Swedish Tiamat started as a regular deathband and with that in mind, it has to be said, that they have grown a lot style wise. Tiamat have landed in a place where the kind of music you can stand listening to for more than 5 minutes are made.

The style is still black, but with a good melody and a sphere so typical for that kind of music. Synth arrangements are just as important as the electric guitar and a very important part of what makes the music moody.

The only band member which has been there from the beginning is singer Johan Edlund. At the crack of dawn he was using the nick Hellslaughter, which was way back when Tiamat was still a splattermetal band by the name of Treblinka. Not a good choice for a bandname. Of course it doesn't mean much if you don't know the history, speciall WWII where our neighbor at the south built a lot of socalled family and work camps with the only goal at mind was to solve the "jewish problem". One of those camps was Treblinka in Poland, where quite a few Jews lost their lives. But that's a totally different story which really doesn't have a whole lot to do with Tiamat.

Since then, there has been a lot of changes among the members, but the road Tiamat followed when they contracted with CMFT are still there and by now Tiamat has developed to be one of the very best Swedish and Scandinavian bands in this genre, where also Denmark is represented by The Loveless.

The music is very melodic with surprised hidden here and there. On the CD there's the video for Vote for Love and you're also introduced to exotic instruments like dijeridoo, citar and Oud. Tiamat is not about to change to a world music centered band, but those instruments are giving the music a much more interesting expression. Much more living, interesting and melodic. It's nice to hear that Tiamat are not cornering itself with the traditional setup of drums, base and guitar, but dare to reach out where the world is so much bigger and has a lot more challenges.

If I have to compare Tiamat with anyone else, which can be quite a task because they're so varied in style, I cannot get around not mentioning Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Nosferatu. ANd I can even hear some influence from Pink Floyd. These bands gives a good hint about who and what Tiamat is. You can hear it in their latest Judas Priest, which has been recorded in Puk Studio in Copenhagen by the help of Lars Nissen.

As said before Tiamat orignated back in 1988 with the name of Treblinka and got two demos out - Crawling in Vomits and Sign of the Pentagram. These demos helped the band a lot at getting a contract with English CMFT. They then changed their name to Tiamat, which also is the name of an old middle eastern goddess of caos. People who have played a bit of D&D will also recognize it as the name of a dragon with 5 heads.

Tiamat released their first album Sumerian Cry in 1990, but because of disaggreements in regards to distrobution Tiamat decided to change record company to Century Media where they released The Astral Sleep in 1991.

This album showed that Tiamat had had quite a musical development, from traditional brutal death metal to a mix of brutal death and goth. This helped make the sound a bit more relaxed and soft, which can be attributed in parts to keyboard player Jonas Malmsten.