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Class 6(66)

Tiamat: Wildhoney

08/04/11  ||  Love Lagerkvist

Introduction

Overall, I have to say that Tiamat are a pretty horrible band. The first three albums of mostly old school death metal have never tickled my fancy and the later material, ugh, don’t even get me started. But amongst this sea of shit there is “Wildhoney”. Released in 1994, I can’t do less than to describe it as groundbreaking. It successfully mixes Stockholm-death with a good degree of British doom and progressive/psychedelic rock ala Pink Floyd that still stands unique to this day.

Songwriting

10. Do the words “dreamlike”, “transcendent” and “eternal” ring a bell in your head? No? Well either go grab a dictionary or take a listen to “Wildhoney”, as they are the perfect adjectives for this musical journey. Few times have I heard an album that is so varied, yet flows so extremely well (I guess we can thank the fact that all songs except for 5-6 fade into each other masterfully). Every track is distinctive and unique, with everything from spacey instrumentals (“Planets” and the amazing intro “Wildhoney”) to death/doom powerhouses (“Whatever that hurts”) and gothic masterpieces (“Gaia”) being represented. This is also one of the finest displays of synthwork ever, something that plays a big part in achieving the amazing atmosphere the album has.

Production

10. While I can’t speak for the original version, the 2007 remaster is simply perfection. The guitars have just enough distortion to make them powerful while still fitting in with the rest of the soundscape, the drums are just at that perfect spot on the border of bombastic and discrete and the ambient stuff like the synths and bird samples fit in perfectly. This is a production with depth, a perfect balance between clear and gritty as well as a memorable personality to boot.

Guitars

10. Just like everything on “Wildhoney”, the guitars are deliciously varied. The first half of the album contains a great mix of meaty death/doom and melodic riffs, while the rest takes more of a psychedelic and acoustic approach. Harmonies are layered amazingly well and the axes here have truly understood the meaning of the term “dynamic”. Memorable and powerful are just the foreword.

Vocals

8. Johan Edlund nearly does the performance of a lifetime here, displaying a multitude of almost perfectly executed vocal styles. The dreamy, gentle whispers and growling is absolutely stunning, but the cleans vocals fall just short of the finish line. It’s not that they are bad per se, but from time to time it does feel like another retake or maybe some more training wouldn’t have hurt. Then again, it’s really nothing that detracts from the overall experience. There are also some female vocals by Birgit Zacher, but these should be considered more of an extra that pops up from time to time. Kind of like that gnome in the 1989 arcade classic Golden Axe.

Bass

5. Unlike 99% of the worlds metal bands the problem here is not that you can’t hear the bass. The problem is that the bass is just incredibly uninteresting. It does it’s rhythmic job for sure, but little else than that. What’s worse is that there is some real untapped potential here, as a well placed super funky bass line could’ve added to the already otherworldly atmosphere.

Drums:

9. I’ve always found slow drumming much more interesting than some blast-a-thon of Brain Drill proportions, and I think Tiamat agrees with me. The tempo here is in true doom fashion, albeit sometimes with some clear tribal influences. Fills and smaller details are subtle, well-executed and add that extra amount of depth to the overall experience. An adequate and nearly flawless performance.

Lyrics

9. Overfilled toothpaste tubes
Sleepless and timeless faces
Drippety drop on sugarcubes
The one eyed’s eye twinkles and gazes
Twinkles and gazes…

Honey tea, psilocybe larvae
Honeymoon, silver spoon
Psilocybe tea

Don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell tripping over here.

Cover art

9. Kristian Wåhlin is behind this one, and holy shrooms is it amazing. Not only does it capture the albums feeling perfectly, it also just looks plain awesome. Yeah, the big black framebox with the title included on the first pressings might not be the best thing ever, but luckily Century where smart enough to edit it out in newer versions.

Logo

6. A “papyrus”-like font might not be the most exiting thing in the world, but it could be worse; it could be the logo they use nowadays.

Booklet

10. It should be noted that I have the 2-disc 2007 re-release of “Wildhoney” and hot damn does it have a nice booklet. Great layouting, fantastic illustrations, some cool yet fitting effects like some semi-transparent paper things and a some well written liner notes by Johan Edlund. And while this more often than never means that the label/band is trying to overcompensate for something, so is not the case here. Good times all around.

Overall and ending rant

“Wildhoney” is not only Tiamat’s magnum opus, but also one of the finest albums to grace this plane of existence. There is simply nothing like it in terms of atmosphere and feeling, displaying one of the finest examples of flowing and varied songwriting ever. Regardless of your state of mind, you can always take a silver spoon of this honey and enter another, better world. A stunning achievement.

10

  • Information
  • Released: 1994
  • Label: Century Media
  • Website: www.churchoftiamat.com
  • Band
  • Johan Edlund: vocals, guitar
  • Magnus Sahlgren: guitars
  • John Hagel: bass
  • Lars Sköld: drums
  • Birgit Zacher: vocals
  • Waldemar Sorychta: keyboards
  • Tracklist
  • 01. Wildhoney
  • 02. Whatever that hurts
  • 03. The ar
  • 04. 25th floor
  • 05. Gaia
  • 06. Visionaire
  • 07. Kaleidoscope
  • 08. Do you dream of me?
  • 09. Planets
  • 10. A pocket size sun

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