Sitra Ahra, the latest album by Sweden’s genre-defying THERION, has debuted at #44 on the Billboard Top New Artists (Heatseekers) chart, #58 on the Current Hard Music Albums, and #122 Independent Current Albums chart following its October 26th release.

Founder, songwriter, and composer Christofer Johnsson takes some time off from the band’s current European tour just a few hours before they take the stage in the Czech Republic to comment on this accomplishment in North America:

"The band is thrilled about our Billboard debuts. It also shows that very alternative music styles have a future in the overall somewhat crumbling music market in the USA. Full speed ahead!"

Asked about Therion's sole North American appearance as headliners at 2011’s ProgPower XII Festival on Saturday, September 17th in Atlanta, Georgia, Johnsson shares:

"We never thought we'd play music on US soil again after the last tour [in 2005]. We were offered a fair fee for last year‘s ProgPower Festival, but as our costs would be nearly double of that, we had to reject it and never expected to hear back from [the organizer] again. So we were totally surprised by being offered the double for next year. We are very happy for this opportunity and it is great that our fans in the US will be able to catch us on stage again, as touring there again is totally out of question."

Tickets to ProgPower XII will be available for purchase in March, 2011 via TicketMaster.

Sitra Ahra was produced by Christofer Johnsson and mixed by Lennart Östlund (LED ZEPPELIN, ABBA) at the legendary Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Album artwork was created by Thomas Ewerhard.

Of the material on Sitra Ahra, Johnsson has commented: “…only a few of the songs [were] written in recent years. The majority of the[m] are from the same pool of songs from which [2004’s] Sirius B and Lemuria were created from, meaning they were written between 2000-2004 (there was even a song from 1999, but we decided not to use it on the album in the end). By no means they are to be regarded as ‘leftovers.’ These were songs equal to those ending up on Lemuria and Sirius B; we just divided the songs we had onto three albums [Sirius B, Lemuria, and 2007’s Gothic Kabalah]. This really created a unique approach to the songs, as I have evolved so much musically since those songs were written. I think of it in terms as a vintage wine that becomes better and better with the years.”