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BACK
 THERION
– A Nordic Exploration
By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley
NET-only
Therion’s
mastermind Christofer Johnsson is still exploring his musical creativity
after more than a decade with his band. This time a concept album
titled Secret Of The Runes based on ancient Nordic tradition.
But the themes and ideas for this record were not the original intent
of Johnsson. He explains.
"I am pretty amazed that this record came out and the way it
all assembled itself," he begins. "I was working on a
completely different record and had already completed five songs
when I just woke up one day and said to myself, ‘Damn! You
need to make a Nordic album.’ The songs I hadcreated will go
towards the next Therion record, so they won’t be thrown out.
So I put the rest on ice and started to work on Secret Of The Runes."
He adds, "This whole album, believe it or not, came together
in just two months. I am amazed at that. We had a lot going on between
this and the last album (2000’s Deggial). We built a brand
new 160 sq. meter studio from scratch (named Modern Art studio)
and worked hard to get all of this together. It was a lot of stress,
but the end result is worth it."
Listening to Secret Of The Runes, some may hear a throwback of sorts
to the band breakthrough album Theli (1996), but at the same time
expanding the sound of the band. What does Johnsson hear when he
plays back the new disc?
"I think a lot of people make those comparisons because they
only really scratch the surface. I can see people saying, ‘Oh
it has heavy guitars. Theli had heavy guitars too.’ I think
if anything, this record is closer to Theli because of its rawness.
Theli was an experiment that could have turned into something really
awful for us, but it didn’t. Fortunately with Theli we were
able to try new things, but still have those death metal roots in
there. In this one, the rawness is still in the music and it is
very harsh. And I am glad we have that ‘cause this is a Nordic
concept record. We can’t have this clean and nice production
when we are writing songs about fire, ice and giants. That is one
of the reasons why we didn’t record in Germany. How the fuck
can we get inspiration from an industrial city in Germany where
you look outside and see the smog from factories? We needed a place
to record where we had a real Nordic atmosphere with lakes and forests.
Plus, a lot of the lyrics are in Swedish and it would be expensive
to fly over a choir to sing with us in Germany. It would be like
throwing a bunch of money into a lake!
"The reason we built this studio was also because we needed
a 64-track studio to record this album. We hadn’t been able
to find any studio that had big enough space to record an orchestra
section and choir," he states. "We built the studio, a
great one at that, for a very small amount of money and got some
great studio equipment real cheap."
On the concept theme running throughout Secret Of The runes, he
explains, "We sat down to work on this record and thought what
would be the easiest thing to work from in ancient Nordic mythology
and we came up with Yggrasil, the world tree. If you look at the
front cover of the album there are nine worlds and each represents
a particular rune. So we did a song for each of these worlds. Each
of these world describes a certain character or region, as well
the title track that deals with Odin’s journey when he was
hanging himself from Yggrasil for nine days and nights. He received
the knowledge of the runes."
There seems to be a lot going on and Therion obviously put a lot
of effort into making this all come to life so vividly.
"Yeah, I think a lot of our fans will finally be able to understand
our lyrics for a change. The story is great to follow. I think that
in the past our fans had a hard time understanding our lyrics, because
they were not really reader-friendly. They were not meant to be
understood, just meant for us to understand our inspirations. The
lyrics for this album were done in a very poetic way."
Would you do another concept album?
"I think we would. This was very exciting for me, but of course
it was the first one we ever did. I think it is great that over
the years we have been able to just do what we want musically and
not really fall into a trap of putting out the same record over
and over. I look at bands that I enjoy like Iron Maiden, Motorhead
and Saxon who are all great bands, but they never really venture
out of a style with their music. Their older records are classic
but their newer ones, while there may be a few good numbers, really
aren’t allowing the band to expand outside of what people know
of them. I still buy all their records because I want the complete
collections of their works, but do I listen to them? No. We don’t
want to fall into that trap and I am glad that we have a real dynamic
concept of what we want to do and change with the inspiration of
each member. If I woke up one day and was sick of choirs I could
go out and do something else with my music and still call it Therion.
I feel very privileged that have an open world of ideas to explore."
He continues, "When we put out our second album (1991’s
Of Darkness) we were using keyboards. I know we weren’t the
first to do it, Nocturnus had done it on The Key (1990), but people
hated us for it and now those bands who ridiculed us are using keyboards
in their music. Same goes for us in 1992 when Beyond Sanctorum came
out and we had a 80s heavy metal feel added to the death metal music
and people called us lame. But now it is pretty common to hear that
nowadays. People kept asking me why we didn’t change out name
with each new album sound. We just kept on changing and I think
now people have become immune to the changes and can just except
us as Therion, no matter what changes within our music."
Looking at the lengthy discography of the band, one things becomes
quite apparent: Therion likes to put out albums. In fact, the band
has put out an album almost every year since 1990’s Time Shall
Tell. Impressive indeed, Mr. Johnsson.
"I know. There has been a lot of hard work involved in doing
Therion, but I can honestly say that I still enjoy this. Making
music is a very passionate thing. I get a lot out of it."
He adds, "I actually think I am a workaholic," the frontman
muses. "I just can’t really stand still. I need to be
working on something for Therion. It’s just a routine for me,
really. This is what I have always wanted to do. Ever since I was
a kid I wanted to become a well-known metal musician who can live
off his music, go on tour and make albums. When the iron is hot,
you need to hammer it as much as you can. Even though there is a
lot of work involved with Therion, I won’t complain as this
is what I had asked for. I have done almost 120 interviews with
magazines all around the world for this album and I am amazed that
many people want to talk to me about this album."
And seeing that Johnsson has devoted so much time and energy to
his band, does he ever get tired of it or break away for a vacation?
"While we were building the studio, we took a break. You know
what our break was? A tour! We rehearsed for three days, went on
tour for two weeks and came back and finished off the studio. And
after we had some punk/pop/grunge band come into the studio to record
and it allowed us to test out the studio. They were awful, but as
you know, once you finish building a studio you can’t just
go in and press buttons and make a Therion record. Equipment needed
to be tested. We then did pre-production and went right into recording
Secret of The Runes for two months. See what I mean? I am a workaholic."
He finishes, "I like working this hard because I feel satisfied
knowing that I got a lot of things done. Therion has always been
a busy band. Why stop now?"
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