Tiamat (Band)

Tiamat is a Swedish band that is one of the founders of Gothic Metal. Named the project after the primordial goddess Tiamat, who occupied a central role in the Babylonian mythology.

History

Tiamat evolved from a band with the controversial name Treblinka, which referred to the Treblinka extermination camp. Under this name two demos and a single were released. At this time was the band whose founding members Johan " Hellslaughter " Edlund and Jörgen " Juck " Thullberg were and the Stefan " Emetic " Lagergren and Anders " Najse Auschwitz " Holmberg belonged to Black Metal are assigned. 1989 Johan Edlund changed the name of the band Tiamat; 2008, a one-time reunion concert was held, in which the twins Erik " Tyrant" and by "Hell Butcher" Gustavsson helped out (both at Nifelheim ). With a new cast they initially played a single.

The first album Sumerian Cry released in 1990 under the label Metalcore, all subsequent albums until 2007 on Century Media.

Throughout the band's history, almost all items have been reshuffled several times. In the meantime, Tiamat was not a real band anymore, but more of a solo project of Johan Edlund, who lived with his German partner in Dortmund and worked. Johan's partner took over vocals in some songs. Meanwhile Edlund lives in Thessaloniki, Greece, and despite the distance to his Swedish fellow musicians, the band structure is again settled. Except Edlund, who is responsible for the majority of the songwriting alongside vocals, guitar and keyboards as before, were Anders Iwers (bass) and Lars Sköld (drums) involved in recent publications that deny the live tour program as fixed occupation. Newly arrived Wyreson Thomas (guitar) in 2006.

In June 2007, Tiamat signed by German label Nuclear Blast. The album, entitled Amanethes appeared there on May 2, 2008. Also in 2008 was the Ark of the Covenant, a box set, released all the albums and singles of Tiamat, which appeared at Century Media, as well as the DVD The Church of Tiamat contains. In autumn 2008 Wyreson left the band.

2012 's as The Scarred People, a new album by the band which, according to Johand Edlund " velvety " turned out than its predecessor Amanethes.

Style

Was it at the Treblinka recordings and the debut Sumerian Cry nor more typical Black-/Death-Metal-Aufnahmen this time, The Astral Sleep was with choirs, keyboards and places undistorted guitar parts on a clear path in a stand-alone musical territory. For Edlund but also the newer albums are yet to be classified as black metal because of the lyrics. On Clouds melodies and atmospheric sounds moved even more to the fore, a departure from the Death Metal of the earlier days here already clearly distinguished from influences from gothic rock were clearly audible.

On the fourth album Wild Honey, the atmospheric death metal has been enhanced by natural sounds (eg birds chirping ) and psychedelic elements. In the trade press comparisons were often drawn to Pink Floyd, and Edlund himself stated that he and bassist Johnny Hagel -oriented bands like Pink Floyd and King Crimson; on the Gaia single place with When You're In a Pink Floyd cover song. The death metal elements were scaled back consistently with the successful album Wild Honey, and are no longer available since the follow-up album A Deeper Kind of Slumber. In contrast, were sometimes used to A Deeper Kind of Slumber exotic instruments. To be heard on the album, a sitar, played by Sami Yli- Sirniö. These Johan Edlund served on this album in addition to its usual parts still a theremin.

After the very experimental, psychedelic and spherical shaped by influences of phase A Deeper Kind of Slumber, the music of Tiamat converted to a mixture of gothic rock and gothic metal; the style on the successor Skeleton Skeletron reminds more of bands like Joy Division and The Sisters of Mercy as Pink Floyd.

Today Tiamat is, together with, for example, Paradise Lost to the founders of the genre Gothic Metal.

On the album, the band Amanethes attacked again on Black and Death Metal influences.

References to Satanism

Johan Edlund openly profess to Satanism in interviews. His statements on the meaning and content of Satanism for his person differ to some sharply divergent: 1992, at times the album Clouds, he described the inverted crosses " as icons. They do not mean that I am a devil worshiper, drink blood and sacrifice virgins. "He wear the inverted cross since his youth, it was at that time directed against society. "If I ' mention in my lyrics, Satan, then that's just a word that can be interpreted in different ways.. The devil as a dark side of my person - and God as the light " ." On Clouds I deal with the bright side, since I do not just evil " bin" Later Edlund expressed differently: for him, Satan stands representative of the truth, his views on the human heart he compares with those of Aleister Crowley. Whose poem The Pentagram set to music on the album Tiamat Prey, on the additional activities relate to Crowley.

Discography

Albums

  • Sumerian Cry (1990 )
  • The Astral Sleep ( 1991)
  • Clouds (1992 )
  • Wild Honey (1994 )
  • The Musical History of Tiamat / Wild Live ( Best-of-Album/Live-CD, 1995)
  • A Deeper Kind of Slumber (1997)
  • Skeleton Skeletron (1999)
  • Judas Christ (2002)
  • Prey (2003)
  • Commandments ( Best-of album, 2007)
  • Wild Honey / Wild Live (2007)
  • Amanethes (2008)
  • The Ark of the Covenant ( Box set, 2008)
  • The Scarred People ( 2012)

Singles, EPs and demos

  • A Winter Shadow ( 1990), Single
  • The Sleeping Beauty - Live in Israel ( 1994), Live EP
  • Gaia (1994 ), Single
  • Cold Seed ( 1997), Single
  • Brighter Than the Sun ( 1999), Single
  • For Her Pleasure (1999), Single
  • Vote for Love ( 2002), Single
  • Cain ( 2003), Single
  • The Church of Tiamat (2006 ) DVD
Singing Electric guitar Electronic keyboard Clouds (Tiamat album) Wildhoney Paradise Lost (Band) Human sacrifice Prey (Album) Integrated Authority File
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