A journey through Music & Wine w/ Christofer Johnsson from Therion.
ABOUT THERION
Back in the year 1987, Christofer Johnsson formed the metal band Blitzkrieg in Upplands Väsby, a suburb of Stockholm. What genre they played is debatable, 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 complete with Peter Hansson on guitar and Oskar Forss on drums. This line-up, however, only lasted for two gigs when 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 as well. Later Oskar returned and bassist Erik Gustafson joined. Erik had just left another Swedish underground death metal group called Dismember.
After a short while, the name changed to Therion. With this line-up the two demos, the first EP, and the first full-length recorded, however, on the Paroxysmal Holocaust demo, Matti Kärki performed the vocals. “Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness” was the first Therion release Chris sang. The EP, “Time Shall Tell”, was nothing more than a demo recording that got released as a record instead of a cassette.
ABOUT CHRISTOFER JOHNSSON
Christofer Jan Johnsson 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 2006, he announced he will no longer sing for Therion – though he will continue as guitarist for the group. He also have his occult vintage rock side project Luciferian Light Orchestra.
In his childhood, Johnsson enjoyed listening to classical music and gradually became more interested in his father’s ’50s and ’60s rock. Popular music played on the radio in this era generally had a lot of strings in it, and even though much of it did not fall in his taste, it still managed to influence him.
