The founding of Thorium dates back to late 1997 when front singer Michael H. Andersen decided he needed an outlet different from Withering Surface. He quickly gathered a team of leather-dressed fire breathing comrades. Thorium thus being Michael H. Andersen - vocals, Morten Ryberg - guitar, Jonas Lindblood - guitar and Jesper Frost - drums. With Jonas Lindblood located in Gothenburg it proved hard for Thorium to schedule rehearsing sessions so a third(!) guitarist Allan Tvedebrink was recruited.
In live situations this means that the bass is played by all three guitarists, depending on who’s the most drunk. Eventhough most of the members of Thorium are involved in other serious and hard working bands Michael H. Andersen emphasizes that Thorium is not just a project band. “We want to tour, we want to kick ass live and we want to release more albums. We all have a really good feeling about this, we’re fired up and we wanna keep the fire burning.”
The reason for choosing the Greighallen studio was, according to Michael H. Andersen, besides the obvious fact, that Thorium wanted to distance themselves from the numerous Scandinavian bands coming out sounding pretty much the same. “Most bands going into the Greighallen comes out with a more raw sound than what you usually hear and that’s what we were looking for. On the other hand we did not want to come out sounding like a black metal band, ‘cause that’s not what we are, but then again it was just great to suck in a little bit of the atmosphere that bands like Emperor and Immortal so obviously have benefited from over the years”, says Michael. After Thorium had completed their recordings at Greighallen the tapes were handed over to “Death Metal Doctor” Jacob Hansen (Autumn Leaves, Illdisposed, Iniquity a.o.) who added the finishing touch and gave the recordings a twist towards a more genuine death metal sound still capturing the more naked rawness Thorium got from the Greighallen Studio.
Thorium’s musical intention is to take the best elements from the early 90s Florida scene and cross it with the new and more aggressive way of playing death metal. According to Michael H. Andersen “We wanted to do something simple, something very uncompromising, brutal and in-your-face, and I think we accomplished just that I mean, if a song works out using only three of four riffs then that’s it. Why make things more complicated? Also I think it’s gonna be an advantage for us when we play live. We’ll be able to focus not only on playing our instruments, but also on getting the crowd going.”
Thorium's musical inspiration comes from various directions. “The bands that have meant the most to the music of Thorium are for example Slayer, Deicide, Possessed, Cannibal Corpse, old Darkthrone and Dissection, so I guess it goes without saying that there’s elements from all those bands in Thorium's music", says Michael H. Andersen. If you're one of them intellectuals always seeking a message of great depth an wisdom Thorium is probably not your cup of tea. About the lyrics Michael has this to say: "Take a song like "Impaled". It's six lines and honestly the song is just about being impaled to the cross - there's no more to it. Other song titles illustrating this perfectly are “Desecrating The Graves”, “Abomination Of God” and “Crest For War”.
The coverartwork is done by Joe Petagno who's mainly known for his work with Motörhead. About Joe’s work of art Michael says: ”Most bands using Joe Petagno’s skills have never actually seen the guy. Well I have and cross my heart I’m telling you. Joe Petagno has got that evil look in his eyes, which his artwork definitely also reveals.
So there you have it all you fans of fire, leather, spikes and pure genuine evil, war and Satan. Straight from the catacombs of Hell we bring you Thorium and their violent tornado of double bass drumming, blast beats, uncompromising guitar parts and violent growling.
