Therion demo albums

The Swedish heavy metal band Therion recorded several demo albums. The following is a chronology of Therion demos:

Paroxysmal Holocaust (1989)
Paroxysmal Holocaust is a title of the first Therion's demo album. The album was released on April 1989 on a cassette, limited to 600 copies.

The album consist 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, founder and only all-time band's member, had mixed opinions of this demo album. At the Therion official website he mentioned the band was excited because of the first release ever, although he was very critical to this recording claiming the album "was awful":

"As we had never been in a studio before we were anyway very happy with the recording. Kind of "Wow we can hear our songs coming from a tape". But in reality this demo was awful in my own opinion. But what the heck, we had the studio for free and many people liked the demo back then."

- Christofer Johnsson

Track listing

 * Side one
 * 1) "Morbid Reality" – 7:33
 * 2) "The Return" – 5:47
 * Side two
 * 1) "Bells of Doom" – 6:18

Personnel

 * Christofer Johnsson – guitar
 * Peter Hansson – lead guitar
 * Oskar Forss – drums
 * Erik Gustafsson – bass guitar
 * Matti Kärki – vocals

Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness (1989)
Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness is a title of a Therion's 1989 demo. The album was released on November 1989 on a cassette, limited to 500 copies.

The album consist of three death metal songs. Two of them, "Macabre Declension" and "Paroxysmal Holocaust", were later included in 2001 official fan-club compilation Bells of Doom. Song "Paroxysmal Holocaust" recorded live in Strömstad, 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, the only band's all-time member and founder of Therion, started to sing, although after recording he was dissatisfied about produced work and also about quality of the sound:

"On this demo I started to sing. But I had a terrible headache the day I had to record the vocals [...], which made me sing very deep as it hurt less (!) and kind of killed the feeling in it. We couldn't afford an extra day in the studio, so no other choice... But who cares, the demo sucked anyway, with a terrible sound etc."

- Christofer Johnsson

Track listing

 * 1) "Macabre Declension" (music: Johnsson, Hansson; lyrics: Johnsson) – 7:04
 * 2) "Megalomania" (music: Johnsson; lyrics: Gustafsson, Kärki) – 5:01
 * 3) "Paroxysmal Holocaust" (music: Johnsson) – 5:52

Personnel

 * Christofer Johnsson – vocals, guitar
 * Peter Hansson – guitar
 * Oskar Forss – drums
 * Erik Gustafsson – bass guitar
 * Matti Kärki – lyrics

Time Shall Tell (1990)
Time Shall Tell is Therion's third and the last demo album. Released as an EP under House of Kicks record store, the album was supposed to be released in 1000 copies, but record store bootlegged another 1000 copies.

The album consists of four death metal songs. The lyrical themes are based around violence and death, human rights, and big corporations (references to Coca-Cola and McDonald's). All songs from the album were included in band's first studio album Of Darkness....

Track listing

 * 1) "Time Shall Tell" – 4:56
 * 2) "Dark Eternity" – 4:34
 * 3) "Asphyxiate with Fear" – 4:30
 * 4) "A Suburb to Hell" – 5:04

Personnel

 * Therion
 * Peter Hansson – lead guitar, rhythm guitar
 * Christofer Johnsson – vocals, rhythm guitar, lyrics
 * Oskar Forss – drums
 * Erik Gustafsson – bass guitar
 * Production
 * Calle Schewen – cover artwork
 * Tomas Skogsberg – producer