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Rating: 2003, a Swedish band, whose constant is Johan Edlund, releases their artistic resurrection in the form of yet another stylistic transformation.
Tiamat began with the name Treblinka (the name of a Nazi extermination camp) playing Black Metal. A few years later, they changed their name to Tiamat (Sumerian deity of chaos) and went through a Death phase, then Doom/Death Metal. They shocked their fans with "Wildhoney", a true peak or trough as one might deduce from the many reviews available. The genre became Gothic Metal, then mellowed into a Rock increasingly tending toward Pop, much like the fate of Paradise Lost. Personally, I consider "Wildhoney" the band's milestone, as well as of the genre. For the rest, there's emptiness around this band that had done nothing else significant.
In 2003, ‘Prey’ is released, and out of nowhere comes the best fusion between music and love ever realized. Musically speaking, it is Gothic Rock with very light electronic influences. But it's a series of love poems of rare beauty accompanied by a dark, warm, and enveloping voice. There's not great technique in the choice of riffs and keyboards, but a lot of passion, and at times it feels like being warmed by an invisible, impalpable, but extremely penetrating presence... "Cain" introduces with a chirping and a gentle arpeggio into this world of shadows and presences. Despite the abyss from ‘Wildhoney’, there's a clear intention to evoke the same atmosphere of the intro from 10 years earlier. Whether commercial, stylistic, or coincidental, the effectiveness is there, as is the transport through the keyboard chimes, the riffs far from metal but still massive and present, the insistent bass lines... "Cain" ends with "Ten thousand Tentacles", the second track. The transport materializes into tactile sensations alone, never images, only darkness. "Wings Of Heaven" is another example of love played and realized through words emphasized by Edlund's expressiveness: The wings of heaven are descending/The touch of her naked skin's amending/The skies will collide/Only for a little while/And it will take us through the night. <
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Cain (05:25)
I gave you my love
Though crystalized
I sent you a rose with nevermore
So many years
So many hours
And only thistles on my shore
For all that it's worth
The blood on my hands
Is the blood of divinities
And all that is lost
Sound or unsound
Only bonds between you and me
If I go will you follow
Me trough the cracks and hollows
And I would be your Cain
If you would be here now
The Mother-of-Pearl
Handcrafted by God
You're the tower they built to reach the sky
A White Falcon beauty
My mark on your skin
Follow me down the stairs when we die
Your soul is in heaven
Your body in hell
It doesn't matter much to me
In the night of the unborn
Sound or obscene
Only bonds between you and me
If I go will you follow
Me trough the cracks and hollows
And I would be your Cain
If you would be here now
Blessed be our Lady Nuit
Guide us to Ra-Hoor-Khuit
In your night we find shelter
Before the Helter Skelter
05 Divided (05:18)
The marriage has come to my head
The wedding trumpets are dead
Replaced by a static noise
So loud that I can't hear my own voice
Will those signs lead me out of here
Well, just take me somewhere
To the plains where angels sing
Through the chime and the clattering
For what it's worth the truth might hurt you
There is a little you can do
When shadows fall I will desert you
Then that's what you will do
For what it's worth the truth might hurt you
And with a tear of morning dew...
My temples born anew
Lead me inside
Lead me inside
Lead me inside out of the cold
Let me inside
Feel me inside
When the seed is sown
Our love's dead by dawn
And as the day begins
The sun is soothing my skin
And I am divided
I am divided
For love
I have to say
That all of this time
I waited for someone like you
Your are my dream
Your are my dream
Your are my dream
08 Light in Extension (04:46)
We're shards of glass but we're coming to get you The earth is shaking, the underworld's born anew It's a cosmic fusion, a dissilusion man Gather your stuff and get going as fast as you can It's all that I dream of when I pray to the devils themselves The dust of Babylon fallen is on somebody else And in the aeon of hope - A new sun will rise for you And in the still of the night - The moonchild will watch you too We're falling to pieces and that's why we're hunting you down While you're falling from heaven we rise from the underground No more turning the other cheek, no liers in wait Waiting is over, the black knights have opened the gates
11 Clovenhoof (04:54)
In a room with no doors I will loose myself to you
In a room with blackened walls I'm coming trough
In a room in my house you'll be seeing it trough my eyes
It's a perpetual sin, let the ritual begin tonight
It's alright, can't you see
It's ok, she is with me
Like the sand of our time
Clovenhoof
Are you the one they say you are, are you holy to the bone
Have you got faith enough to throw the first stone
Are you my flame when only darkness prevails
Are you my white wale, the hammer for my nails tonight
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