From the Official Therion Website...
sounds good to me.
Christofer Johnsson said:So, the only Therion concert before 2010 is drawing near and I suppose you guys are curious of who's gonna be on stage (well, some of you already figured it out - I hate internet).
- NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
The new man behind the drums is called Johan Kullberg and he used to play in Lions Share, the band that Andy "The Bald Guy" Engberg used to be the singer of. Great all round drummer that both plays all the stuff from the previous drummers really well and add his own personal style to it in a tasteful way.
He was recommended by Thomas Vikström the day after the decision of the other members parting was announced so I didn't even get the chance to catch my breath before there was already a new drummer in house. As if that wasn't enough. When me and Thomas spoke on the phone, I said something about "Bob Daisley would be the perfect bassplayer" just to give a clue of what type of guy I I would have in mind when I eventually get around serching or one. Thomas then replied replied "Oh, but then it's Nalle Påhlsson you're looking for! He's the swedish Bob Daisley!". So I gave the man a ring and before I even had time to sit down and reflect about things, I already had a new rythm section into the band. But not just a rythm section - these guys have been playing together for over 10 years, so they're already super tight and groove like hell. When we rehearsed the first time it felt pretty much like before, it sounded like there was no interruption with member change at all. Kind of the same feeling I had when Petter joined the band back in 2004, it just clicked immediatly. I can't wait to make the next album with these guys!
Guitarist?
Well, I have approached two guitarists that would both be able to carry the weight of Kristian's sport playing as well as offer some strong personality playing that would be a great build for future albums. Bad luck though, they were both interested, but too busy with other important things to join the band. But I will be working with both of them on the upcoming album on a session basis, so that part is already taken care of. How things looks like when it's time for the World Tour 2010 is another thing, we'll sort that out by then if none of them can join then.
So what's up with the festival in Plock in Poland then? Well, an old friend was giving me a call and offered to help out. You guys who have the old Therion records (or checked out the historical disc on Celebrators of Becoming DVD) should be very familiar with the guy - Magnus Barthelsson, guitarist in Therion back in 1992-94. We used to play death metal together back in those day and now we've developed far away from that each on his own. So it's cool to play together again and will be much fun to have him on board for this show.
An anecdote is that Kristian was making an audition for a band that Magnus was about to start back in the 90's, so as it seems - it's a small world in the musical scene in Stockholm.
Another fun thing is that ALL THREE of the guys in above are working at Deluxe Music - a music store where I do all my shopping. Did I mention it's a small world in the music scene in Stockholm?
And oh, check out Magnus present band called Order of Isaz.Two of the other guys in that band is Tobias Sidegård and Kim Blomkvist who were doing a few tours with Therion back in the 90's. I'm not sure if I ever said it before, but it's a small world in the music scene in Stockholm...
sounds good to me.
