Tiamat is a Swedish metal band founded near Stockholm in 1990 and led by Johan Edlund. To date they have released ten studio albums. The band went through a number of stylistic changes in their earlier releases before settling on gothic metal. Under Edlund's leadership, the band would modify their style with influences ranging from Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Pink Floyd and King Crimson combined 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.
History
The band was formed as a four-piece under the name Treblinka in 1987. Using pseudonyms they released the single "Severe Abomination" in 1989. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, guitarist/vocalist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members who formed the band Expulsion. They subsequently changed the name to Tiamat, after the Babylonian goddess representing the primordial sea and forebear to other gods. The Sumerian Cry album included re-recorded Treblinka songs and was released in June 1990.
Edlund recruited Thomas Petersson on guitars and Niklas Ekstrand on drums and signed the band to Century Records. They started the recording process in the middle of 1991, beginning a lengthy collaboration with the polish guitarist Waldemar Sorychta would produce and contribute instrumentation to many of the band's albums.
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. and Wacken Open Air metal festivals in 1995. The group would play a second gig at Dynamo two years later.
thumb|Tiamat performing in [[Krasnodar, Russia, May 2013]]
Upon the release of A Deeper Kind of Slumber in 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 metal/rock sound, quite different from the extreme music they did in the years before.
The band signed to Nuclear Blast in June 2007, and released their ninth album Amanethes in April 2008. In August of that year, Thomas Wyreson announced that he was quitting the band, stating that "it's just kinda hard to make everything work with the family etc."
Their song "Cain" was featured in the 2004 video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
The band's tenth full-length studio album, The Scarred People, was released in November 2012 through Napalm Records.
Musical style
When they were still named Treblinka, the band played raw black/death metal. Early Tiamat albums like The Astral Sleep and Clouds explored death-doom, before the band shifted towards a more gothic and atmospheric sound on Wildhoney (1994) and beyond, with later albums showing a Sisters of Mercy and Pink Floyd influence.
- Martin Brändström – keyboards
- Fredrik Åkesson – guitars
- Henriette Bordvik – female vocals
- Martin Powell – keyboards
- Johan Niemann – guitars
- Joakim Svalberg – keyboards
- Rikard Zander – keyboards
- Thomas Wyreson (formerly Thomas Petersson) – guitars
- Carl Westholm – keyboards
- Daniel Karlsson – keyboards
- Magnus Henriksson – guitars
- Jonas Öijvall – keyboards
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:15em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album details
! scope="col" colspan="4" | Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Sales
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | SWE<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | GER<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | AUT<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | BEL<br />
|-
! scope="row" |Sumerian Cry
|
- Released: 7 June 1990
- Label: CMFT Productions
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| — || — || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |The Astral Sleep
|
- Released: 1 September 1991
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| — || — || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Clouds
|
- Released: 2 December 1992
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| — || — || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Wildhoney
|
- Released: 25 October 1994
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| — || 29 || — || —
|
- US: 8,082+
|-
! scope="row" |A Deeper Kind of Slumber
|
- Released: 12 August 1997
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| 39 || 29 || 22 || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Skeleton Skeletron
|
- Released: 11 August 1999
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| 56 || 19 || 47 || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Judas Christ
|
- Released: 30 April 2002
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| 52 || 28 || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Prey
|
- Released: 27 October 2003
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, LP, CS, DL
|| — || 83 || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |Amanethes
|
- Released: 27 May 2008
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Formats: CD, LP, DL
|| 13 || 69 || — || —
|
|-
! scope="row" |The Scarred People
|
- Released: 2 November 2012
- Label: Napalm
- Formats: CD, LP, DL
|| 11 || 62 || — || 154
|
|-
| colspan="10" style="font-size:90%" | "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Album
|-
! scope="row" |"A Winter Shadow"
|1990
|The Astral Sleep
|-
! scope="row" |"Cold Seed"
|1997
|A Deeper Kind of Slumber
|-
! scope="row" |"Brighter Than the Sun"
|1999
|Skeleton Skeletron
|-
! scope="row" |"Vote for Love"
|2002
|Judas Christ
|-
! scope="row" |"Cain"
|2003
|Prey
|-
! scope="row" |"The Temple of the Crescent Moon"
|2008
|Amanethes
|-
! scope="row" |"Born to Die"
|2013
|The Scarred People
|}
EPs
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" style="width:15em;"| Title
! scope="col" | EP details
|-
! scope="row" |Gaia
|
- Released: 28 November 1994
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD
|-
! scope="row" |For Her Pleasure
|
- Released: 8 November 1999
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, DL
|}
Live albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Album details
|-
! scope="row" |The Sleeping Beauty (Live in Israel)
|
- Released: 5 April 1994
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD
|}
Compilation albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Album details
|-
! scope="row" |The Musical History of Tiamat
|
- Released: February 1995
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD
|-
! scope="row" |Commandments
|
- Released: 26 February 2007
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD, DL
|-
! scope="row" |The Ark of the Covenant - The Complete Century Media Years
|
- Released: 18 August 2008
- Label: Century Media
- Formats: CD
|}
Video albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:15em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Video details
! scope="col"| Peak chart positions
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | SWE<br />
|-
! scope="row" |The Church of Tiamat
|
- Released: 24 April 2006
- Label: Metal Mind Productions
- Formats: DVD
||5
|-
| colspan="10" style="font-size:90%" | "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|}
Music videos
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Directed
! Album
|-
|1992
|"Sleeping Beauty"
|
|Clouds
|-
|rowspan=2|1995
|"Whatever That Hurts"
|
|rowspan=2|Wildhoney
|-
|"Gaia"
|
|-
|1997
|"Cold Seed"
|
|A Deeper Kind of Slumber
|-
|1999
|"Brighter Than the Sun"
|
|Skeleton Skeletron
|-
|2002
|"Vote for Love"
|
|Judas Christ
|-
|2003
|"Cain"
|
|Prey
|-
|2003
|"Do You Dream of Me?"
|
|Wildhoney
|-
|2012
|"The Scarred People"
|
|rowspan=4|The Scarred People
|-
|rowspan=3|2013
|"384"
|
|-
|"Love Terrorists"
|rowspan=2|
|-
|"The Red of the Morning Sun"
|}