(Death Metal) Therion - Bells of Doom - 2001, APE (image+.cue), lossless

Therion is Greek for "wild beast."
Back in the year 1987, Christofer Johnsson formed the metal band Blitzkrieg in Upplands Väsby, a suburb of Stockholm. What genre they played is discussed, as their influences mostly were major thrash bands but they sounded more like the big extreme bands of that era. He was the bassist and vocalist. The line-up was completed with Peter Hansson on guitar and Oskar Forss on drums. This line-up however, only lasted for two gigs, and they decided to split up in early 1988. A few months later Chris started playing guitar instead, and influenced by Celtic Frost he called the band Megatherion and played death metal. Peter Hansson played guitar in the new band too. Later Oskar returned and the bassist, Erik Gustafsson joined. Erik had just left another Swedish underground death metal group, Dismember.
After a short while, the name was changed to Therion. With this line-up the two demos, the first EP and the first full-length were recorded. On Paroxysmal Holocaust Matti Kärki, later Dismember singer, did the vocals though. Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness was the first Therion release Chris sung. The EP, Time Shall Tell, was in deed nothing more than a demo recording that got released as a record instead of cassette. After the 1000 copies had sold, the bookstore bootlegged another 1000. Shortly after, they signed to Deaf Records where they released Of Darkness. This album consisted of songs that Chris had written in the eighties. The newer songs were saved for the forth-coming album. After this quite progressive death metal album Therion signed to Active Records. Now the bass player, Erik, had to move back to his native country, USA so Chris had to play the bass once again. The lyrical concept had changed from society issues to occultism. The record received very good reviews and the band was offered their first shows in Holland and Belgium.
Oskar, now awaiting his second child, took the choice to leave the band. Also Peter did step back, in his case due to health and musical reasons though. A new line-up with Piotr Wawrzeniuk (from Chris' other band, Carbonized) on drums, Andreas Wahl on bass and Magnus Barthelsson on guitar was formed. This new line-up was the start of a new era. While Beyond Sanctorum was experimental, it was without any doubt death metal. Chris wanted to experiment more, go much further. And the result was Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas. This was a wild move in the old school, traditionalistic death metal scene back in the days. Experimenting with jazz, industrial music, gothic chanting, 80s heavy metal and so on. Needless to say, this caused disorder.
Now Therion was transferred from Active Records to the owners' new label, Megarock Records. Therion did a tour supporting Grave and Massacra, as well as a couple headlining shows in Germany. At this time there was nothing but work, work and work for Therion. The income being neglectable. So Magnus and Andreas gave up Therion. Fredrik Isaksson became the new bass player and Therion was once again a trio. Chris went off to record an album with the Swiss band Messiah, and when he came back Nuclear Blast wanted to sign Therion. However, there was still a contract on one album with Megarock. But the relation between Megarock and Therion was so good, that Therion was released without any financial claims.
The result was the 1995 album, Lepaca Kliffoth, yet more experimental featuring soprano and bass-baritone vocals, more keyboards, more Persian influences, more melodies, Chris singing a new way, a more hardcore way. The final bounds to death metal had by now been cut off. They toured with Annihilator in Germany and went on a small headline voyage into South America with Tommy Ericsson on second guitar. Fredrik's personal problems prevented him from touring, so Lars Rosenberg was hired as a session bassist. Now Piotr declared that he had problems with Fredrik, so Fredrik was fired. Then Lars was fired from Entombed and became the permanent bass player in Therion. Still, as they didn't sell too well they didn't have the budget they needed. So, Chris called up the Nuclear Blast director Markus Steiger and explained the situation to him. "No more album based on my vocals and I need two choirs, a better recording studio, two producers and more time in the studio - if not I rather give up the band and stay happy with what I achieved so far". Luckily, Steiger approved. Ex Unanimated guitarist Jonas Mellberg was brought in and Therion recorded their most important album ever.
Therion doubted that Theli would sell. Chris spoke to Piotr about it and said that this would be the final record, as it would be a flop just as every other Therion release. Piotr didn't want this to be the last record, but did accept the situation and started studying history instead. Dan Swanö did some vocals on Theli as well as Chris, the two choirs and Piotr. Jonas and Lars both had alcohol problems and during the recording of an Iron Maiden tribute song, Jonas left the studio without a word. He would never come back to the band.The sales doubled compared to Lepaca Kliffoth's just in a month. They were offered touring with Amorphis. Theli was the success, the break-through. The start of unimaginable stress. The album had costed Nuclear Blast around 28.000 Euro to record, which was by far the highest in the history of Nuclear Blast, so Chris couldn't ask them for paying the tour. He asked his friends to help him out. Tommy played the drums this time, as Piotr was occupied with his studies and Chris got in touch with some amateur singers to perform the songs live. Tobias Sidegård from Necrophobic got free beer on the tour to play guitar and Kimberley Goss was hired to play the keyboards and do some backing vocals. During the tour, Lars' drinking problems got worse and the soprano and the tenor started taking drugs. At the end of the tour they were all fired and not welcome back.The sales had increased so much that they were booked for a second tour. This time with Piotr and two professional sopranos. Andreas Wahl did the bass on this tour. Even so, the fans did hunger to see the band. A third European tour was announced with Lake of Tears and Crematory and Therion headlining the tours outside Germany. And this was all in one year! The same year, A'arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming was released. It was a strange album, consisting of a couple Theli songs, covers and a soundtrack Chris did for an art film called The Golden Embrace. A new record-deal, big budgets, fans buying their albums there was now only one problem. There was no one but Chris in the band. He recorded Vovin with hired professional studio musicians (Wolf Simons and Jan Kazda). This was more a solo album of Chris' than a Therion album. Vovin marked the change into the later, more melodic Therion. Once again the sales doubled compared to them of the last album. The underground band that had struggled for its survival was now the best selling band on Nuclear Blast. Sami Karppinen did the drums on the tours and was offered a permanent seat in the band. Parts of a planned mini-CD (Crowning of Atlantis) were recorded, but Nuclear Blast wanted to make it a full-length and so a couple of live songs were added and the album was released in 1999. Sami had good contact among high-skilled musicians in Sweden and so Kristian Niemann joined the band as guitarist. Later his brother, Johan joined as bass player. While this was a full line-up, a completely new band, Chris had already written Deggial, the follow-up. The new band members didn't have much time or chance to contribute to the music. Now Therion recorded their first concept album, Secret of the Runes, inspired by the Viking alphabets and mythology. The budget was mostly spent on building Therion's very own recording studio � Modern Art. Secret of the Runes was yet again a more complex album, a more melodic album and the reviews varied. After the tour, Sami left the band to work full time as sound tech in the studio. Richard Evensand was the new drummer. A few of the concerts during the tour ended up on Therion's first live album, Live in Midgard which was released in 2002, the 15th year of Therion's.Now Therion had put a lot of songs on the shelf and wanted to get rid of them. They had material for 3 albums and decided to release two of them at once, Lemuria and Sirius B. This was yet again a change. The albums are more bombastic than ever, a word that Nuclear Blast ever since Therion's break-through try to associate every band with. The budget was higher than ever and more money than ever was spent. In total 171 musicians and singers were involved in making the albums. The albums were released as a 2CD digibook for the price of one album, and followed by a massive Europe and South America tour. Also, the Niemann brothers had been busy writing more extreme songs, and so the Demonoid project was launched. After the Sirius B and Lemuria albums plans for a 6-disc DVD box (2 CDs), containing live shows and a historical section were spread to the public. It was to be released in the spring of 2006. In the meantime, Atlantis Lucid Dreaming, a collection of B-side material was released. In March 2006 Christofer Johnsson stated that he'd step down from the vocalist position, not singing anymore at gigs. The 2006 ProgPower Festival in England is supposed to be the last gig with him singing.
Because of Therion's affiliation with Thomas Karlsson, who started to write Therion lyrics together with Christofer Johnsson in 1993, and who since 1998 writes all of them, there are a few books out related to Therion and the mythos Therion lyrics are made of. Mörk Magi written by Tommy Eriksson is only released in Swedish and discusses philosphy and aforisms of Dark Magic. It advocates that one should see the positive sides of dark magic, turning the force it has into creativity instead of destruction. Eriksson lists relax practices and invocations in order to introduce the dark magic, kabbala and tantrism to the beginner.
Uthark was written by Thomas Karlsson and deals with runosophy and rune magic. It discusses the Uthark theory, widely launched by professor Sigurd Agrell in the 1930's. The base is that runes have more than their literal meaning. There's a dark, hidden, secret, magic side that only runemasters know of. The book is available in English and German, and a German limited edition with the Secret of the Runes album.
Christofer Johnsson decided to stop singing in 2006. Former King Diamond drummer Snowy Shaw was announced as an additional session vocalist later that year.
In 2008 the entire permanent band line-up parted ways with Christofer Johnsson due to differences in opinion on the future direction of the Therion's music.
It was announced on July 7th 2010 that Snowy Shaw left the band. Therion will continue on as usual, and Thomas Vikström will handle Snowy's vocal parts too. However, it was announced on August 25th of the same year that Snowy Shaw rejoined the band.
Therion appears on:
"Tribute to Accept" album, playing the song "The King"
"A Tribute To The Priest" album, playing the song "The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)"

The two first tracks are Blitzkrieg tracks, the name Therion assumed first. Chris played bass back then, and at the time that track 1 was recorded he had only done so for three months. Track 3-5 are songs from the 1989 demos that were never released on Of Darkness. Track 6-10 are from the inofficial demo (1994) that made Nuclear Blast sign Therion.
I joined the Therion fanclub essentially to obtain this cd, and I think it was generally worth it. The Blitzkrieg songs are admittedly awful, but they have historical value and are interesting because of this. Also included are some early Therion demos, which were not included on the 2000 rerelease of the first three albums, and these are much better than the Blitzkrieg stuff. The best demos, however, come from the Lepaca Kliffoth album. We get to hear Black and Melez, which were apparently recorded to get the record deal with NB, so they have historical value as well. The best song on here, though, is Ravaged, which is a very old song recorded for the first time with the new line-up and proper production. This song makes me interested in hearing some other old songs rerecorded, and hopefully the band will embark on this project at some point.
On a somewhat unrelated note, the Fan Club itself is excellent, and while this cd is certainly the best reason to join, the close contact with the band and timely news updates are also well worth the money!

Christofer Johnsson - bass , guitars , vocals
Petr Hansson - guitar
Oskar Forss - drums
Regina - vocals
Eric Gustafsson - bass
Kristian Niemann - guitars
Johan Niemann - bass
Sami Karppinen - drums
Frederik Isaksson - bass
Machine - drums
Lars Rosenberg - bass
Piotr Wawrzeniuk - drums, vocals
Tobias Sidegard - guest vocals
Peter Tatgren - guest vocals