The
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...
band
Therion recorded several
demo albums
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than for release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Dea ...
. The following is a chronology of Therion demos:
''Paroxysmal Holocaust'' (1989)
''Paroxysmal Holocaust'' is the first of Therion's demo albums. The album was released in April 1989 on a
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback
* Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...
, limited to 600 copies.
The album consists of three death metal songs. The song "Bells of Doom" was later included in a 2001 fan-club compilation album named the same as the song, ''
Bells of Doom''.
Recording and production
''Paroxysmal Holocaust'' was recorded during March and April 1989 in the little Swedish 8-track studio Sveastrand.
Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...
, founder and only all-time band member, had mixed opinions of this demo album. On the Therion official website he mentioned the band was excited because it was their first release, although he was very critical to this recording claiming the album "was awful":
Track listing
; Side one
# "Morbid Reality" – 7:33
# "The Return" – 5:47
; Side two
# "Bells of Doom" – 6:18
Personnel
*
Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
*Peter Hansson –
lead guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
*
Oskar Forss
Oskar Forss was a co-founder and during the years of 1987–1992 drummer of Swedish symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal ...
–
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
*
Erik Gustafsson –
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
*
Matti Kärki
Matti Kärki, (born 13 December 1972) is a Sweden, Swedish singer who is best known for his work with Dismember (band), Dismember. Before he joined Dismember in 1991, he was the singer in the Swedish band Carnage (band), Carnage (1989-1990). The ...
–
vocal
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
s
''Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness'' (1989)
''Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness'' is the title of a Therion's 1989 demo. The album was released in November 1989 on a
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback
* Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...
, limited to 500 copies.
The album consists of three
death metal
Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...
songs. Two of them, "Macabre Declension" and "Paroxysmal Holocaust", were later included in the 2001 official fan-club compilation ''
Bells of Doom''. The song "Paroxysmal Holocaust" recorded live in
Strömstad
Strömstad is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,288 inhabitants in 2010. For historical reasons, Strömstad is called a Stad (Sweden), ''city'' despite its small popu ...
, Sweden, 1989 was included in 2006 box-set compilation ''
Celebrators of Becoming''.
Recording and production
''Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness'' was recorded and released in the same year (1989) as the band's first demo album ''
Paroxysmal Holocaust''. The album was recorded in a Swedish 16-track studio.
''Beyond the Darkest...'' was the first album where
Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...
, the only band's all-time member and founder of Therion, started to sing, although after recording he was dissatisfied about the produced work and also about the quality of the sound:
Track listing
# "Macabre Declension" (music:
Johnsson
Johnsson is a Swedish surname meaning "son of John". Notable people with this surname include:
* Andreas Johnsson, Swedish ice hockey player
* Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and produc ...
, Hansson; lyrics: Johnsson) – 7:04
# "Megalomania" (music: Johnsson; lyrics:
Gustafsson,
Kärki) – 5:01
# "Paroxysmal Holocaust" (music: Johnsson) – 5:52
Personnel
*
Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...
–
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
*Peter Hansson – guitar
*
Oskar Forss
Oskar Forss was a co-founder and during the years of 1987–1992 drummer of Swedish symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal ...
–
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
*
Erik Gustafsson –
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
*
Matti Kärki
Matti Kärki, (born 13 December 1972) is a Sweden, Swedish singer who is best known for his work with Dismember (band), Dismember. Before he joined Dismember in 1991, he was the singer in the Swedish band Carnage (band), Carnage (1989-1990). The ...
– lyrics
''Time Shall Tell'' (1990)
''Time Shall Tell'' is Therion's third and the last demo album. Released on an
LP under the House of Kicks record store, the album was supposed to be released with 1000 copies, but the record store
bootlegged another 1000 copies.
The album consists of four
death metal
Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...
songs. The lyrical themes are based around
violence
Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
and
death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
,
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
, and big
corporation
A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...
s (references to
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
and
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
). All songs from the album were included in the band's first studio album ''
Of Darkness...''.
Track listing
# "Time Shall Tell" – 4:56
# "Dark Eternity" – 4:34
# "Asphyxiate with Fear" – 4:30
# "A Suburb to Hell" – 5:04
Personnel
; Therion
* Peter Hansson –
lead guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
,
rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...
*
Christofer Johnsson
Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...
–
vocal
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
s, rhythm guitar, lyrics
*
Oskar Forss
Oskar Forss was a co-founder and during the years of 1987–1992 drummer of Swedish symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal ...
–
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
*
Erik Gustafsson –
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
; Production
* Calle Schewen –
cover artwork
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of c ...
* Tomas Skogsberg – producer
References
*
*
*
*
*
Notes
External links
''Paroxysmal Holocaust''at the official website
''Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness''at the official website
''Time Shall Tell''at the official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Therion Demo Albums
Demo albums
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than for release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Dea ...
Therion
Therion Demo Albums