Susperia is a Norwegian thrash metal band with black metal influences formed in October 1998 by Tjodalv (ex-Dimmu Borgir) and Cyrus.

The band was originally named Seven Sins, but after the continued dislike due to similar named bands, the name was finally changed upon finding another band with the same name. Susperia's name was taken from the title of the horror film Suspiria, but changed the spelling to avoid copyright issues. Quite ironically, Susperia should not be confused with another band that also took its name from the film, but with the correct spelling.

History:
Susperia was started by Tjodalv (ex-Dimmu Borgir, ex-Old Man's Child) and Cyrus (Session: Satyricon, Old Man's Child) in October 1998.

After Tjodalv left Dimmu Borgir in the middle of March 1999 he started to concentrate fully on Susperia together with an old-time friend, Cyrus. But before that, sometime in 1998 Tjodalv and Cyrus started to write and work on the music that would eventually be used in Susperia.

It all started to happen at the Wacken Open Air Festival in August 1999 when Athera met Tjodalv who where both traveling with Mayhem to support their show. Tjodalv had brought some pre-production music, and he told Athera he was looking for some musicians to get the band up and running. Athera had a band on a nonprofessional basis and he told Tjodalv that he was interested in listening to his material.

The music caught Athera's attention and got in contact with Tjodalv and told him he liked the material he had being producing so far and was interested enough to take his music further. Tjodalv and Cyrus, in addition to Athera as a vocalist, also needed a bass player and a second guitarist. Athera suggested his long time friend (Memnock), and another friend, (Elvorn) to play the second guitar. Both of which where playing in Atheras band at this time.

Susperia began rehearsals in September 1999 and later agreed to continue with the project. Their first demo was recorded in December 1999 at Pitfire Studio outside Oslo, the demo was mixed and mastered by L.Argedick. Synth and piano on this recording was done by Mustis (Dimmu Borgir). The demo which contains 5 songs is called "Illusions of Evil".

The demo was sent out to different record companies and gained some positive feedback. They received a few offers from mainly major record labels and decided to go with Nuclear Blast and went on to sign a four-record deal with them during early 2000.

The band started out with the name "Seven Sins" where the inspiration for the name came from the original Seven Sins. They later changed their name to Susperia (named after the Italian film Suspiria but to avoid copyright laws they changed the band name to Susperia).

Susperia played their first live gig at John Dee (music scene) in Oslo, They headlined the gig after their fellow Norwegians in Ragnarok and Alsvartr had heated the crowd up. And just a few months later they again entered the stage at the Scream Magazine 10 year party and did an energetic concert that showed the audience that Susperia have a big future in the metal-scene.

In October 2000 the recording of their first studio-album (Predominance) took place in Sweden. The album was well received and Susperia toured with bands like In Flames, Dimmu Borgir and Lacuna Coil. They also headlined the Extremo Open Air Festival in Portugal.

The second album (Vindication) was released in 2002 and both the press and the fans was impressed. However there was some trouble within the record company, and Susperia decided to terminate the deal with Nuclear Blast.

In 2003 they had several offers from different record-companies and finally chose Norwegain Tabu Recordings, which is a sub-company of Tuba Records. With a new record-deal secured they started to write songs for the upcoming album, and also toured in the US and Mexico for the first time. The new album (Unlimited) was their most selling record so far, and reached place 43 on Norway's official sales-charts, and was number 3 on Crucial Spin Charts in the US. The video for Chemistry was a hit on MTV's Headbanger's Ball and on ZTV in Scandinavia. After this big success they left for a nine-week tour of Europe.

In September 2005 they released an EP, Devil May Care. This EP was originally intended to be a little something extra for the fans only, while they were working on new songs for their next studio-album. It was therefore very unexpected when the EP reached number 19 on the official Norwegian single-charts, and thus becoming the first ever metal-recording to enter the charts. Some of the success can be explained by their cover of a-ha's The Sun Always Shines on TV.

Their fourth studio-album, Cut From Stone, was released in April 2007 and have received mixed reviews.

Susperia is not a Satanic band but through their lyrics they tend to criticize and question the views and moral of Christianity. They also have lyrics discussing internal struggles, relationship issues and life.

Current members:
* Athera (Pål Mathisen) - vocals - (ex-Vanaheim)
* Cyrus (Terje Andersen) - guitars
* Elvorn (Christian Hagen) - guitars - (ex-Vanaheim)
* Memnock (Håkon Didriksen) - bass - (ex-Old Man's Child, ex-Vanaheim)
* Tjodalv (Kenneth Åkesson) - drums (ex-Old Man's Child, ex-Vanaheim, ex-Dimmu Borgir)

Former members:
* Mustis (Dimmu Borgir) - Synthesizers on demo "Illusions Of Evil"
* Marius Strand (Black Comedy) - Guest vocals on Venting the Anger

Discography:
2000 - Illusions of Evil - (Demo)
2000 - Predominance - (Nuclear Blast)
2002 - Vindication - (Nuclear Blast)
2004 - Unlimited - (Tabu/Candlelight)
2005 - Devil May Care (EP) - (Tabu/Candlelight)
2007 - Cut From Stone (Tabu Recordings)