Tiamat

Over the course of the 1990s, Sweden's Tiamat evolved from a typical death metal outfit into one of the leading lights in "symphonic" black metal. A variation that aimed to keep all of death metal's darkness intact, symphonic black metal portrayed that darkness it in a moodier, atmospheric manner, often making synthesizer arrangements just as important as guitar riffs and utilizing a deliberate, Gothic feel…

Limited edition 2008 13 disc (12 CDs + PAL/Region 0 DVD) box set featuring all the albums from the Swedish Metal band released on the Century Media label in one noble solid box with gold foil print plus a DVD: The Church Of Tiamat.. Contains a total of 131 audio tracks, which translates to over 10 hours of head banging playing time! Includes a 64-page booklet with all lyrics.

Even if this "Commandments" compilation comes to us one year before the last-to-date Tiamat masterpiece, "Amanethes", it still contains pretty much everything you have to know about this awesome Swedish band: from their death metal beginnings, you are taken step by step to their gothic and doom experimentations, finally arriving to Tiamat's newest sound, as expressed in their great 2003 album "Prey"…

With the release of Skeleton Skeletron, Tiamat have effectively crossed over. Whereas early efforts such as Clouds and Wildhoney found the Swedish deathsters taking heavy metal in new and exciting directions by integrating elements of electronica and goth rock, their sixth album begs the question: have they gone too far? With its female backing vocals, lead-off single "Brighter than the Sun" sounds too much like Sisters of Mercy for its own good, while "Dust is our Fare" features a synthesizer intro borrowed straight from Bronski Beat's "Small Town Boy." Sure, both songs are excellent and display a biting guitar tone which not even heavier goth-rock bands like the Sisters or Fields of the Nephilim ever attempted, but the results may still be too extreme even for long-time Tiamat fans…

Not even Tiamat's previous achievements and accelerated evolutionary pace could have prepared fans and critics for the unbelievable sounds contained in the band's fourth album, 1994's groundbreaking Wildhoney. The album elevated the group's combination of lingering death metal roots and ambient soundscapes to unparalleled heights of invention. Not necessarily a concept album in the lyrical sense, the record still operates as a virtually seamless aural experience, as tracks are often grouped into extended suites…

With the release of Skeleton Skeletron, Tiamat have effectively crossed over. Whereas early efforts such as Clouds and Wildhoney found the Swedish deathsters taking heavy metal in new and exciting directions by integrating elements of electronica and goth rock, their sixth album begs the question: have they gone too far? With its female backing vocals, lead-off single "Brighter than the Sun" sounds too much like Sisters of Mercy for its own good, while "Dust is our Fare" features a synthesizer intro borrowed straight from Bronski Beat's "Small Town Boy."…

Tiamat mastermind Johan Edlund, on eighth album Prey, continues his obsession with mediocre, synth-driven goth rock, marking a logical progression from the atrocious 2002 effort Judas Christ. In other words, Prey isn't an embarrassment like its predecessor, but it's still a dull, plodding affair, and a distant cry from Tiamat's chilling crossover masterpiece, Wildhoney (which is a Pink Floydian prog-psych-death benchmark in a catalog filled with wide-ranging experimentation)…

A Deeper Kind of Slumber moves Tiamat even farther away from traditional heavy metal, with synthesizers dominating the arrangements and Johan Edlund doing completely away with metal growling in favor of an unearthly croon. Although it's not very metallic, the music is quite heavy in its own way, creating a numb, sleepy ambience that feels both introverted and resignedly pessimistic; perhaps this is due to Edlund's conceiving the album at home with little outside input, and his relationship difficulties at the time…

The 1992 album Clouds was another major step in the quick sonic evolution of Tiamat, as the band continued to scale back their death metal roots while pursuing more conventional song structures. Songwriting contributions from new bassist Johnny Hagel take some of the load off vocalist Johan Edlund, whose improving English-speaking skills and raspy but clear intonations finally let listeners appreciate his esoteric lyrics…

weden's Tiamat displayed an incredible learning curve in the year after their debut, resulting in 1991's excellent The Astral Sleep. Short synthesizer instrumentals ("Neon Aeon" and "The Seal") open and close the album, setting the stage for the band's new ability to incorporate background keyboard textures (often resembling angelic choirs) to even their most aggressive death metal…