[quote=Christofer Johnsson (Therion)]"As was announced at the Metal Mania festivals, I am going to retire from vocals. The reasons for this are two: One is that I feel it's not fun to sing anymore (even though I have enjoyed playing the old songs on guitar). [My] voice is getting weaker over the years and I experienced problems at the end of the U.S./Canada tour. The problem isn't only getting older, but rather that we basically never rehearse as a band and therefore, I don't keep my throat 'warm.' It simply doesn't work to not sing for half a year and then go on tour for two months and shout every evening. It used to work when I was younger, but now I feel it's not comfortable anymore and when it doesn't feel right, it's definitely time to stop.
"The second reason is that we would like to stop playing old songs, anyway. By old I mean 'Lepaca Klifffoth' and older. We are now working on our 13th studio album and it is getting harder and harder to choose which songs to play live. The number of 'classics' — songs that we more or less must play — is growing all the time and we don't want to end up like one of those bands where you know beforehand 95% for sure what songs that are going to be played. We want to be able to have space to play a couple of unexpected songs each new tour. We, of course, realize that many fans will miss those old brutal songs, but we are convinced that those fans also will prefer to hear something new each time from the Theli album and onwards. This is sad in a way, but I was kind of expecting it. He'd been singing less and less, without singing once across Vovin, Deggial, Secret of the Runes, Crowning of Atlantis, and Sirius B, so definitely not unexpected. As for not playing songs before Theli, that suits me fine. I'm not interested in the pre Theli era of the band, I don't like death metal.
What's got me psyched, however, is this:[quote=Christofer Johnsson]The ProgPower festival in England will be the final show where I do vocals on stage. This will be our 106th and final show supporting 'Lemuria'/'Sirius B'. We will not be on stage again until 2007. I have planned a special surprise for this festival (not even the other band members know it), so don't miss this festival if you live in the U.K.!"I'm going to that concert on the 25th! :DDDDD I'm even more excited than I was for Dream Theater, now, this is too perfect.
I sure hope there will be footage recorded from this, and released on the upcoming DVD.
Encore needs to be an old Death song. Like a song off of "Of Darkness...". That would be an amazing send-off.
:( Oh well, bye Chris.
Likewise.
Well, I'll be able to have fun in some other bizarre manner... Orphaned Land and Therion were the only two of interest on the bill anyway.
[QUOTE=Vampiro]Indeed it would. But it'll never happen. The fans are there to see the Symphonic Therion only, and definitely not Death. And the band members know that. Which is a shame, since that's how they started, and it would be an amazing send-off for Chris Johnsson. Assuming he would even want to do that, of course.They do actually play those songs from time to time. Melez is a setlist regular (If not hugely death), and in the US they played a few deathies.
[quote]Likewise.
Well, I'll be able to have fun in some other bizarre manner... Orphaned Land and Therion were the only two of interest on the bill anyway.I'm looking forward to hearing all of them. I like Freedom Call and Therion. I've been recommended Orphaned Land loads of times. Threshold I've been meaning to check out for aaaages, and Pagan's Mind I loved a couple of songs by, and been meaning to get more of for a while now. Firewind are get a lot of good press too, and so Secret Sphere are the only "wtf" on the list for me. And even then, I've never heard anyone say anything bad about them.
DOUBLE POST LOL I LIKE TO BUMP.
So, the setlist went a bit like this...
1. The Rise Of Sodom And Gomorrah (Dancers)
2. Ginnungagap (Dancers)
3. The Blood Of Kingu
4. Uthark Runa
5. Invocation of Naamah
6. Typhon
7. Seven Secrets Of The Sphinx (Dancers)
8. Asgard (Dancers)
9. Riders of Theli
10. The Siren Of The Woods
11. Black Sun
12. Wine Of Aluqah (Dancers)
ENCORE
13. Cults Of The Shadow
14. To Mega Therion
Typhon and Riders of Theli were played today for the last time ever. I got was in the very front row, to the left, I'll get pictures up soon, though most are v. blurry. Thanks to my awesome placement, however, I exchanged countless thumbs up with the bassist, and me and Mats Leven pointed at each other pretty frequently. The dancers were great, they added loads of atmosphere, and were always in perfect time with the music and each other. Stunning concert.
The rest of progpower was also awesome (except Pagan's Mind, which I had to skip - I was busy recovering from the very energetic, very enthusiastic Freedom Call.) I managed to speak to every single musician who played for some amount of time, and they all signed my jacket. I was particularly impressed by Firewind and Orphaned Land. I'd post setlists but I wasn't familiar with half of the songs.
Freedom Call did a great set, and Chris Bay is one of the nicest, friendliest, funniest guys I've met. Though Mats Leven comes close. ("This is a relatively new addition to the band, he's played what, four? five shows now? and he's showing promise. maybe you could write something on the next album or something. give it up for Christofer Johnsson!") I was also impressed by Threshold's drummer, and the charisma of their lead singer.
And, to make any Therion fans jealous:
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/9491e502.jpg[/IMG]
You, sir, suck.
That sounded like one hell of a show, and definitely a night to remember. Lucky bastard.
[quote=Sabredog]Typhon ... played today for the last time ever.
:(
I checked ticketmaster last September or so, and Therion was coming here to Ottawa, but you had to be 18 to go. :mad:
You lucky person with your popular city. :mad:
You lucky little brit son-of-a-bitch. :mad:
Sounds like it was an awesome show I doubt you'll ever forget. You never did mention to me that Freedom Call was gonna be there either. Jealous x2. :(
Here we go, a couple more pictures...
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Firewind-ChitySomapala.jpg[/IMG]
Me with Chity, the lead singer of Firewind. Great guy, very charismatic, and very talented. I was surprised at how amazed I was by Firewind actually, every single member was very, very talented.
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/OrphanedLand-YossiSasi.jpg[/IMG]
Me with Yossi of Orphaned Land. Very nice guy. I actually bumped into him a couple of times during intermissions and he was polite enough to say hi to me - I was very impressed.
The pictures of the concert itself are all very blurry. Here's just a couple though, to show you the kind of view I had of the stage...
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Blurfest-SevenSecrets.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Blurfest-TheRise-2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Podium-Asgard-2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/PICT0038.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/PICT0058.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/PICT0059.jpg[/IMG]
The picture of the dancer on the podium was taken during Asgard.
More pictures to come. Sorry 56kers. :(
Oh, right. Forgot to mention. My jacket is almost certainly better than yours.
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-Therion.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-FullBack.jpg[/IMG]
Closeups:
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-Firewind.jpg]Firewind[/url]
[Url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-FreedomCallsleeve.jpg]Freedom Call sleeve[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-OrphanedLand.jpg]Orphaned Land[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-PagansMindsleeve.jpg]Pagan's Mind (front)[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-PagansMindsleeve.jpg]Pagan's Mind (back)[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-SecretSphere.jpg]Secret Sphere[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-TherionMiddle.jpg]Therion (middle)[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-TherionBottom.jpg]Therion (bottom half)[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Front-Petter.jpg]Therion (Petter)[/url]
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/sabreydoo/Jacket/Jacket-Back-Threshold.jpg]Threshold[/url]
The little designs (The picture of Mats Leven, "Therion 2006" and the Clavicula Nox symbol on the pocket) were courtesy of Mats Leven.
Holy ****, that's awesome.
omfg, I want to be a britman just for these opportunities :(
****it you're lucky. Therion was supposed to come to Winnipeg but they cancelled. :mad: But looks like that was a great show. Another reason to move to the uk!
Hey Sabre...you look kinda cool doin that.
You. And Yossi. From Orphaned Land.
I'm never talking to you again.