands and it the time had come at last for them to show us what they’re all about: great music, enchanting female vocals, mythology and a lot of soul put into everything they do.
The audience was euphoric, after all the years they had longed for that one evening. The band obviously felt it, and they gave everything into the music, just to keep the emotions high.
Therion is made up of four singers, of which two are tipical (or not so tipical, after all) gothic girls in black corsets, with angelic voices. Altogether, the band look and sound great on stage. They played for almost two hours, a bis included. Before it, they played a lot of their well-known pieces, like Lemuria,  and their enormous hit To Mega Therion at the end of the show. But the fans wouldn’t let go so easily, so they did a bis with a Manowar cover.
It was almost 2 am when the people started leaving. Before they went, many bought a t-shirt, a CD or at least a patch. Everybody needed something after which they’ll remember this great concert. Who knows when we’ll have another chance.

Report: Sara Profeta & Ivana Sataić (ivana@venia-mag.net