Tiamat - Commandments [Double Red Gatefold LP]

THE CIRCLE MUSIC

£28.80

Cat. no: SM27170921
Format: LP Double Red Gatefold LP
Barcode: 0617669419519
Release Date: 19 Apr 2024
Genre: Rock

Just like many other Scandinavian bands that rose to fame in the nineties Tiamat has gone through important stylistic changes in its impressive career

The band around singer and guitarist Johan Edlund who also plays keyboards and theremin on some occasions, has evolved from a sinister doom metal band with dominant death metal infuences into a gothic rock act firting with extremes like pop music but also its own extreme metal roots.

Releasing a compilation of the band's frst decade and a half of activities in chronological order makes sense in such a context as it helps us follow and understand the development of the Swedish quartet.

The release starts with the raw '' Where the Serpents Ever Dwell '' that comes around with miserable and creeping doom metal riffs meeting raw and terrifying vocals.

The track is taken from the band's ambitious conceptual debut record Sumerian Cry when Johan Edlund still called himself Hellslaughter.

As soon as the group's third album gets covered by this compilation, the already imaginative music gets a more melodic and mysterious touch such as in the wonderful "A Caress of Stars" taken from the underrated Clouds record that is often overlooked between the doom metal milestone The Astral Sleep and the popular gothic metal record Wildhoney that helped shaping this new genre of music.

The latter release included at times cinematic, epic and progressive elements such as in the imaginative ''Gaia'' that requests multiple spins to unfold.
Later in its career, Tiamat's sound became simpler and mellower. The surprisingly uplifting ''Vote for Love'' from the Judas Christ record is a track that jumped on the bandwagon of the success of numerous commercially successful gothic rock acts like HIM.

The bittersweet melancholically melodic '' Cain '' from the band's Prey record became a career highlight that defnes Tiamat just as much as the Wildhoney era and its hits. Commandments is a release flled with sixteen imaginative, diversifed and atmospheric songs shifting from gloomy doom metal with death metal grunts over progressive gothic metal with female backing vocals to short and sweet gothic rock songs with a strong commercial appeal.

Some new material would have been great for fans of old date but the running time of eighty minutes is very generous and offers value for money nonetheless. Commandments is an excellent way to understand everything Tiamat is about and honours the still underrated Swedish gothic metal pioneers appropriately.

This double album comes out in deluxe gatefold edition, in two colors (Gold / Red) 500 limited edition each.

Double Red Gatefold LP (180 gr - Limited to 500 copies) - The best ever compilation for this great band!

Tracks: Where The Serpents Ever Dwell / On Golden Wings / Ancient Entity / The Sleeping Beauty / A Caress Of Stars / Whatever That Hurts / Gaia / Cold Seed / Phantasma De Luxe / Brighter Than The Sun / As Long As You Are Mine / The Return Of The Son Of Nothing / Vote For Love / Cain / Wings Of Heaven / Divided (Edit)