Metal and symphony era beginning (1996–2001)
Therion "To Mega Therion" (1996)
Sample from Therion's "To Mega Therion". From the album Theli.
Therion "Clavicula Nox" (1998)
Sample from Therion's "Clavicula Nox". From the album Vovin.
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In 1996 Jonas Mellberg was added to the line-up and Therion began recording their new experimental album, entitled Theli. The album heavily featured the vocals of two choirs, along with some vocals from Johnsson and Wawrzeniuk. Dan Swanö also contributed to the vocals on this album. The band used keyboards heavily, so many in fact that it was humorously called "Barmbek Symphony Orchestra" after the subway station next to the studio. Theli is considered to be the apex of Therion's career to date.The sales reached 75,000 copies in a month, more than doubling the sales of Lepaca Kliffoth
Secret of the Runes (2001–2002)
Therion "Asgård" (2001)
Sample from Therion's "Asgård". From the album Secret of the Runes.
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After Deggial, Johnsson began to compose again; he had idea to make a Nordic concept album. For the recording he built a recording studio, just used by the band, called "Modern Art".The new written songs were based on the nine different worlds of the world tree Yggdrasil from the ancient Norse mythology. This album was named Secret of the Runes and released in 2001. For a bonus, the band recorded cover songs of "Crying Days" originally performed by Scorpions and "Summer Night City" of ABBA. Piotr Wawrzeniuk returned as a guest vocalist for the bonus tracks of this album.
Lemuria and Sirius B (2004–2006)
Therion "Lemuria" (2004)Sample from Therion's "Lemuria". From the album Lemuria.
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Live in Netherlands, 2004After the tour, the band decided to take stock and sort out what they had in terms of music. The seven songs that Johnsson had made had grown to a considerable number, and along with the Niemann brothers' contributions the band discovered they had 55 new songs.The band decided to record and release two albums simultaneously. 171 musicians were used in the recording of the new albums, a 32-member choir was recorded in Prague along with many lead vocalists.[5] The results were the albums Lemuria and Sirius B, released together in a special twin pack, as well as individually, in 2004. Piotr Wawrzeniuk returned on this album to provide vocals, along with the singer Mats Levén.
In July 2005, an album entitled Atlantis Lucid Dreaming was released. As the name suggests, it is a mixture of tracks from 1997 A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming and 1999 Crowning of Atlantis. The tracklist is all the non-soundtrack songs from the first one (except for the Iron Maiden cover version), followed by the first seven Crowning of Atlantis songs, and additionally the live version of "Black Sun".
The Lemuria/Sirius B Tour would last for 106 live shows stretching over two years. The final concert took part at the ProgPower Festival in Cheltenham, UK on 21 March 2006 and that was the last Christofer Johnsson vocal stage performance.
Therion released their first DVD entitled Celebrators of Becoming on May 2006. The set contains four DVDs, featuring live video from Mexico City recorded in 2004 and other live video materials, bands' documentary from the 2004–2006 World Tour, art movie "The Golden Embrace", all band music videos to date and bootlegs with commentary, and two audio CDs with a live show recorded in Mexico City.
Gothic Kabbalah, classical shows and The 20th Anniversary Tour (2006–2007)
Lori Lewis and Christofer Johnsson with symphonic orchestra and choir during the live classical show at the Miskolc Opera Festival, Hungary, 2007.
On September 2006 Christofer Johnsson announced that recordings of the new album Gothic Kabbalah had been finished and the album was subsequently released on January 12, 2007. In early 2007, the band began promoting the album with a World Tour, headlined together with Grave Digger and with support act Sabaton. The tour included North and South America, and for the very first time in the band's history, Japan.
Lineup changes and Sitra Ahra (2008–2011)
In April 2008 it was announced on Therion's official site that the core group of musicians were parting ways. Christofer also noted that he was in no way ending Therion.[16] Four months later Johan Koleberg, as the new drummer, and Nalle Påhlsson as bassist, were announced as the new band members.
On August 5, 2008, Therion released their third live album - a double CD and one DVD set -entitled Live Gothic. The album was recorded in Warsaw, Poland on February 14, 2007 and featuring 22 songs spread over the two discs, and the DVD is the visual version of the same concert.
Present and future plans (2012–)
On 14th February 2012 the release of a new studio album for September 2012, followed up by the 25th Anniversary Tour (with the title "Flowers of Evil") was announced.
