The acclaimed Prog Power festival has finally worked its way across to the UK and it has truly made an impact. Just short of 1000 people flocked through the doors of the Centeur for the inaugural debut Prog Power UK festival and as we already know, it definitely will not be the last. From the young to the old, the crowd certainly was made up of a diverse mix of folk from all walks of life, united to watch some of the finest progressive power metal bands from around the globe.

Headlining the event were the Swedish operatic metal band “Therion” who I’m sure need no introduction. Completed by a four piece choir, a soprano, and belly dancers going by the name of “Brides of Anubis”, Therion put on a performance that was simply stunning.

“It [Prog Power UK] was a great show and we had much fun”. Christofer continues to say “The last few shows haven’t really been part of the main touring, but rather some additional shows several months after the main touring was ended, so we pretty much felt we were home already. When we did the last 4 shows, we had already started the pre-production of the new album and took a small break to do these shows”.

Therion’s musical style has progressed enormously since they began life in the early 1990’s as a death metal band, and their recent albums “Lemuria” and “Sirius B” are perhaps a million miles away from where they began although, as Christofer points out, it was more of a slow, gradual progression than a sudden change in direction.

“It is a big misunderstanding that we changed one day. Each Therion album has been different from the one before and we have evolved from the style we started with bit by bit. If one take a listen on our first album in 1991 and then follow the chronology up till now, it becomes clear that it is in a way a logic development after the change we did with the Beyond Sanctorum album in 1992. In most aspects we had ceased to be a death metal band already at 1995 with Lepaca Kliffoth”

Christofer explains how Therion differs from many bands and how they have always been a step ahead of the rest; not being afraid to experiment with their sound and incorporate different styles into their music.

“I don’t want to sound big headed, but each album we did was unique at its own time. For instance, we used keyboards in death metal as early as 1991, not many other bands did that. We were also the first death metal band to start playing with Persian (“Arabic”) scales, use major chords (!) and mix it with 80’s classic heavy metal. We were always regarded as some odd sort of avant garde metal band, only many years later, when those ingredients we mixed were becoming common among bands in general, some people started to have the idea that we were some sort of “ordinary” band and one day all of a sudden had the idea to go crazy and do something different.

Reading reviews from the press from back then should be a pretty good evidence of the error in that”.

“I think the main reason people tend to think in terms of Therion before and after the Theli album in 1996, is because it made us famous. If we would have been a big selling band from the start, or if we’d still had the same low sales today (like our first 4 albums), there wouldn’t have been such a focus around thee particular change we did with that album”.

We were informed at Prog Power UK that Therion are in fact recording a new album to be released in 2007. What should we expect from this one, I wonder. Will it be anything like Sirius B/Lemuria or will they pull out something completely different…

“The change in style will be bigger than usual I’d say. It is more progressive and even more diverse than Lemuria. It will be a challenge for many fans, but that’s just good. That’s the best way to keep our selves fresh after nearly 19 years of existence, to dare to seek new ways and never play safe cards”

Well, I suppose a band would be pretty boring if they released the same old stuff over and over again for 19 years!!! I, for one, am eagerly anticipating their next release in 2007. Until then, at least we have the “Celebrators of becoming” DVD box set to keep us all busy! Here, Christofer tells us all about the DVD and its’ contents…

“It is 6 discs in a nice digipak package in a slipcase. Without doubt the most expensive product the label has been putting out ever. Yet, it will be sold for a very reasonable price, as we don’t wish it to be some expensive obscure collectors item for the most devoted fans, but a DVD-box that should be on the shelf of every Therion fan.

The contents are:

Disc 1: Live in Mexico City 2004

Disc 2: Therions' own documentary from the last World Tour (North and South America, Europe and Asia)

Disc 3: Various. All videoclips, TV performance, The Golden Embrace, a show recorded at Wacken open Air 2000 + more.

Disc 4: Historical disc, a collection of bootleg recordings of songs from 1989-2001 with comments from the band. You will follow the band on the long road from the demo days up til the big success of today. Some of the footage is super rare.

Disc 5 and 6 is the audio from the Mexico City show."