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Sunday Old School: Therion

The band began life as Blitzkrieg (not to be confused with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band of the same name) in Upplands Väsby, located in the Stockholm county, a brainchild of bass player Christofer Johnsson, guitarist Peter Hansson and drummer Oskar Forss and played a style of music similar in sound to Venom. The band lasted only two shows before a falling out with Forss forced the group to fold. The group did reform a few months later however, under the new moniker, Megatherion, taking its name from the classic Celtic Frost album. Johnsson put down the bass in favour of guitar and brought in Johan Hansson as the new bassist, along with drummer, Mika Tovalainenm though shortly after the band shortened their name to Therion, both new members took their leave, with original drummer Forss returning to the fold and Erik Gustafsson, best known as a member of Dismember coming in on bass.

With a name finally decided on and a lineup in place, Therion got to work on their first demo, "Paroxysmal Holocaust," which was released in 1989 and followed the same year by a second demo, "Beyond the Darkest Veils on Inner Wickedness." After a third demo, "Time Shall Tell," recorded the next year, they signed a deal with Deaf Records, through which they released their first full length album, "Of Darkness…" in 1991. It was hailed as one of the first progressive death metal albums, though it received mixed reviews upon release and the band saw it as the shedding of their early death metal skin.

Following the release of the album, the group signed with Active Records and released their sophomore album, "Beyond Sanctorum," which was recorded as a trio after Erik Gustafsson quit to return to America. The album increased their experimentation and made use of keyboards and clean vocals and received better reviews than its predecessor. The band then changed members once more, before releasing a third album, "Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas," which roughly translates from ancient Greek to "The great dragon." Though the album was not a commercial success, it sold fairly well, better than the two before it at least.

They then signed with Nuclear Blast Records and found surprising success with the "Lepaca Kliffoth" album, particularly thanks to the advance single, "The Beauty in Black," which sold over twelve thousand copies in Europe. The album almost completely cut their ties with death metal and brought in more world music influences, particularly from the Persian area. Therion then brought in Entombed bassist Lars Rosenberg after parting company with Fredrik Isaksson and recorded a new album, "Theli," which began their symphonic metal route and continued their experimenting. It also sold well and boasted guest vocals from Dan Swanö, with another album, "A’arab Zaraq – Lucid Dreaming," following a year later, comprising of left over material from "Theli" and cover songs by bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

Though it was released under the Therion name, the next album, "Vovin" was essentially a Christofer Johnsson solo album, as he used session musicians to record the material, including a real string orchestra for the first time and then Cradle of Filth member, Sarah Jezebel Deva. They promoted the album by teaming up with Portuguese gothic metal outfit, Moonspell and releasing a mini album, "Crowning of Atlantis" in 1999, before another full length album, "Deggial" was released in 2000, again mostly as a solo record.

More new songs were written but shelved in favour of turning the next album into a concept record which focused on Norse mythology entitled, "Secret of the Runes." It was released in 2001 to positive reviews and followed that same year by a compilation record, "Bells of Doom," which was issued to members of their fan club, before their first live album, "Live in Midgard" followed in 2002.

By the time touring wrapped up for the "Secret of the Runes" trek, the band had over fifty unreleased songs in the bag and committed twenty one of these to the albums, "Lemuria" and "Sirius B." They were released at the same time and featured no less than 171 musicians, with a subsequent touring cycle that lasted over two years and spawned their first live DVD, "Celebrators of Becoming." Their next album, "Gothic Kabbalah" came less than a year after the DVD’s release and was met with a generally positive response from critics. More live releases followed, with a Polish concert being released in 2008 under the title, "Live Gothic," as well as "The Miskolc Experience" a year later, which showed off their work with orchestras in Romania and Hungary.

Therion then shifted their focus back to original material, releasing the album, "Sitra Ahra" in 2010 and the band once again performed at festivals across Europe, as well as releasing their own board game named, “011.” Two years later, they released the album, "Les Fleurs du Mal" and announced soon afterwards that they were planning a rock opera, something which eventually came to fruition and was brought to country’s as far afield as Russia and China. No doubt Therion will soon be returning to the studio to record another fascinating mesh of symphonic and metal music, a style which they helped to perfect.

Therion - "Enter the Depths of Eternal Darkness"

Therion - "A Black Rose"

Therion - "The Beauty in Black"

Therion - "To Mega Therion"

Therion - "Crowning of Atlantis"

Therion - "Deggial"

Therion - "Blood of Kingu"