Therion (band)

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Therion is a Swedish symphonic metal band. Its name originates from Greek, where therion (θηρίον) means little beast or wee beasty; the name refers to the beast of the Christian Book of Revelation, however the band's name itself originates from the Celtic Frost album To Mega Therion. Therion was founded by Christofer Johnsson in 1987. Beginning as a death metal band, they later turned to combining orchestral elements with their metal music employing heavy use of choirs and classical musicians.

Therion's music takes its themes from different mythologies and is based on concepts ranging from occultism, magic and ancient traditions and writings. The majority of their lyrics are written by Thomas Karlsson, head and founder of the magical order Dragon Rouge of which Johnsson is a member. The band has seen many changes in line-up and style throughout its history.

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Band history

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Beginning: Blitzkrieg and Megatherion (1987–1989)

Image:Therion 89.jpg Therion were formed originally under the name Blitzkrieg in Upplands Väsby, Sweden. The founder, Christofer Johnsson was originally the bassist and vocalist, he had only played the bass for a few months prior to forming the band. Joining him in this new band were Peter Hansson on guitar and Oskar Forss on drums. Johnsson and Hansson had met in several musical groups, while Forss was an old school friend of Johnsson's.

Blitzkrieg were mainly influenced by the bands Metallica and Slayer, but their sound was similar to the bands Venom and Motörhead. The band however never recorded any proper demos, and only did two concerts together before deciding to split up in 1988, only a few recordings surviving till this day. Johnsson however did not give up the idea and switched to guitar and began to be influenced by the Swiss band Celtic Frost. The band was reformed under the new name Megatherion with the original line-up returning, the name was shortened to Therion almost instantly. Johnsson decided to concentrate fully on vocals and guitar, so Erik Gustafsson from the death metal band Dismember joined as a bassist.

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Debut releases and first contract (1989-1993)

The band recorded the two demos Paroxysmal Holocaust and Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness in 1989 with their new death metal sound. The demos were recorded on cassette only. The first demo was released in 600 copies. They made 100 copies at home of Paroxysmal Holocaust before having them professionally copied. So 1100 copies of the demos were sold all in all.

This got the band enough attention to get their first EP released, Time Shall Tell. It was still technically a demo of the band, as it was only published by a local store in a printing of 1000 (although the store would later bootleg another thousand copies unofficially). The record got the band their first record deal with Deaf Records. Through this company, they released their first full-length album Of Darkness...

Of Darkness... consisted of songs Johnsson had written in the 1980s, despite having newer songs, the band chose to save them for their next full release. Of Darkness... can be seen as a progressive death metal album, it contained mainly influences that were not standard to death metal at the time. The lyrics were very political, in the vein of Napalm Death and other 80's hardcore punk bands. The deal with Deaf Records was only for one album, and the band had never had a good relationship with the label in the first place, so after the release, they moved to Active Records. Image:Therion beyond.jpg The band began to record their second full length album Beyond Sanctorum in 1992. Erik Gustafsson was forced to leave the band to return home to the USA, but the band continued as a trio with Hansson and Johnsson filling in on bass. The record became very popular and got the band their first live show offers in central Europe. The record Beyond Sanctorum shows a more experimental edge to the music, with keyboards and clean vocalists used sparingly, Therion became known as an experimental death metal band from this record.

After this recording, the band ran into a few problems. Forss decided to leave the band as his wife was expecting their second child and the band lifestyle and financial situation did not suit his responsibilities to his family. Hansson also quit the band after health problems. The shows in the Netherlands were played using a new line up. Piotr Wawrzeniuk took up drumming duties, he knew Johnsson from the band Carbonized, in which Johnsson also played. The guitar was taken up by Magnus Barthelsson, an old school friend of Johnsson's while Andreas Wahl took up the bass.

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Musical metamorphosis (1993-1996)

With the new lineup, the band recorded the experimental Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas in 1993. As a death metal record it was very experimental, incorporating elements of jazz, industrial music, traditional 1980's heavy metal and religious chanting. This new record scared many death metal fans off the band, but the band developed a small following who appreciated the change and innovation the band had created. Active Records at the time decided to scale down their operations and the band was switched to the new owners Megarock Records. This company supported a tour with Therion supporting the bands Grave and Massacra throughout Germany.

The band, despite being popular with its hardcore fans, was still largely unknown. Sales were poor and the band members were having a hard time making ends meet. Despite the work they put in, there was no financial success for the band. Because of this, Barthelsson and Wahl were forced to quit the band. Fredrik Isaksson was brought into the band as the new bassist. After a few months break, the band got an offer from the famous metal label Nuclear Blast in Germany. Despite the record deal, Megarock Records decided to let Therion go without any strings attached. This hardly ever happens in the music industry, and it shows the good relationship the band had with the label, they just lacked the resources to promote such a promising band. The band signed a deal with Nuclear Blast in 1994 and remain with them to this day.

The first record published with the new label was Lepaca Kliffoth, though a single entitled "The Beauty in Black" was released just before as a promotion for the new record. The record was very experimental, featuring classical sopranos and bass singers. Johnsson took up a new style of singing, almost hardcore in nature. With this record, Therion shook off the last remains of their death metal sound. The band toured in Germany with the band Annihilator and also played their first South American shows. Fredrik Isaksson left the band after some personal problems with Wawrzeniuk, although he also had several personal problems outside the band. Lars Rosenberg, from the well known death metal band Entombed, took his place.

Naturally the sales were not good. Johnsson had several songs already written that he simply did not have the budget to realise. Johnsson had grown tired of heavy guitar based music and wanted to experiment even more so. But naturally bands that did not sell well did not get the big budgets. However, Johnsson was determined. He called the chief of Nuclear Blast, Markus Steiger, and said ”No more albums based on my vocals. And I need two choirs, a better recording studio, two producers and more time in the studio - if not I'd rather give up the band and stay happy with what I've achieved so far”. Johnsson was frustrated at the lack of live shows the band was given, because without live shows, the fans would not see the band, and sales would not increase. Luckily for Therion, Steiger was a dedicated fan and music lover. He agreed to help get the band what they needed to complete their next record. Jonas Mellberg was added to the lineup, and Therion went on to record their most experimental album yet.

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Metal and symphony era (1996-present)

Image:Therion-logo.jpg The result was entitled Theli. Recorded at the Impuls Studio in Hamburg, it was a totally new direction for the band. Johnsson considered this his masterpiece, and also his final recording, believing it to be far too experimental for the metal fans to accept. Wawrzeniuk was a little more optimistic, but nevertheless began to study a history degree at university. The album heavily featured the vocals of two choirs, along with some vocals from Johnsson and Wawrzeniuk. Dan Swanö also contributed to the vocals on this album. The band used keyboards heavily, so many in fact that it was humourously called ”Barmbek Symphony Orchestra” after the subway station next to the studio, Barmbek being a somewhat dilapidated area.

After recording was over, the mixing and mastering period became stressful. Mellberg was had severe alcohol problems and literally walked out of the studio, never to return to the band. Rosenberg was also having problems with alcohol, but the band survived these problems long enough to release Theli.

The release was just as troubled as the recording. A single entitled "The Siren of the Woods" was released beforehand to promote the new record, but an error was made in the initial pressing of the album. Due to a mixup, The first few Theli releases did not actually contain any Therion material, but instead had music by a German choir singing Christmas carols. The mistake was spotted quickly and the copies recalled, and they are now very collectible among Therion fans.

The record's success surprised everyone. The sales were more than double of Lepaca Kliffoth and the band was offered to go on tour with the popular band Amorphis. Despite the good fortune the band now had, Johnsson was worried about touring, the songs were so elaborate, it would be very difficult to play them live. Choirs were expensive to hire for recording sessions let alone tours. Johnsson had little money to pay for the tour. Nuclear Blast had paid out 56,000 marks (around €28,000) to fund the recording of Theli, so Johnsson was conscious not to ask them for even more to fund a full tour. Through several contacts, Johnsson managed to group together a few amateur performers to sing on the tour, it was not perfect, but it had to do.

Johnsson also had a problem with the band members; Wawrzeniuk was busy with his studies and could not go on tour so Johnsson got a friend of his, Tommy Eriksson (best known for the musical project Shadowseeds), to fill in on drums. Tobias Sidegard was hired to play guitar, while Kimberly Goss was hired as a keyboard player and vocalist. The tour was a big success, despite Johnsson commenting that ”The band sounded like shit!”. With money being very tight at the time, Johnsson made sure everyone got their rents paid for the month, with a little extra on top.

The tour however, had many problems. Rosenberg's drinking problems got worse, resulting in him collapsing on stage and seriously hindering his musical abilities. The choir had problems adapting to the lifestyle of touring and the lead soprano began taking drugs. Johnsson did not take kindly to this behaviour and promptly fired Rosenberg from the band and the choir singers were never used again. A second tour was planned, with Wawrzeniuk as a tenor and two professional sopranos. The tour took place in 1997 and was very successful. It was that year that the band celebrated their tenth anniversary with the A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming release. The record contained a few unused songs from Theli, a few cover songs the band had made, plus a full soundtrack Johnsson had made independently for the film called ”The Golden Embrace”.

The tour increased album sales, with Therion becoming well known and popular within the metal community. Nuclear Blast now promised bigger budgets for the band in recognition of their recent success. But the problem was that the "band" was essentially Johnsson and the tour musicians. He realised that they would never be up to the standards he had in mind for his next recording.

The next album, Vovin, was recorded using professional studio musicians and his friend Tommy Eriksson helping out with some additional guitars. Despite being released under the name "Therion", it was essentially a solo album from Johnsson. It featured for the first time a real string orchestra and a hand picked choir of considerable number. The Austrian singer Martina Hornbacher (now Martina Astner), and Sarah Jezebel Deva were chosen as the lead sopranos. They would also tour with the band after the release. The recording was considerably more professional and clean, far more accessible to a mass audience. A promo single entitled "Eye of Shiva" was sent out to radio stations before the release and is now a collector's item for Therion fans. Vovin went on to sell twice the amount that Theli did.

The band capitalised on this success and went on tour with the band Moonspell. The tour was extensive reaching from Scotland to Hungary to Portugal and Finland. The hired drummer, Sami Karppinen was offered a permanent place in the band. With this new line up, the mini album Crowning of Atlantis was recorded. It was a short album fleshed out with several covers and live tracks that the record label and management insisted be placed on it to make it a full length album.

Karppinen was a well known metal drummer in Sweden, and had good contacts in the business. Through him, Kristian Niemann joined the band on guitar, along with his brother Johan Niemann on bass. Finally the band seemed to have a steady line-up. Johnsson had already made material for the next release Deggial, so again it was technically a solo album, but played by a full band with proper members. Deggial was far more symphonic, employing far more complex orchestral scores, this time using a full orchestra as opposed to a simple string one. The songs were harder to listen to then on Vovin, because of this it received mixed reviews. The record went on to sell more than Theli but never reached the high sales of Vovin. Therion then began a big tour to promote their new record. This was the band's first headline tour as before they had always been support acts to other bands.

On tour they were joined by Voivod and supported by Flowing Tears. Many different singers began to be used for the tour, the most famous being Anders Engberg. Many of the fans did not know his name and he became known as ”The cool bald guy that nobody knows the name of”. Image:Secret of the Runes.png After Deggial, Johnsson began to compose again. He had many new ideas that he wanted to explore. But after writing seven songs, he got a sudden urge to take to a new direction. Johnsson felt strongly about making an album based on the Nordic and Pagan religions of old. So the songs he had already composed were put aside for the time being, and using folk influences, he began to write his Nordic concept album. Johnsson had already written two of the songs earlier and they were not intended for the project, but for a project with the Skyclad singer that never happened. He then played those songs (in demo versions) to the Niemann brothers and they told him ”They're too good - you cannot waste this on some other project, you must use them with Therion”. And shortly after that Johnnson had this idea to make a Nordic concept album. The remaining songs were based on the nine worlds of the ancient Norse Mythology, this album would be named Secret of the Runes and was released in 2001.

Johnsson decided to take most of the budget for this album and build Therion's own recording studio. Named "Modern Art" it was built so Therion no longer had to worry about timing and rent of other studios. Karppinen was the brains behind the construction, planning and actually building the majority of the studio. The Secret of the Runes album was recorded here, with Karppinen as sound engineer as well as session drummer. Johnsson also personally instructed each musician involved with the recording, as opposed to using a conductor.

Therion were finally a band again with this record, with Kristian Niemann helping out on some composition and the arrangements being organised and discussed as a band. Through their contacts as a group, they were able to get the best musicians to perform on this record. Again the reviews were mixed, being the most complex and majestic music Therion had ever written. It was not metal, yet it was not classical, but a hybrid. This appealed to many people, but also equally scared off several others. Therion followed this up with a tour with Evergrey and My Insanity as support acts. After this tour, Karppinen decided to leave the band to work full time in the Modern Art studio. This was indeed a blow to the band, but Karppinen was responsible enough to find a good replacement drummer for the band - Richard Evensand.

In 2001, the fan club CD Bells of Doom was released exclusively to paying fan club (now called Therion Society) members. Johnsson began the Society to bring together dedicated Therion fans from all over the world. The fan club membership has several benefits, including direct communication with the band, an active forum (in which the band also takes an active role), an exclusive store in which the band sign and dedicate everything, and audio and video section featuring music from the members' side projects and other bands, and much more. The fan club CD Bells of Doom contained many rare tracks, including some original recordings from 1987 when the band was still called "Blitzkrieg". It also contained a few songs from the cassette demos, and many other rarities not found on other Therion records.

2002 came around, and so did Therion's 15th anniversary. To celebrate the band released a two-disc live album entitled Live in Midgård.

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Lemuria & Sirius B trilogy

Image:Therion-live.jpg After the tour, the band decided to take stock and sort out what they had in terms of music. The seven songs that Johnsson had made had grown to a considerable number, and along with the Niemann brothers' contributions the band discovered they had 55 new songs. Some were not entirely complete, but after sorting through all the material, they decided they had enough for three new albums. The band decided to record and release two of the albums simultaneously, 171 musicians were used in the recording of the new albums, a 32-member choir was recorded in Prague along with many lead vocalists. The results were the albums Sirius B and Lemuria, released together in a special twin pack in 2004. Since that time the records have been released separately. The albums are far more guitar driven than previous Therion records, they are far more melodic and listenable, featuring skilled guitar work along with complex classical arrangements. Wawrzeniuk returned on this album to provide vocals, along with the singer Mats Levén. The relationship with Richard Evensand, the drummer, became a problem for the band during the recording. He did one live show with Therion in the summer of 2002 and then in the middle of the recordings of Lemuria and Sirius B they mutually agreed that he would not proceed with the band. The reason was that he got an offer to play with Soilwork and while he wanted to do both, Johnsson could not accept having a drummer who had a conflict of interests, so he told him he must choose or guarantee that Therion will always be his first priority. Evensand promised to give Therion priority, but some months later it turned out he could not keep this promise as Soilwork had a tour that could be colliding with a Therion tour. The Therion tour actually never took place, but it showed that the situation with two famous bands would not work and he had to choose. He then took the choice to continue with Soilwork, who (besides being one of Richard's favourite bands) had tours to be offered almost straight away, while Therion would still remain in the studio for several months (more than 10 months after Richard left it turned out to be) and after that have at least another 6 months of promoting the albums before there would be any tour or festivals. Petter Karlsson was made the new drummer in 2004 and did the complete Lemuria/Sirius B world tour with Therion.

The Sirius B and Lemuria Tour would last for 106 live shows stretching over two years. The final concert took part at the Progpower fesitival in Cheltnem, UK on the 25th of March 2006. The tour would take Therion to many countries including the USA, Russia and most European countries.

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Therion today

On July 18th 2005, an album entitled Atlantis Lucid Dreaming was released. As the name suggests, it is a mixture of tracks from 1997's A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming and 1999's Crowning of Atlantis. The tracklist is all the non-soundtrack songs from Lucid Dreaming (except for the Iron Maiden cover version), followed by the first seven Atlantis tracks and the live version of "Black Sun". The cover of the album contains of smaller versions of the two constituent albums on a patterned background, together with the album's name.

It was later announced that this Atlantis Lucid Dreaming album would be changed. Instead of having 1 disc with a selection of tracks, it would be released as a full 2 disc set containing both A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming and Crowning of Atlantis on seperate discs in their original form. These Albums remain as they were originally released with no extra tracks or bonuses.

As for the future of Therion, there may be plans to release the third album from the Sirius B/Lemuria trilogy. However, on March 21st, 2006, Christofer Johnsson announced he will be retiring from singing on Therion tracks and the European ProgPower Festival 2006 in the UK will be his last vocal performance. This however does not mean he is retiring from the band and will continue to compose and play guitar for Therion.

Therion offically announced their first DVD entitled Celebrators of Becoming on Wednesday March 8th 2006 on their website. The set contains four DVD discs, each with over 2 hours of material as well as two audio CD's featuring a live show recorded in Mexico City. The DVD set is set for release on May 5th 2006.

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Symbols

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Hendecagram

Image:Bells of Doom.jpg Hendecagram, an eleven pointed star, also called Star of Seth is the star of Qliphoth. The star symbolises the night side of the Qabalah. The star has influential aspect in Christofer's magic and his lyrics. It has been admited as a band symbol.Template:Ref There is also connection between eleven points of star and the Dragon Rouge's Draconian initiation based on 1 + 9 + 1 levels that together constitutes 11 steps.

The symbol appears on the all album covers (not only front covers, also in back and/or inlay) since Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas. It is the most often used symbol by the band.

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Pentagram

Pentagram, closely Pythagorean pentagram (one point down), is shown on the Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas cover on the dragon's head. The symbol is commonly known as Satanism-related symbol. It is used much the same way as the Pythagoreans - after all, Tartaros does mean Hell in Christian terminology.

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Other

Image:Eye of Shiva.jpg

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Band members

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Current members

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Former members

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Lyrics

  • Thomas Karlsson - while not an official member of the band, Thomas has written most of the lyrics on the albums since 1996
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Discography

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Studio albums

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Singles

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Compilations

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Box-Sets

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DVDs

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Demos

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References

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See also

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External links

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Official websites

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Unofficial websites

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Therion at online databases

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