Posts from Therion

Therion. This Swedish band has been astonishing the music world with its unique creations for twenty-five years. They have fifteen studio albums that are completely different from each other, and the band is not going to stop there.

Therion's greatest achievement in music is creating a unique sound by combining orchestral music and heavy metal. The band created an entirely new musical genre, now called symphonic metal, and the first album of this genre was "Theli" (1996).

However, the band's activity began back in 1987 in Stockholm when Kristoffer Johnsson created the project Blitzkrieg. At that time, it was nothing more than ordinary death metal. The band broke up quite quickly but reunited two years later under the name Megatherion, inspired by Celtic Frost's album "To Mega Therion" ("Therion" translates from Greek as "Beast," and the title To Mega Therion refers to the beasts described in the Book of Revelation, as well as to the famous Kabbalist Aleister Crowley, who had the same nickname). Later, the band shortened the name to Therion and has kept it that way ever since.

After recording several demos, the band recorded and released their first studio album, "Of Darkness..." in 1991, still in the style of death metal, which also characterized the next three albums. However, starting in 1992 (the album "Beyond Sanctorum"), Therion began experimenting with keyboards, which was unusual for death metal at the time, and social and political themes gradually gave way to occult themes. Since 1995, most of the lyrics for the band have been written by Thomas Karlsson, head of the magical order Dragon Rouge, a member of which Kristoffer Johnsson is also. Thomas Karlsson never participated in composing or performing music for Therion.

In 1996, the first album in the symphonic metal genre, "Theli," was released. After four death metal albums, this move was especially unexpected for the band's fans (although "Lepaca Kliffoth" from 1995 already sounded quite unusual due to its pronounced keyboard accompaniment and more). Of course, there were bands before that used keyboards in metal, but until 1996, no one did it so openly and harmoniously, no one recorded live orchestral arrangements to accompany heavy metal sounds.
Since then, the band Therion has gained wide recognition, and the genre they created quickly found application in many musical projects; however, no one made such pure symphonic metal as Therion on the albums "Vovin" (1998), "Deggial" (2000), and "Secret of the Runes" (2001). "Vovin" is the next full-fledged album of the group, and the sound on it became significantly softer compared to "Theli," and since then, nothing in Therion's music resembles their early work.

Only one person has been with the band throughout its history, from beginning to today - this is Kristoffer Johnsson, founder of the band, composer of almost all songs, and author of the lyrics for the first albums. In fact, Therion is Kristoffer Johnsson.

In addition to Kristoffer, the band has had countless permanent and session members from different countries.

Discography:

1991 "Of Darkness..."
1992 "Beyond Sanctorum"
1993 "Symphony Masses - Ho Drakon Ho Megas"
1995 "Lepaca Kliffoth"
1996 "Theli"
1997 "A'arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming"
1998 "Vovin"
1999 "Crowning Of Atlantis"
2000 "Deggial"
2001 "Secret of the Runes"
2004 "Sirius B"
2004 "Lemuria"
2007 "Gothic Kabbalah"
2010 "Sitra Ahra"
2012 "Les Fleurs Du Mal"

Official list of permanent members as of October 2012:

Christofer Johnsson - guitar, keyboards, vocals (formerly)
Thomas Vikström - vocals
Johan Kullberg - drums
Christian Vidal - guitar
Nalle Påhlsson - bass guitar
Lori Lewis - vocals

To make it more interesting, here is a photo of Kristoffer Johnsson. Just him alone because posting a photo with only one out of two dozen band lineups would be pointless.

Actually, I created this thread just to have a place to post my impressions of the concert. :

First, a few words about their new album. The label couldn't come up with anything better than to release a "best of" album for the band's anniversary, but Christopher Jonsson categorically rejected this proposal: firstly, he doesn't see the point in compilation albums of the best songs, and secondly, he thinks it's an extremely stupid, unoriginal, and pointless idea. Christopher wanted to do something very unexpected and original, while Nuclear Blast, which has never really trusted Therion in this regard and has always been left in the lurch, decided this time not to accept Christopher's rather extreme conditions. The band and the label never reached a consensus, so Jonsson released the new album independently. He could have gone to another label, but by accepting help from Nuclear Blast's competitors, he would have ruined the quite good relationship he has with them.

What's special about the new album? The fact that absolutely no one expected to hear from Therion a collection of popular French songs from the 50s and 60s, performed in the genre of symphonic metal.

The band organized the Flowers of Evil tour to support the new album and celebrate their anniversary. In Russia, they performed, as far as I remember, in Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

The Moscow concert was at the Milk Moscow club. I hadn't been there before (I haven't really been anywhere in Moscow). The club seemed quite spacious to me, but despite this, it was so crowded with fans that it could compete with the Chinese subway.

I went to the concert with a classmate. Although we arrived about forty minutes before the start, we were a little late and missed, I don't know, how many songs. Most likely, we arrived just as the first song, Son of the Son, was starting.

We couldn't get close to the stage, although we really wanted to, but for a while we kept moving closer and closer until we were approximately in the center of the crowd, and in front of us, people were standing so close that we would have had to walk on heads.

For about a song and a half, we had to listen to people complaining (quite understandably) about girls on shoulders blocking the view, and then we just stood in front of them and listened to the music.

The club has bad sound engineers. The drums were too loud, while the lead guitar was barely audible. And the keyboards were just strange – sometimes they were audible, sometimes they were almost inaudible. And that's very bad, because, as it turned out, Therion doesn't sound nearly as cool without the orchestra (who would have thought?), and if the keyboards are practically non-existent, and the drums are overemphasized, then it turns out... no, not a mess, but just something not very high quality.

The band performed with the full lineup, as described in the post, along with a keyboardist I didn't know and a vocalist of Asian appearance with blonde hair. She sang badly, unlike Lori Lewis, whose operatic soprano was so powerful that the whole hall vibrated. Christopher played rhythm guitar. Snowy Shaw, a well-known vocalist who has performed extensively with Therion and recorded vocals for the band, unfortunately is not participating in the tour, which is a pity, because he leads the show wonderfully.

Therion didn't play any songs from their early albums (and they always included something from their death metal period in the concert program). They also somehow neglected their 2010 album, "Sitra Ahra," as well as the semi-albums "A'arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming" (1997) and "Crowning of Atlantis" (1999). At least one song was performed from other releases. Of course, several songs from the new album were played.

In the performance itself, there was nothing particularly special, no theatricality. That is, there were some clearly planned appearances of the musicians from behind the curtain or from the wings, and there were also some improvised jokes, but there was nothing particularly interesting. Too bad, I thought they would make the anniversary concert more interesting.

There was quite a bit of merchandise: several similar T-shirts (all black), a cap, a scarf, magnets, CDs. I think that's all, if you don't count a rather unusual item – the well-known board game 011, created with the participation of the band Therion, in which even the characters are members of the band. The game's atmosphere magically combines steampunk and Scandinavian mythology. Although this box costs three thousand rubles, my classmate and I bought it together. I won't go into describing this wonder now; you can find information about the game on the internet, and I'll write about my impressions of the first game later.

Overall, I don't regret going to the concert, although I expected more from it. The fact that the music itself doesn't really fit my current musical mood also has a negative impact on my impression, but, unfortunately, you can't postpone a concert to a more suitable time, unlike, for example, listening to a new album by the band.

By the way, about the band's new album. Because of the same mood, I didn't listen to it before the concert, but I decided to try it right after. That is, I just listened to it for the first time. You can't write much after the first impression, so I'll limit myself to a couple of sentences.
I wasn't expecting much from the album (because the last three albums – Sirius B, Gothic Kabbalah, and Sitra Ahra – didn't make any impression on me), and I didn't get much. Although it looks strange – to cover French songs from half a century ago in symphonic metal, but in reality, it turned out not so interesting. Yes, there's a new sound again, yes, Therion has done something new again, but it sounds somehow... It doesn't impress me, in general, I don't see anything special here. And there's not much "Therion-ness" here.
However, I will listen further, I will try to choose a suitable mood, maybe I will find something brilliant for myself.

Added 3 minutes ago
And yes, I didn't have any pictures taken of me, but there are stupid video recordings and pictures of the band on stage, taken with my pathetic phone camera. Tomorrow I'll see if there's anything there that isn't embarrassing to post in this thread, and I'll post it.

I ask that those who haven't listened refrain from voting.

Everyone abstained.

Vasily would probably agree.
As for me, I only listened to a couple of albums that he gave me a while ago.

Which ones? Besides Lemuria. I checked my videos and photos. It's quite the usual nonsense, although you can even guess what song is playing in some of the videos. For example, "Siren of the Woods," which they played so epically that it felt like it was already the end of the performance, even though it was only the middle. They shouldn't even play that song; I don't think it's suitable for concerts. Added 7 hours 0 minutes ago

The club has bad sound engineers. The drums were too loud, while the lead guitar was barely audible. And the keyboards were just strange – sometimes they were audible, and sometimes they were almost inaudible. This is very bad because, as it turns out, Therion doesn't sound nearly as cool without the orchestra (who would have thought?), and if the keyboards are practically non-existent and the drums are overemphasized, then the result is... not a mess, but just something that isn't very high quality.

Lol, as it turns out, the sound was done by the band's sound engineer. Either he's an idiot, or I'm missing something. In particular, why were the drums so loud that they sometimes drowned out the entire song? I felt like I was at a death metal concert. At least on death metal, you can still hear the guitar. Added 2 minutes ago And the musicians were still giving autographs. I just couldn't find the place where they were doing it, and my friend was dragging me home. Too bad, now I have an unsigned CD, an unsigned board game, and an unsigned t-shirt. And no photo with Christopher Jonsson.

We played with friends today in 011. It's the 11th year of the 19th century, Turin. The heroes of the game – members of the Therion band – suddenly learn that Ragnarok will happen in just 11 hours, and that it can be postponed for a century if they find a certain mystical Organ and play a special Song on it. And this song must be played not by just anyone, but by the Chosen One – one of eight characters. Only they can prevent Ragnarok. No one knows who the Chosen One is, so one of the tasks – along with finding the Organ and composing the Song – is to find that one person. The heroes conduct investigations, find clues, narrow down the search for the Organ and the Chosen One, and time is running out. They need to do everything in 11 hours. But here's the catch: on the fifth hour of the search, one of the characters becomes possessed by the spirit of Fenrir – the wolf that will swallow the supreme god Odin during Ragnarok – and this character secretly begins to hunt the Chosen One, in order to prevent them from postponing the end of the world. Turin, the 11th year of an alternate 19th century, the age of steam engines, airships, and gear mechanisms. Steampunk, Norse mythology, and Therion. The first striking impression is: "Damn, there really are gears! And they turn, they mesh with each other!" Three gears with different gameplay attributes are attached to the corner of the map. Each gear has a different number of teeth, so the combinations of effects will always be different. In the other corner, an arrow is attached to a dial, counting down the remaining time until the end of the world. The game board, all the cards, and the maps are made very well and beautifully. The design is gorgeous, the artwork is superb. Here and there you can find excerpts from the band's lyrics or other references to Therion. The steampunk atmosphere is well conveyed. Five out of five for the visual appearance. At the beginning of the game, each player receives one of eight character cards (it should be noted that the game is designed for 3-6 players), and another card is placed face down in a separate place – this character is the Chosen One. Players do not show each other their character cards. A very unusual phenomenon: the first golden rule states that the character whose card is dealt at the beginning of the game does not represent the player; each player controls all eight characters in the game. And the card is dealt so that each player knows at least one character who is definitely not the Chosen One at the beginning of the game. During the investigations, you can look at unused character cards and cards in other players' hands in order to ultimately determine the Chosen One. At the beginning of each round (one game hour out of eleven), clues are placed on the board, which players collect in their personal stash by moving the characters around the map. Steam transport and airships can be used for faster movement from one point on the map to another. Clues are used to enhance the effect of the action assigned to one of the gears, which the player turns one, two, or three teeth at the beginning of their turn, spending the corresponding amount of time points. Time points are also spent on moving characters. Initially, each player has 45 such points, and it is quite difficult to get them during the game, much easier to spend them. The player who runs out of time points is eliminated from the game. One of the other two gears shows the type of transport that can be used on this turn, and the other shows the maximum number of steps the player is allowed to move the character. Before the clues are placed on the game board, one of eleven event cards is randomly determined, introducing some effect that lasts throughout the turn (for example: the player who goes third receives a clue and one time point, or: the player who chooses a certain character takes a research card), and then there is a bidding for the turn order, in which players take turns expressing their desire to go in a certain order, using their time points as payment. Research cards are very important in the game, as they allow you to find out who the Chosen One is, write the Song of Being, and determine the location of the Organ. The location of the organ is determined as follows. At the end of the turn, one of the players (the one who goes last) can play a special card indicating a specific building on the map, and place it north, south, west, or east of the Organ miniature in a designated area on the game board. Thus, when four location cards have been placed, the Organ will be locked in a specific (rather small) area on the map, after which the player who played the last location places the Organ on one of the cells in that area. A player can declare victory if they have fifteen pages of the Song and if the Organ miniature is already on the game board. Then they name the Chosen One and look at the set-aside card. If they guess incorrectly (or have not investigated correctly), they are immediately eliminated from the game; otherwise, they must reach the Organ in one turn, using only the Chosen One. If they fail to do so, they lose. On the fifth hour, one of the players, chosen at random, begins to play as Fenrir. In this case, they only need to have twelve pages of music and two research cards with the Fenrir icon. They also name the Chosen One. If they name it correctly, the player must move the character that they had in their hand at the beginning of the game to the cell with the Chosen One in one turn; otherwise, they lose. Unfortunately, we only played with three people. And although the rules state that when playing with three people, the spirit of Fenrir does not possess any character, we decided to play with the wolf anyway, just for fun. And the wolf turned out to be a clown, who quickly screwed everyone over :D Because at the beginning of the game, he didn't think about the pages of music or the organ, but about the Chosen One, and he quickly found out who that character was. And when the Fenrir card was dealt to me, I simply put all my efforts into writing the remaining twelve pages, and then the possessed Professor Christopher Jonsson killed Detective Lord Coleberg, the only person capable of stopping Ragnarok. We liked the game, it's interesting. We want to play again. But we need more people – it's more fun that way. At first, we were confused and played a little incorrectly, but that's normal for the first time. Tomorrow I'll figure out everything that remains unclear from the rules.