TIAMAT - WILDHONEY (1994)
Tiamat has a really unique sound on Wildhoney. I read somewhere that they say their biggest inspiration is actually Pink Floyd, unsurprisingly. A lot of this seems focused on creating strangely psychedelic textures and ambiances. Lots of synths, very stylized, spacious production, and many odd or unique instrumental sections and bendy rock guitar solos.
Their earlier work had had much more of a death metal and even crust edge, but this album lacks any gutturals at all and is at times largely acoustic. Still, there are plenty of chunky guitars, and the riffs create a grandiose, epic feeling. Overall, fairly soft, but darkly psychedelic for that.
Besides beefier moments, the band also employs lots of cascading clean riffs that have more of a prog rock character. These are all complex, distinct tracks with poignant lyrics and at times, some pretty flashy playing. The vocals are often shouted, but there are also plenty of spoken moments that are delivered in a kind of gothic snarl, and boyish singing. As far as "goth metal" goes this is kind of like metal's A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (though, the band has a track called Kaleidoscope instead), full of vivid textures and colours, yet slightly unsettling, as if faded.
Do You Dream of Me is a ballad with a weeping melody and clean, reverby guitars, while Gaia has the band singing nature apocalypticism over something vaguely floydish. Tracks like Whatever that Hurts and The Ar, feature muscular guitars and anthemic refrains. There's lots of interlude moments either as their own tracks or as intros or outros to songs, and they're all fairly captivating and don't overstay their welcome. Wildhoney closes with the eight minute drug fairytale A Pocket Sized Sun, which is awash in shimmering guitar, booming drums and gentle swaying melody. It creschendos almost like post rock, and makes for a satisfying closer.
This isn't a hard or heavy doom album, but it might be attractive to prog listeners and fans of psych atmospherics. It's a very original, and well executed take on doom music with goth influences, but just don't expect death metal. The only band with stuff that I think really has a similar vibe to this release is Saturnus. Very dense, textured, and cerebral. Oh also there's a ton of drug references, these guys like their mushrooms.
Pink Floyd meets Siouxie and the Banshees meets Candlemass.