....So, taking into account that I am feeling somewhat un-original right now, I shall start this thread with a description, stolen from Wikipedia.

"Therion is a Swedish symphonic metal band. Its name originates from Greek, where therion means simply beast; 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"

This band to me, are absolutley sublime. The elements they combine are not only multifarious, but beautiful in the way they are placed and presented. Lemuria / Sirius B was an instant classic for me, so much more so than the bands previous endevours.

What do you all think of this terrific ensemble?

All I heard by them is "O Fortuna" but that was a great cover !!

One of my favourite metal bands of all time. They constantly evolve yet have the same "spirit" throughout all of their albums. They're so innovative, never following trends or caring about what will "sell"

When I saw Therion live last summer it was THE BEST metal show I'd ever seen. Despite 10 people on a club stage I was absolutely blown away. It was so inspiring, everyone had fun, great set-list, perfection.

It's always changing but currently my favourite albums are:

Sirius B
Vovin
Secret of the Runes
Theli

Those are really great albums by them i really like dispite some people hate it Sirius B anyone heard anything about them touring this year? And is anyone already saving up to buy the DVD?

@Daibh: I think that is a great idea actually, copy/pasting from Wikipedia.
As long as you support this info with your own opinion or questions.

They are my 3rd fav band, i own their entire discography, i have their dvd set on order as we speak. They are easily the most innovative band ive heard, they have changed so much, yet remain just as amazing.

@Lyrinan: Id give my right arm to see them live, my left too if Haggard was support.
I go to Europe after their touring

I love how unique this band are. Definitely a pinnacle in symphonic metal. I'm fortunate to say I saw them live at ProgPower UK, which was Johnsson's last night on vocals. It was an awesome show but they didn't play my favourite song of theirs 'Nightside Of Eden'.

Also, I know they're doing an European tour at the start of '07 but I had no idea Grave Digger were supports!

World Tour 2007 - EUROPE with Grave Digger and Benedictum
Date Country City venue Status
Sun, Feb 18th, 2007 Germany Hamburg Markthalle Confirmed
Sat, Feb 17th, 2007 Holland Groningen Oosterpoort Confirmed
Fri, Feb 16th, 2007 Holland Tilburg 013 Confirmed
Wed, Feb 14th, 2007 Poland Warszawa TBA TBC
Tue, Feb 13th, 2007 Poland Krakow TBA TBC
Sun, Feb 11th, 2007 Germany Munich New Backstage Confirmed
Sat, Feb 10th, 2007 Germany Glauchau Alte Spinnerei Confirmed
Fri, Feb 9th, 2007 Switzerland Pratteln Z7 Confirmed
Thu, Feb 8th, 2007 Germany Langen Stadthalle Confirmed
Mon, Feb 5th, 2007 Serbia Belgrad SKC Confirmed
Sun, Feb 4th, 2007 Hungary Budapest Petofi Hall Confirmed
Sat, Feb 3rd, 2007 Austria Vienna Planet Music Confirmed
Fri, Feb 2nd, 2007 Austria Saltzburg Rockhouse Confirmed
Thu, Feb 1st, 2007 Croatia Zagreb Boogaloo Confirmed
Wed, Jan 31st, 2007 Slovenia Lubjana Vpk Mediapark Confirmed
Mon, Jan 29th, 2007 Italy Milano TBA TBC
Sat, Jan 27th, 2007 Spain Bilbao Santana 27 Confirmed
Fri, Jan 26th, 2007 Spain Madrid La Riveria Confirmed
Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 Spain Barcelona Razzmatazz 2 Confirmed
Tue, Jan 23rd, 2007 France Paris TBA TBC
Sun, Jan 21st, 2007 England London Mean Fiddler Confirmed
Sat, Jan 20th, 2007 Belgium Antwerpen Hof Ter Loo Confirmed
Fri, Jan 19th, 2007 Germany Lichtenfels Stadthalle Confirmed
Wed, Jan 17th, 2007 Germany Essen Weststadthalle Confirmed

damn it, you guys beat me to Therion's virginity. but oh well.

therion is just incredible! really original, and almost godly. a band that i can never ever get tired of. ive heard lemurai, and Siris B 1000's of times, and i still love them even more. and they have amazing energy to them live. and they had 3 encores! what band has 3 freaken encores?! the crowd was going nuts after em. on top of that, therion is one of the bands that i can promote no matter where i go! i got my school librarian, and my calculas teacher hooked on therion. same thing goes for my history teacher, and my writers craft teacher. my friends arent really into them...guess they dont like different stuff. but yeah, and i even got some people at my work get into therion.


and here you guys go:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=therion

those are all the therion videos out there right now

One of my favourite metal bands of all time, Therion was in my "metal life" in the 90's the same that Pink Floyd was for my "rock life" in the 70's, a "break point". I love all their albums since "Of darkness" to "Lemuria" and "Sirius B". I saw them twice in concert, here in La Paz-Bolivia, I'll never forget those concerts I think Christofer Johnsson is a master.
But I want to say too that I think Therion have a risk, they would be some repetitive in future, you can see that in "Secret of the Runes" and their lasts albums, I expect that this will not be thus.

Written by Conemetal on 18.05.2006 at 00:09

One of my favourite metal bands of all time, Therion was in my "metal life" in the 90's the same that Pink Floyd was for my "rock life" in the 70's, a "break point". I love all their albums since "Of darkness" to "Lemuria" and "Sirius B". I saw them twice in concert, here in La Paz-Bolivia, I'll never forget those concerts I think Christofer Johnsson is a master.
But I want to say too that I think Therion have a risk, they would be some repetitive in future, you can see that in "Secret of the Runes" and their lasts albums, I expect that this will not be thus.

I agree, they are in the same situation as Nightwish imo (generally speaking), if they release other album like the last/s, it will become too repetitive, so far teres nothing wrong with them, but i feel your concern.

I bought their DVD off eBay, received it today, so far ive watched disc 1 and 3, the Live In Mexico gig, and the video clips/studio reports/ etc.
Fucking awesome so far!

Therion. The names speaks the truth. A great mix of metal music and opera. I have 5 albums and to honest when I listen to the band I feel that their music is endless.

There's been some talk above about signs of repetitiveness in Therion albums, and I must disagree. As far as I can tell, they have brought their sound to full development with Lemuria/Sirius B. They are in no danger of sounding repetitive. No song on those discs sound anything like any other song by them.

I think this is a band we will be able to depend on for a long time. They have never failed at making great music, and they've been around for almost twenty years now.

Way! A great swedish band, that's really cool! And I live in Sweden! I'll have the opportunity to see them zillions of times!
...
Ironic enough, Therion hates Sweden. They never play here >_______<

One of my favourite bands. I have their albums from Lepaca Kliffoth and forward and I have also heard a lot of their earlier material but I prefer their later albums in which they combine metal and opera music in an exellent way. For albums I think I like "Secret of the runes" best, a well balanced concept album (and also cool when they sing in swedish).

They are also very good live, I've seen them twice now (offtour in Stockholm and at Sweden rock festival). I don't now if they really "hate" Sweden maybe it's just because they are less known and popular here, the first concert I saw here was played in a small arena that barely sold out.

Yepp they're coming to Slovenia again!!!! My friend just told me that yesterday and I'm like wooooow Their concert must have been one of the best I have ever been on - they're even more amazing live than on albums. A band I actually can't imagine how anyone could not like, especially albums such is my personal favourite Vovin.

And not to mention that they are one of rare bands who has changed drastically over the years but never let me down.

Therion - Official Website Back Online :

Therion's webmaster has posted the following update at the band's official website:

"After a long fight with various ISP over various issues, technical problems, server changes and almost every other horrible nightmares system administrators and webmasters can suffer from, the Therion website is finally back up.

We have gotten ourselves a brand new server, smartly dubbed Lordi in honour of the weirdest Eurosong final ever with a far better Linux distro. So hopefully this will not happen again. (Rest assured that it will tho)

The Therion store should be up again soon as well. We are just waiting for DNS servers all our the world to do their magics. So fear not you who just have ordered and are waiting for your goods; we did not run off with your money.

If you run into any issues, do not be afraid to contact me and I will look into it."

(Source : http://www.megatherion.com/)

This new website looks great on first sight!

Written by Guest on 22.05.2006 at 18:52

There's been some talk above about signs of repetitiveness in Therion albums, and I must disagree. As far as I can tell, they have brought their sound to full development with Lemuria/Sirius B. They are in no danger of sounding repetitive. No song on those discs sound anything like any other song by them.

I think this is a band we will be able to depend on for a long time. They have never failed at making great music, and they've been around for almost twenty years now.

I think you may have miss read what we said. Theres no repetitiveness now, but there could be on the next album. The last two albums were similar (obviously), its moreso what step they will take to alter their sound...

One of my favorite bands too. When I discovered them they didn't sound like anything I would listen to at the time but nowadays I love their music. They're one of the handfull of bands of whom I have no albums that I like better then the other. Each song fits like a piece in a puzzle and each puzzle is a piece on the wall-tiles of a maze. They haven't done anything "wrong" (WOW!). They are beyond normal critisism and one cannot say they shoud have sticked with their previous style because it's always something new.

I am really looking forward to listening to some new Therion. I'm sure it's gonna be fantastic.

The most who like Therion know them because of their symphonic metal; but sincerely they were a great death band, "Beyond sanctorum" is fucking great, the song The way is a maesterpiece, or "Symphony masses:Ho drakon Ho Megas" is outstanding a black rose is fantastic, finally and sincerely what I consider their "magnus opus" Lepaca Kliffoth, the perfect mixture between the black/death and in some parts melodic metal is brilliant...

Written by Surtur on 28.05.2006 at 08:51

The most who like Therion know them because of their symphonic metal; but sincerely they were a great death band, "Beyond sanctorum" is fucking great, the song The way is a maesterpiece, or "Symphony masses:Ho drakon Ho Megas" is outstanding a black rose is fantastic, finally and sincerely what I consider their "magnus opus" Lepaca Kliffoth, the perfect mixture between the black/death and in some parts melodic metal is brilliant...

I agree their early days are also brilliant, Beyond Sanctorum had so many outstanding songs.

Written by Dark Cornatus on 28.05.2006 at 09:14

Written by Surtur on 28.05.2006 at 08:51

The most who like Therion know them because of their symphonic metal; but sincerely they were a great death band, "Beyond sanctorum" is fucking great, the song The way is a maesterpiece, or "Symphony masses:Ho drakon Ho Megas" is outstanding a black rose is fantastic, finally and sincerely what I consider their "magnus opus" Lepaca Kliffoth, the perfect mixture between the black/death and in some parts melodic metal is brilliant...

I agree their early days are also brilliant, Beyond Sanctorum had so many outstanding songs.

Some of their recently albums are great, but after "The secret of the runes" they don't impressed me more, and you're right Beyond Sanctorum has really good songs like The way mentioned before, Cthulhu, Symphony of the death and Beyond Sanctorum...

Written by Surtur on 28.05.2006 at 08:51

The most who like Therion know them because of their symphonic metal; but sincerely they were a great death band, "Beyond sanctorum" is fucking great, the song The way is a maesterpiece, or "Symphony masses:Ho drakon Ho Megas" is outstanding a black rose is fantastic, finally and sincerely what I consider their "magnus opus" Lepaca Kliffoth, the perfect mixture between the black/death and in some parts melodic metal is brilliant...

I agree nearly perfectly.. I would also mention Enter the Depths of Eternal Darkness. Partially the intro makes me feel I'm in .. I can't really describe it properly...

I dont think there is a 'better' Therion era than another, its all different music, like a progression in time, its like when a movie becomes classic, sure the effects and complexity isnt there, but it doesnt make it worse. All eras brand Therions title, they are after all, a god of Metal.

the ultimate experience in music....once u hear them ....u have a different idea about metal ....and higher standars ! ....they r just amasing

well as a lot of people say here before, Therion is one of my favorite band. I have the luck of saw them alive and it was the most perfect concert in the world. I have all their albums and I really enjoy the way that they sound, every album is so unique... at the beginnig with alums like of darkness and Beyond Sanctorum and then the last things, Christoffer is a genius (and I love him).

A great band.Very original and creative.I was looking at the linear notes for Sirius B and Lemuria and decided i'd check where they got all those ideas from.While I know it was mostly mythological I wasnt sure what half of the stuff meant and what purprose it served.So I used wikipedia and found myself looking at names mentioned in the lyrics for probably an hour or so.I just thought I would share that little story with you all.Therion are a very awesome band.

Written by Dark Cornatus on 28.05.2006 at 22:41

I dont think there is a 'better' Therion era than another, its all different music, like a progression in time, its like when a movie becomes classic, sure the effects and complexity isnt there, but it doesnt make it worse. All eras brand Therions title, they are after all, a god of Metal.

I'm agree with you, all eras are great but sometimes their early years are scorned, thetion has been great musicians since their begining...

they're mine favourite band since i've started to listen metal... i have everything they have ever made... deggial from 2000 (with o fortuna and seven secrets of the sphinx) was the firs albw i've heard... masterpiece... and beauty in black, and beyond sanctorum... i really can say only great things about this band... their music is just great mix, with fantastic solos and amazing lyrics...music worked out in detail... every tone is in his place, every word is like from heaven... fucking awsome!

Amazing band, specially the early stuff, when they used to be Heavier, but they still a high quality band! On my top 20

THE greatest metal band of all time. Period. I saw them live and it was THE greatest metal show I have ever been to. It is just that simple. Nobody is as good as they are. Frankly, I think they are the greatest musical entity of all time, topping Louis Armstrong, Bethoven, Kongaro Ol Ondar and others.
The compositions, to begin with, manage to fit in as many ideas into a single minute of music as most bands do into an album. Every single song takes you through a myriad of emotions, all carefully arranged in fascinating coctails. All the energy you need is there, but the music never suffers because of it. Therion simply sticks to a higher standard.
Oh yeah, and originality! I suppose there are a lot of bands out there that sound like them. I wonder why? Oh yeah, they are slavish imitators! Therion pretty much invented symphonic metal, or at the very least took it much much further than anyone ever had before. While most of the Therion wannabe bands end up lacking variety, however, Therion invariably delivers one great album after another, with no two songs sounding even remotely similar.
Every single album they have come up with (not counting atlantis or lucid dreaming) is easily among my favourite 30 ever made. They have no peer and they probably never will. In my eyes, Therion will always be the metal act to beat.

An awesome band thats for sure. I havent heard a lot of their works, but I do have Lemuria and Sirus B and they are excellent.