Massive guitar overdubbing sessions, 280 tracks, 2 weeks spent just editing vocals, 15 singers etc… Metal Wani’s Katia Filipovic had a chat with THERION mastermind Christofer Johnsson about the recording of new album, “Beloved Antichrist”.
Have you ever written an album? If that is the case, you already know that it is no mean feat, as for it to sound truly professional, a lot of sweat and tears usually goes into it. So imagine for a second what it must be like to compose an opera… ( or to be more precise a rock/metal opera.) Well, Therion has been busy for quite a considerable amount of time doing just that and the resulting product of such titanesque effort, Beloved Antichrist, will be released through Nuclear Blast on the 9th of February.
As Therion is preparing to embark on a pan-European tour which starts on the 1st of February in Essen, I was very lucky to be able to catch up with the man behind this gigantic project: Christofer Johnsson.
In this interview, he reveals why he opted to loosely adapt the novel of Russian philosopher Soloviev rather than go for his first choice, a classic book by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master And Margarita.
He makes reference to Jesus Christ Superstar numerous times and explains why it is quite important for Beloved Antichrist to appeal to the mainstream audience without alienating Therion fans.
A few technical aspects about the recording of this monumental work are explained in great details and make for quite a remarkable listening: tales of eighties style guitar overdubbing that take epic proportions, a role written exclusively for a tenor baritone who is to say the least rather elusive, hundreds of tracks requiring very special software’s.
Christofer also explains how he started writing for the orchestra back in the early days of Therion and how a process of trial and errors allowed him to become a master at this very special skill.
Oh! And do watch out for his supermarket paper bag story!