Therion (formerly Blitzkrieg, Megatherion) is a Swedish symphonic metal band founded by Christofer Johnsson in 1988. Its name was inspired by the Celtic Frost album To Mega Therion. "To Mega Therion" is Greek for "The Great Beast" and was a title used by occultist Aleister Crowley. Originally a death metal band, Therion adjusted its musical style by adding orchestral elements, including choirs, classical musicians, and even a full orchestra at their concert performances.

In 2008, the band announced that its core group of musicians would be parting ways, but Johnsson posted that he was in no way ending Therion. Johan Koleberg became the new drummer, and Nalle Pahlsson the bassist. The band did not tour that year, except for a single open-air festival show in Plock, Poland on 6 September.  On 10 May 2009, following the release of The Miskolc Experience, Therion announced Thomas Vikstrom as its new lead vocalist. The band worked on a new album, Sitra Ahra, which featured new guitarist Christian Vidal, and Snowy Shaw on vocals.  Sitra Ahra was released on 17 September 2010 The band toured South and Central America for 17 days, and European tour through November and December.  In March 2011, Gothic Kabbalah singer Katarina Lilja left the band for a second time to "re-join the boring civil world and not be a cool rock star anymore". Vikstrom's daughter, Linnea, provided supporting vocals for the band at the Bloodstock Open Air festival in 2011. Therion performed at Hellfest Summer Open Air, ProgPower USA, and the 2012 cruise liner based festival 70000 Tons of Metal. In a Bloodstock interview, Shaw mentioned that the band will work on new material at the end of the year. In September 2011, after four years of collaboration and session work, vocalist Lori Lewis joined Therion as a member. In this year also a board game called "011" was released; it features the band members and is based on the Sitra Ahra album.

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