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Rating: "The girl opened her mouth,
I opened my veins
The girl opened her heart
I opened the door to another world"
"Undressed"
Although for many, the undisputed masterpiece of Tiamat, in their now nearly two-decade-long career ("Sumerian Cry" was released in '89), is "WildHoney", I like to think that perhaps not everyone has grasped the beauty with which this "Clouds" is infused, so emotional and intimate, yet at the same time rough and rebellious.
Let's start by saying that it's 1992, and at the time, the death scene is on a great rise; the metal world has definitively discovered and accepted its most extreme offshoot, eventually also managing to exploit its side more related to the music biz (just think of the sales success of Sepultura's "Chaos A.D." or on a smaller scale, the 300,000 copies sold by Obituary's "The End Complete").
In this boiling magma, now no longer in its primordial state, some bands have already begun different paths towards creative shores not particularly explored: thus, Paradise Lost moves from the sulfurous "Gothic" to the more accessible "Shades of God", while Anathema with "The Silent Enigma" are about to tone down the brutality and harshness of "Serenades". And Tiamat? At the end of the '80s, they took part in the birth of the Scandinavian death scene, already from the start renouncing those sounds that later made bands like Entombed, Dismember, Grave and the like famous, while maintaining its structure and especially lyrics clearly of an occult/satanic nature, a habit they have not yet lost (see the lyrics of the latest "Prey").
After "Sumerian Cry" and "The Astral Sleep", the latter truly a delightful little musical gem, our guys (or rather the leader and main composer Johan Edlund) decided it was time to further stray from the trend and released "Clouds": the death/doom legacies, still strongly present especially in the vocals, are interwoven with grandeur by suffering yet always apt keyboard insertions, delicate pre-gothic era scores clearly emerge, scattered throughout the entire album's development.
The album is clearly not a concept one, but honestly, during the approximately 40 minutes of proposed music, the dreamy atmospheres often almost dimly lit, obviously spiced with some outbursts particularly as a backdrop to passionate and sensual solos, give the idea of a notable continuity of intent as there are no songs too dissonant from each other. Into this homogeneity, which does not mean photocopied pieces, the lyrics are also inserted, often focused on sentimental themes, love (even towards Satan), disappointments, and observations on the beauty and depth of the universe.
In the case of "Clouds", perhaps a track-by-track description is not very functional, since the individual songs do not have such sudden changes or variations to justify a detailed description: you just need to enter "a dream" and let yourself be pervaded by the wonderful sonic sensations that pieces like the opener or "A Caress of Star" know how to offer, to languish over the notes of "Forever Burning Flames" and "The Sleeping Beauty", to then wake up in the suffering of "Undressed".
The graphic context accompanying the album, crafted by the great Kristian Wahlin, is also truly on point, managing with a few but delightful drawings to concentrate the emotions the album knows how to express, capturing the true essence of "Clouds".
Personally, the album I emotionally prefer among Tiamat's work.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 In a Dream (05:12)
In a dream
I'm climbing the clouds
I touch a subdued sky
With my bare hands
In a dream
Let me drag you through my world
My kingdom for your thoughts
What is in your mind
When the night is to rouse your desires
In a dream
And the world of darkness whispers
In a dream
Be prepared to leave your reality
In a dream
Wake up to a game called life
In a dream
In a dream
I stand naked on a hill
I am looking down at me
Trying to touch my cold skin
In a dream
In a pool of blood
Evil is as pure as innocence
Evil is as pure as love
When the night is to rouse your desires
In a dream
And the world of darkness whispers
In a dream
Be prepared to leave your reality
In a dream
Wake up to a game called life
In a dream
02 Clouds (03:40)
If I walk on the water today
Will people worship me tomorrow
Will my name be spread faraway
To give people both strength and sorrows
Look into my cristal ball
I have got news for you my dear
There is a god inside you all
But he is hidden in your deepest fear
Step outside the clouds that hide you
The black clouds that cover you
Listen fools, a dream I send
If you make the madness end
Else I shall a nightmare call
To do harm within you all
You call me Satan, I call me sin
I breed in you but you have locked the door
Open yourself and you shall win
And you'll not even need me anymore
Step outside the clouds that hide you
The black clouds that cover you
03 Smell of Incense (04:29)
The smell of flowers, the smell of grace
If I could only find such a wonderful place
The place not known before you die
A paradise above the skies
The smell of incest takes me high
Way up high where cousins fly
If I close my eyes I see it clear
The visions are whispering in my ears
The smell of poon, the smell of head
The odour that is my last breath
The smell of incest takes me high
Way up high where eagles fly
04 A Caress of Stars (05:26)
I was your fear and you were my fate
I wanted you near but I bred your hate
You left me for dead, deep down in the mud
With scars on my head, in my heart and my blood
On my head, in my heart and my blood
On my head, in my heart and my blood
"A caress of stars
A silhouette in the twilight sky
The daybreak sets on silver seas
My name echoes through crimson hills
On the horizon, where seas meet clouds
A scenery shimmers beyond reality
I glance a world as a recent lit star
I am swallowed by universe"
A vacant eye caught the last moonlight
A wish to die to be shining bright
As a star to light your way
To where we are not led astray
Where we are not led astray
Where we are not led astray
"A caress of stars
A silhouette in the twilight sky
The daybreak sets on silver seas
My name echoes through crimson hills
On the horizon, where seas meet clouds
A scenery shimmers beyond reality
I glance a world as a recent lit star
I am swallowed by universe"
Deep in death
Wrapped in the morning deauty
Comes close my love
My dearest sister and friend
05 The Sleeping Beauty (04:10)
Alone I sit, I wonder why
You dream of love and so do I
But in your sleep you cannot see
This pain which is always haunting me
What I need I'll never feel
This world is for me unreal
So I drink to darkness with a candle lit
And throught the whole night alone I sit
The Sleeping Beauty
She stops the bleeding
She stops the bledding in my soul
She is fresh air in this stinking world
The more I drink, the more I see
That suicide could be the key
To the place called paradise
Where pain not dwells, not hate nor lies
But if I look beyond all this
I reckon something I would surely miss
Because in my dream I rule my world
And the sleeping beauty is my wife
The Sleeping Beauty
She stops the bleeding
She stops the bleeding in my dreams
She is fresh air in this stinking world
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