Tiamat
- MEMBERS:
- Johan Edlund - vocals, guitars, keyboards, theremin
- Roger Öjersson - guitars, keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals
- Anders Iwers - bass
- Lars Sköld - drums
BIOGRAPHY
Initially, the band played straightforward black metal under the name Treblinka. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat. The Sumerian Cry album included re-recorded Treblinka songs and was released in June 1990.
After the debut, Edlund’s leadership would modify the band’s style with influences ranging from Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, with Sumerian lyrical themes. H. P. Lovecraft’s writings also appear to have influenced Tiamat’s thematology, a development consistent with a broader trend in death metal culture. Polish guitarist Waldemar Sorychta 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, Rotting Christ, Lacuna Coil and Samael.
1994’s critically acclaimed Wildhoney mixed raw vocals, slow guitar riffs and synthesizer sounds which sounded different from other extreme metal bands active at that time. An almost continuous forty-minute piece of music, Wildhoney led to the band’s appearances at the Dynamo and Wacken Open Air 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 (1997), Edlund relocated from Sweden to Germany and declared himself the only permanent member of the band; all albums that would follow would cement the band into a more gothic rock sound, quite different from the extreme music they did in the years before, with recent albums showing a Sisters of Mercy and Pink Floyd influence.
The band signed to Nuclear Blast in June 2007, and released their ninth album Amanethes 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.”[4]
Their song Cain was also featured in the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
The band’s tenth full-length studio album, The Scarred People, was released on November 2, 2012 through Napalm Records.
DISCOGRAPHY
The Scarred People / 2012
2. Winter Dawn
3. 384
4. Radiant Star
5. The Sun Also Rises
6. Before Another Wilbury Dies
7. Love Terrorists
8. Messinian Letter
9. Thunder & Lightning
10. Tiznit
11. Born To Die (limited edition live bonus track)
12. The Red Of The Morning Sun
13. Paradise (limited edition live bonus track)
15. Cain (limited edition live bonus track)
Amanethes / 2008
1. The Temple Of The Crescent Moon
2. Equinox Of The Gods
3. Until The Hellhounds Sleep Again
4. Will They Come?
5. Lucienne
6. Summertime Is Gone
7. Katarraktis Apo Aima
8. Raining Dead Angels
9. Misantropolis
10. Amanitis
11. Meliae
12. Via Dolorosa
13. Circles
14. Amanes
15. Thirst Snake
Amanethes is the ninth studio album by Swedish gothic metal band Tiamat. It was released on May 2, 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.
Prey / 2003
1. Cain
2. Ten Thousand Tentacles
3. Wings Of Heaven
4. Love In Chains
5. Divided
6. Carry Your Cross And I’ll Carry Mine
7. Triple Cross
8. Light In Extension
9. Prey
10. The Garden Of Heathen
11. Clovenhoof
12. Nihil
13. The Pentagram
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 “Cain” appeared in Troika Games’ 2004 PC game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Judas Christ / 2002
1. The Return Of The Son Of Nothing
2. So Much For Suicide
3. Vote For Love
4. The Truth’s For Sale
5. Fireflower
6. Sumer By Night
7. Love Is As Good As Soma
8. Angel Holograms
9. Spine
10. I Am In Love With Myself
11. Heaven Of High
12. Too Far Gone
13. However You Look At It You Loose (limited edition bonus track)
14. Sixshooter (limited edition bonus track)
Judas Christ is the seventh album from gothic band Tiamat. Despite keeping the gothic-metal based sound of Skeleton Skeletron, it takes more influences from genres such as gothic rock and space rock.
Skeleton Skeletron / 1999
1. Church Of Tiamat
2. Brighter Than The Sun
3. Dust Is Our Fare
4. To Have And Have Not
5. For Her Pleasure
6. Diyala
7. Sympathy For The Devil
8. Best Friend Money Can Buy
9. As Long As You’re Mine
10. Lucy
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 Tiamat” (Track #1) is also the name of the band’s official website.
The end of the songs “As Long as You Are Mine” and “Lucy” include quotes of French poet Jean de La Fontaine’s entire fable Le Loup et l’Agneau (The Wolf and the Lamb)
A Deeper Kind of Slumber / 1997
1. Cold Seed
2. Teonanacatl
3. Trillion Zillion Centipedes
4. The Desolate One
5. Atlantis As A Lover
6. Alteration X10
7. Four Leary Biscuits
8. Only In My Tears It Lasts
9. The Whores Of Babylon
10. Kite
11. Phantasma De Luxe
12. Mount Marilyn
13. 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 (Moonspell, Angel Dust) and experimentation with a variety of influences, the album marked the group’s first complete withdrawal from both death metal and conventional heavy metal, following their 1994 release, Wildhoney.
It was also the first production after their relocation to Germany, and was written almost entirely by founder/lead songwriter Johan Edlund. Much of the music had reflected on Edlund’s personal relationship with drugs, creative differences within the band as well as an interpersonal relationship.
Wildhoney / 1994
1. Wildhoney
2. Whatever That Hurts
3. The Ar
4. 25th Floor
5. Gaia
6. Visionaire
7. Kaleidoscope
8. Do You Dream Of Me?
9. Planets
10. A Pocket Size Sun
Wildhoney is the fourth studio album from Swedish music group Tiamat. The album was produced by Waldemar Sorychta and released by Century Media records in 1994.
Vocalist Johan Edlund and John Hagel were the only two remaining members of Tiamat who were still with the group after their previous album Clouds in 1992.
The album was marked a strong change in the style of Tiamat’s music with more progressive rock- and psychedelic music-influenced music and a less death metal-oriented style. The music on the album deals with the occult, nature, and LSD.
The album was released on September 1, 1994 and was one of the highest-selling records for Century Media on its release. AllMusic praised the album, referring to it as “one of the classics of the genre”.
Clouds / 1992
1. In A Dream
2. Clouds
3. Smell Of Incense
4. A Caress Of Stars
5. The Sleeping Beauty
6. Forever Burning Flames
7. The Scapegoat
8. Undressed
Clouds is the third full-length album by Tiamat, issued in 1992 through Century Media Records.
It expands upon the death/doom sound of the previous album by introducing more melodic, gothic rock-inspired elements, including occasional clean singing, while retaining extremely heavy instrumentation and Johan Edlund’s death growl.
The Astral Sleep / 1991
1. Neo Aeon (Intro)
2. Lady Temptress
3. Mountain Of Doom
4. Dead Boys’ Quire
5. Sumerian Cry (Part III)
6. On Golden Wings
7. Ancient Entity
8. The Southernmost Voyage
9. Angels Far Beyond
10. I Am The King (Of Dreams)
11. A Winter Shadow
12. The Seal (Outro)
The Astral Sleep is the second album from Tiamat. It marks their debut on longtime label, Century Media Records. This album was reissued in 2006 with two tracks from A Winter Shadow single, released in 1990.
While still rooted completely within the death metal genre, this album shows the band reaching out into more melodic and experimental territories as well, with traces of doom metal, black metal, and gothic metal coming into the mix. Lyrically, while still centered almost entirely around Satanism, this album features more esoteric and introspective themes.
Sumerian Cry / 1990
1. Sumerian Cry (Part I)
2. In The Shrines Of The Kingly Dead
3. The Malicious Paradise
4. Necrophagious Shadows
5. Apothesis Of Morbidity
6. Nocturnal Funeral
7. Altar Flame
8. Evilized
9. Where The Serpents Ever Dwell
10. Sumerian Cry (Part II)
11. The Sign Of The Pentagram
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 Vomit”, the first track off Treblinka’s first demo. The track “The Sign of the Pentagram” is exclusive to the CD version of the album, and was not recorded at the same time as the rest of the album. This particular track was intended to be included on a compilation-CD released by Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen(editor of Norwegian metal fanzine Slayer). The CD was never released, and the track was included as a bonus track on this album.
“Where the Serpents Ever Dwell” was later covered by black metal band The Ruins of Beverast on the vinyl edition of their album Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite.
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TOURDATES
| Date | Venue | City | Country | Info | Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-06-25T12:00:01 | Basinfirefest 2025 | Pilsen | Czechia | Info | Tickets |