Tiamat
- DAY: 07.06
- GENRE: black metal, death metal, gothic metal
- COUNTRY: Sweden
“We could even touch the sky” as Johan Edlund promises in Tiamat’s smashing hit “Brighter Than the Sun.” We admit that during the band’s concert at the Mystic Festival that promise might just come true. The Swedes are, after all, one of the most important representatives of gothic metal, blending vampiric charisma, sorrow and self-reflection with gloominess and punchiness in equal measure. There’s no one like them and we doubt there’ll ever be.
History:
Before Tiamat got things started in earnest, a band named Treblinka was formed by Johan Edlund, who in time would end up becoming the only constant in Tiamat’s history as the band’s leader and perpetual driving force. Before any of that happened, however, Treblinka had released two demos and an EP from somewhere halfway between death and black metal. After changing the name to the one known by everyone today, in 1989, the band debuted with their first album, Sumerian Cry. On their first record, the Swedes maintained the death metal malevolence and laced the black metal tissue with symphonic elements, laying the fundaments for the symphonic black metal that reigned supreme by the end of the 90s. On their sophomore record, The Astral Sleep, the symphonic components are discarded in favour of the gothic element, which will come to dominate all of the band’s future releases. A breakthrough came with the more melodic and gothic Clouds and they got to the top with the by-now legendary Wildhoney on the backs of which Tiamat permanently entered the gothic metal world, becoming one of its most important representatives. The subsequent record, A Deeper Kind of Slumber, ventured deeper into the direction of rock and psychedelic iterations of gothic and split the fanbase, wherein its follow-up, Skeleton Skeletron, is considered the most metalised counterpart of The Sisters of Mercy. The band returned to their more metal roots with the 2008 album Amanethes. Their latest album is The Scarred People, which was released four years later.
