Tiamat (band)
Encyclopedia

Biography

Initially, the band played straightforward black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

 under the name Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...

. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry
Sumerian Cry
Sumerian Cry is the debut album from the Swedish then-death metal band Tiamat.The album was recorded at Sunlight Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1989, when the band was known under the original name Treblinka. The track Sumerian Cry, Pt. 1 is a re-interpretation of the intro melody from Crawling in...

 in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund
Johan Edlund
Johan Edlund is a Swedish singer, guitarist and keyboardist who is the leader of the bands Tiamat and Lucyfire. He has also done remixes for some of Rammstein's and London After Midnight's songs. He was also a guest singer in the Dutch progressive metal project, Ayreon...

 and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat. The Sumerian Cry album, as recorded by Treblinka, was released as Tiamat's debut album in June 1990.

After the debut, Edlund's leadership would modify the band's style with influences ranging from Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate was a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen. Initially active from 1981 to 1985, they reunited in 1992. The band went on hiatus again in 2000, when frontman King Diamond decided to continue his solo career...

, Candlemass
Candlemass
Candlemass are an influential Swedish doom metal band established in 1984 by Leif Edling , their leader and songwriter. The band is originally from Stockholm. After releasing five full-length albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Candlemass disbanded in 1994, but...

, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

 and King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...

, with Sumerian lyrical themes. Polish guitarist Waldemar Sorychta
Waldemar Sorychta
Waldemar Sorychta , is a German heavy metal musician, songwriter, producer and artist who lives in Dortmund Germany since 1982.- Career :He initially worked with the German thrash metal band Despair, founded in 1986....

 would produce and contribute instrumentation to many of the band's albums, as well as those by Tiamat's own tour and labelmates, including Moonspell
Moonspell
Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band from Brandoa, Lisbon. Formed in 1992, the group released their first EP Under the Moonspell in 1994, a year before the release of their first album Wolfheart...

, Rotting Christ
Rotting Christ
Rotting Christ is a Greek black metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first black metal bands within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene.- Line-up :...

, Lacuna Coil
Lacuna Coil
Lacuna Coil is an Italian gothic metal band from Milan. Formed in 1994, the group has had two name changes since being previously known as Sleep of Right and Ethereal and was inspired by the combination of gothic imagery and music...

 and Samael
Samael (band)
Samael is a industrial black metal band formed in 1987 in Sion, Switzerland.-Biography:Although much of their music from the mid-1990s onwards has incorporated electronic sounds which would best define their genre as industrial metal, they are an early 2nd Wave black metal band and an innovator for...

.

1994's acclaimed Wildhoney
Wildhoney
Wildhoney is the critically acclaimed 1994 album by Tiamat. Released after their worldwide tour with Entombed and Unleashed, the record made the band one of the first to progress beyond genre lines in the renowned Swedish death metal scene....

mixed raw vocals, slow guitar riffs and synthesizer sounds which sounded different from other extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...

 bands active at that time. An almost continuous forty-minute piece of music, Wildhoney led to the band's appearances at the Dynamo
Dynamo Open Air
Dynamo Open Air was a festival in the Netherlands held every year since 1986, until 2005. Originally held to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Dynamo rock club in Eindhoven, it has grown exponentially since then, and from a 5,000-person attendance in the Dynamo parking lot, it had grown to...

 and Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...

 heavy metal festivals in 1995. The group would play a second gig at Dynamo two years later.

Upon the release of A Deeper Kind of Slumber
A Deeper Kind of Slumber
A Deeper Kind of Slumber is the 1997 Century Media Records release by Swedish band Tiamat.Featuring female background vocals by Birgit Zacher and traits of experimental , the album marked the group's first complete withdrawal...

 (1997)
, Edlund relocated from Sweden to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and declared himself the only permanent member of the band; all albums that would follow would cement the band into a more gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 sound, quite different from the extreme music they did in the years before, with recent albums showing a Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output in protest against their record company...

 and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

 influence.

The band signed to Nuclear Blast Records in June 2007, and released their new album Amanethes
Amanethes
Amanethes is the ninth studio album by Swedish gothic metal band Tiamat. It was released on April 18, 2008. The album was more positively received than Tiamat's previous releases, in part because of its more extreme metal sound similar to that of the band's early work.-Track listing:All tracks by...

on April 18, 2008.

On August 10, 2008, Thomas Wyreson announced that he was quitting the band, stating that "it's just kinda hard to make everything work with the family etc."

Members

  • Johan Edlund
    Johan Edlund
    Johan Edlund is a Swedish singer, guitarist and keyboardist who is the leader of the bands Tiamat and Lucyfire. He has also done remixes for some of Rammstein's and London After Midnight's songs. He was also a guest singer in the Dutch progressive metal project, Ayreon...

     – vocals, guitar
    Electric guitar
    An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

  • Anders Iwers
    Anders Iwers
    Anders Iwers is a Swedish bass player in the Heavy metal band Tiamat. He has been in and out of other Swedish death metal bands The Awesome Machine, Cemetary, and Mercury Tide. & Ceremonial Oath. Anders is the brother of Peter Iwers, bassist of In Flames in which Anders once was a part...

     – bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • Lars Sköld – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....


Studio albums

  • Sumerian Cry
    Sumerian Cry
    Sumerian Cry is the debut album from the Swedish then-death metal band Tiamat.The album was recorded at Sunlight Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1989, when the band was known under the original name Treblinka. The track Sumerian Cry, Pt. 1 is a re-interpretation of the intro melody from Crawling in...

    - June 7, 1990 CMFT Productions
  • The Astral Sleep
    The Astral Sleep
    The Astral Sleep is the second album from Tiamat. It marks their debut on longtime label, Century Media. This album was reissued in 2006 with two tracks from A Winter Shadow single, released in 1990.-Track listing:# "Neo Aeon " – 2:09...

    - September 1, 1991 Century Media
  • Clouds
    Clouds (Tiamat album)
    -Track listing:All tracks by Tiamat#"In a Dream" – 5:12#"Clouds" – 3:40#"Smell of Incense" – 4:29#"A Caress of Stars" – 5:26#"The Sleeping Beauty" – 4:10#"Forever Burning Flames" – 4:22#"The Scapegoat" – 4:56#"Undressed" – 7:10-Credits:...

    - April 2, 1992 Century Media
  • Wildhoney
    Wildhoney
    Wildhoney is the critically acclaimed 1994 album by Tiamat. Released after their worldwide tour with Entombed and Unleashed, the record made the band one of the first to progress beyond genre lines in the renowned Swedish death metal scene....

    - October 25, 1994 Century Media
  • A Deeper Kind of Slumber
    A Deeper Kind of Slumber
    A Deeper Kind of Slumber is the 1997 Century Media Records release by Swedish band Tiamat.Featuring female background vocals by Birgit Zacher and traits of experimental , the album marked the group's first complete withdrawal...

    - August 12, 1997 Century Media
  • Skeleton Skeletron
    Skeleton Skeletron
    Skeleton Skeletron is the 1999 album release by Swedish band Tiamat.Following A Deeper Kind of Slumber, the band took a less ambiguous direction to their style, utilizing a Gothic metal-based sound but with various atmospheric soundscapes/effects and female background vocals added in."Church of...

    - August 11, 1999 Century Media
  • Judas Christ
    Judas Christ
    Judas Christ is the seventh album from gothic band Tiamat. The album's sound is a departure from the heavy metal sound of the band's earlier releases, taking more influence from genres such as gothic rock and space rock.-Track listing:...

    - April 30, 2002 Century Media
  • Prey
    Prey (album)
    Prey is the eighth studio album by Swedish Gothic metal band Tiamat. It was released in 2003 on Century Media Records. Besides CD and Vinyl LP it also has a Limited Digipack edition which contains 2 video tracks, 'Cain' & 'The Making Of' along with exclusive wallpapers & screensavers.The song...

    - October 27, 2003 Century Media
  • Amanethes
    Amanethes
    Amanethes is the ninth studio album by Swedish gothic metal band Tiamat. It was released on April 18, 2008. The album was more positively received than Tiamat's previous releases, in part because of its more extreme metal sound similar to that of the band's early work.-Track listing:All tracks by...

    - April 18, 2008 Nuclear Blast Records

Singles

  • Cold Seed (single) (1997)
  • Brighter than the Sun (single) (1999)
  • Vote For Love (single) (2002)
  • Cain (single) (2003)

Live albums and DVDs

  • The Sleeping Beauty (Live in Israel)
    The Sleeping Beauty (Live in Israel)
    -Track listing:# In a Dream – 5:00# Ancient Entity – 6:32# The Sleeping Beauty – 4:31# Mountain of Doom – 5:28# Angels Far Beyond – 8:50...

    (Live) (1993)
  • The Church of Tiamat (DVD) (2006)

Compilations

  • The Musical History of Tiamat (Live/Compilation(2 Disc)) (1995)
  • Commandments (Best of/Compilation) (2007)
  • The Ark of the Covenant - The Complete Century Media Years (Boxed set (12 Disc/1 DVD)) (2008)

Influence

Both Toby Driver
Toby Driver
Toby Driver is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and artist, best known for his work as the frontman of the experimental bands maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot....

, member of maudlin of the Well
Maudlin of the Well
maudlin of the Well is an avant-garde metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. Their music contains elements from many different genres including doom metal, indie rock, jazz, progressive rock, post rock, progressive metal, death metal, gothic metal, as well as chamber music, ambient music and New...

 and Kayo Dot
Kayo Dot
Kayo Dot is an American avant-rock/experimental music group that was formed in 2003 by Toby Driver. They released their debut album Choirs of the Eye on John Zorn's Tzadik Records label that year. Tzadik's descriptive label on that album reads: "Kayo Dot powerfully integrates elements of modern...

, and Moonspell
Moonspell
Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band from Brandoa, Lisbon. Formed in 1992, the group released their first EP Under the Moonspell in 1994, a year before the release of their first album Wolfheart...

singer Fernando Ribeiro mention Tiamat as one of their major musical influences.

External links

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