The Astral Sleep

The Astral Sleep may be Tiamat's sophomore album, but it feels like their third or fourth for how well the songs are put together and form a cohesive statement. I'd chalk it up to them having to make up for the embarrassing debut album that was immediately, if not retroactively, outpaced by anyone in the nascent death metal scene. This one fits in the death/doom category, yet brimming with enough occultism and obscurity to almost add "blackened" to the description. There's real darkness to be found on the Astral Sleep, with a scant sprinkling of the romanticism that was to follow on the hugely overrated Clouds.

Though I prefer the Sunlight sound, with those HM-2 chainsaw guitars, the classic Woodhouse sound perfectly enhances the creepy, desolate sounds of this album, and in particular the acoustics. I've always felt that whether it was Unleashed or Morgoth the Woodhouse guitar sound felt hollow, and on here it conjures up visions of wastelands and cavernous abandonned buildings buried by time and dust. Johan's bark was never awesome, but it turns out that when Waldemar Sorychta throws a shitload of reverb on it, it ties the cobwebbed and motheaten room together. Just listen to "Mountain of Doom" or "The Southernmost Journey" to experience this.

The biggest difference with the Astral Sleep and Sumerian Cry is that Tiamat were working within their abilities on this album, much like Cemetary did with Godless Beauty. Though there are a few blasting areas, they keep it in the slow to midpaced zone where the eerie atmospheres do their best. While there are a few "what the fuck moments" in here, namely on "I Am the King", where they decide to blast or throw in some awkward chunk of music that seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of the song, the Astral Sleep has far less of these than the rest of their early catalogue. They also got a competent drummer which aids in keeping the songs flowing smoothly, although those blast beats are still not good--possibly not his fault. "On Golden Wings" flows through a number of moods, including a delicate break with a little wicked guitar fill, proving that Tiamat could write a rather progressive song without sounding all clumsy.

The lead guitars are much better as well, and a great debt is owed to Thomas Petersson for his tasteful leads, although it's Waldemar Sorychta's scorching solo on "Ancient Entity" that takes the prize. The acoustics take a very central role on the album, springing up in almost half the songs on here, with a bit of keys to enhance that mystical atmosphere. I felt that the acoustics and use of melody on Sumerian Cry were its strongest elements, and on here Tiamat recognizes that fact. The Astral Sleep is, in some ways, the first melodic Swedish death or black metal album, and outclasses the whole Gothenburg scene with its sinister aura while simultaneous creating another subgenre. The only thing of this caliber that comes to mind is Dissection's the Somberlain, which though quite different, shares a good amount of common DNA with the Astral Sleep.

I'd like to think that Johan and the boys remembered that Candlemass were from Sweden and that they too could take influence from the doom scene, so as not to compete in a league for which they were not fit (ie: standard death or black metal). They seemed to try to recreate this on the follow up, but to no avail. It would take them another paradigm shift to get to this level of awesomeness again.

While Tiamat’s first four albums are undeniable unique (even the death metal album doesn’t like anything else as far as I know), I’d argue The Astral Sleep is the one where the unique features are an actual strength. This is clearly a departure from the raw death metal the band played on their debut and while this is a step in the doom direction, it’s still rather different from the drugged-out-doom-experience of Clouds. So what does this album sound like, exactly? I’ll do my best to explain, but bear with me, it won’t be easy.

The thing is, certain bands would still sound recognizable by the times they had switched to something different (see Entombed’s Wolverine Blues compared to Clandestine, for instance) but in Tiamat’s case, The Astral Sleep sounds like an album made by a completely different band. First of all, there are Johan Edlund newfound vocals; he howls like a dwelling spirit in the netherworld and sounds far more coherent than he did on Sumerian Cry, yet avoids the goofy half-growls that made Clouds more parodic than anything else. Second and most important there’s Edlund’s erratic guitar work. Effortlessly Edlund morphs from the doomiest riffs to something relatively thrashier and everything in between. It’s a shame Tiamat became less riff-centred as time went on as Edlund was a rather distinct guitarist at this point.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Johan Edlund stopped caring about labelling his band circa The Astral Sleep – this just sounds like metallic album where the emphasis lies on grounded guitar riffs while other members know how to contribute just right. The drums feel steady and I like the blastbeat outburst in ‘’I Am the King (of Dreams)’’ – a vicious and blackened craft which take a doom-y turn halfway through before returning to the opening segment. Keys are clearly present; adding a haunting presence to this thing, but without any pretence – making ‘’Angels Far Beyond’’ far more effective than it would have been if it weren’t for them. The dominant keys during the verse seemed like a warning at first, but once Edlund howls over the majestic nocturnal soundscapes, I was convinced I was in for another solid track. The Astral Sleep introduces Thomas Petersson on lead guitars and what a good choice it was! His style is classy; impressive, yet simplistic – my favourite moments of him appear in the title track where he’s ready to launch his lead skills on top of that 70’s folk rock vibe and his chops are clearly heard on ‘’Angels Far Beyond’’ as well, giving the track a little extra value.

What’s most impressive is how cohesive, yet elaborated The Astral Sleep appears to be. Now I like all the songs here yet my pick for the most superior track has to be ‘’Ancient Entity’’. Its opening riff recalls Mercyful Fate circa 83-84, but as things progress oriental tales of the occult become strongly vivid, thanks to Edlund’s brilliant lyrics. Is it the first example of blackened heavy metal? I have no idea, nor do I care, but it’s such an inspiring tune I wish Johan Edlund had at least written one more album with these ideas in mind. Even the introduction, interludes and outro make sense – and this is coming from someone who normally dislikes them.

Tiamat will never be a favourite band of mine, I suggest you give The Astral Sleep is a chance. It’s unique, atmospheric and highly nutritious if you’re on a metal diet.

The Astral Sleep is an album which could seemingly only have come from the early 1990s and, yet, sonically it couldn’t be further from a lot of what Tiamat’s fellow countrymen were doing at this time. Despite being one of the earliest death metal bands to come from Sweden (of course, I refer to their earlier incarnation, the controversy-courting Treblinka here also) Tiamat never really stuck with death metal for long. By ’91 it seems that they’d moved beyond death metal completely with almost no trace of their previously brutish sound. The Astral Sleep, then, is a difficult beast to pigeonhole (a beast probably wouldn’t fit in a pigeonhole, anyway). There’s doom and gloom, but it’s too brisk and thrashy to be considered just a doom metal album. There’s a nebulous black metal element, but it is more of the foggy Rotting Christ variety than of Norse style (after all, that hadn’t fully taken off at this time). There are definitely some more rocky tendencies here, too, but I don’t find this to be too similar to Tiamat’s later works (although it’s certainly been a while since I spent any time with those). Simply, The Astral Sleep stands on its own two feet and doesn’t follow any particular herd-mentality of the time… you may have to count sheep to enter this dream-like state but the band are definitely not following the flock on this album.

One might think that Tiamat were trying to distance themselves from the death metal scene at the time and sonically you can definitely hear this. Apparently, the new members on this album had no prior experience in the death metal scene (not that it’s something you’d put on your CV, anyway) and the sound here is distinctly non-Swedish. Waldemar Sorychta’s excellent production is about as far from the typical Sunlight bludgeoning as you can get. It’s got a beautiful contrast; an airiness, a sense of light and shade that a typical extreme metal sound simply wouldn’t capture so well. Every time I listen to this album I’m really quite glad that they didn’t simply decide to go with Tomas Skogsberg again. Similarly, the drums are quite unlike what you might expect from an extreme metal record. There’s not really much double-bass on this record and even when the drummer goes for some blasting it seems like a technique he’s not really accustomed to. Instead of this being to the detriment to his performance, however, it actually makes the album all the more unique and convincing. Thomas Petersson’s lead guitar, too, is conventionally melodic… no Siege in there, just brilliant, emotive and well-crafted solos.

It would be interesting to see what Tiamat were listening to at this time as the style here is really peerless. I would suspect that a lot Celtic Frost, Rotting Christ and maybe even something less expected like Candlemass would be on their collective stereos. Honestly, I do hear a fair bit of Candlemass here and I think if you gave some of this album’s gloomier numbers a clean vocal style the influence would be a lot more obvious. Certainly, the use of doom riffs with haunting keys remind me more than a little of the old Swedish doom titans. Imagine ‘Mountain of Doom’ with Messiah’s glass shattering vibrato and I think it’d be a Candlemass classic. That said, pinpointing influences (which is something of a risky business to start with) doesn’t do justice to this album’s one-of-a-kind atmosphere. There’s something truly haunting about this album; it lulls its listener into a strange place, somewhere between sleep and wake when your dreams and nightmares are always at their most vivid (I’m not talking about sticky duvet here, either). The album itself is reflective and nocturnal in a way that’s seldom heard in metal. On this album, at least, Tiamat really understood how many different shades darkness can have.

The strange thing for me is that a lot of Tiamat’s faster parts seem quite thrash-inspired or, occasionally, like pre-Norse domination black metal (take ‘I am the King (of Dreams)’ for example). That said, you’d never call Tiamat black or thrash metal and even death or doom metal don’t seem like appropriate labels here and yet they do take riffs from all these styles without stitching them together in a shoddy, Frankenstein-esque manner. It’s a potent mixture and the end result is really quite unlike any other album I’ve heard. However, I must note that The Astral Sleep is a subtle album and one which won’t necessarily appeal to everyone. Certainly, Johan Edlund’s vocals are an acquired taste; he’s not growling or screaming but his voice has a tormented, ghoulish quality that fits the material perfectly. It’s a hoarse (Sumerian?) cry that further separates the band from their Swedish compatriots. Early Katatonia might come close to this style but again, those vocals were much more dramatic, like a drunken teen howling out blasphemies in the hope that someone might actually listen to his proclamation that god is dead and always will be. Johan’s style is more reserved, more secretive – more ‘occult mysteries’ than open, wilful blasphemy.

Given the unusual nature of this album I don’t expect it will be a welcoming listen for everyone. It’s not quite an uneasy album, really. Indeed, this is reflected in popular opinion as The Astral Sleep’s reputation is something of a dormant one as people tend to favour later Tiamat albums or heap praise on other more conventional Swedish classics (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Perhaps The Astral Sleep has proven to be an influence on other bands who sought to re-imagine extreme metal but very few of them put out anything as unique or moving as this work (often producing monstrosities given their poor handiwork) . Simply put this is a unique listening experience; subtle, but riffy, gloomy yet never monotonous and always captivating. Once you’ve been drawn in by those ghostly keys there’s really no way out.

It is a sad thing that bands like Tiamat, who have created amazing music in the past, are now weaving the flag of indifference, in the name of money. Tiamat, found out that music can make you money shortly after the release of this album, which lead them in a continuous change to a softer and softer tone, until they came to what they are now, a nearly stripped of every metal reference gothic/rock band.

But looking back into the past we can see that this band has been releasing a gem after get, from the agonising Crawling In Vomits, the hypnotising Sign Of The Pentagram, and the hymn to darkness known as Sumerian Cry, which was their last album in the Black Metal genre. The Astral Sleep, their second full release, is in a way one of the most strange breeds any band has ever produced: From one side, we can still see that the band is closely affiliated with Black Metal, but also seem fascinated by the likes of King Diamond, and the Doom/Death Metal genre slowly rising to its peak at the time. The result is an album that has hatred of a Black Metal release, the purity of classic heavy/speed, and the divinity of doom/death metal; and the end result is mindblowing.

From the ambient beggining, so magnificently written that sends shivers down your spine, to the thrasy Lady Temptress, the doomy Mountain Of Doom, to the hateful and black Sumerian Cry Pt. 3, this album does not simply have it all, but weaves it in such an amazing way that it creates a genre of its own. Off course the Swedish sound has started to give its signs (and will be at its prime on their next release, Clouds), which gives a very melancholic and at the same time strong soul to this release. The vocals, by Hellslaughter (Johan) are probably the best in his career: Alternating from deep growls to high pitched screams, in a comfusio that should remind Sumerian Cry and Treblinka but instead brings King Diamond in the picture. Such is the fluency with which the vocals flow that you wonder why he lost this amazing talent when he could have done so much with his voice. The guitars, played to perfection, with riffs heavy as hell and solos that couldn't have been written even by bands with 15 years of experience behind them just shows how skilled the cast was.

The Astral Sleep shows the freshness of a new band, a band just in its first steps, with no hint of their future, or what they would be doing 12 years later, still playing heavy music for their own fun, combined with all the elements that would later on make them the leaders of Atmospheric Doom / Death and Alternative Metal between 1994 and 1997, so in a sense, this very album, can capture every single moment Tiamat have given both in the past and would give in the future. For that and only, and for how amazingly well written this album is, it has earned its rightful spot in the pantheon of classic metal albums.

So, whether you want to listen to thoughtful anti-christian slaughter, come to one with the powers of nature, feel the strength of hateful black metal, the aggressiveness of pure death metal, the divinity of doom metal, and at the same time have your amazing speed metal moments in there to combine everything that would seemingly be "off place" in a perfect way, look no further.

"Drink to Lucifer or drink the blood of Christ, All things depending on your own dreamland".

Something about Tiamat's combination of Sumerian mythological content, crushing grooving riffs, and beautiful harmonies strikes a real chord with me, and given that I'm not too familiar with 'Sumerian Cry', this is my favourite work of theirs, for the time being. I love it when "simple" melodies and musical structures have a special character to them which somehow invokes a deeper meaning when the composition is presented as a whole, and this is a fine example of that phenomenon. I for one am firmly against the underrating of such musical forms. Not only is this album a magical combination of simple elements which adds up to more than the sum of its parts (I hate that expression!), it is quite an original piece, as no one can rightfully pin down its style or even maybe its influences. No one can call it doom metal, or death metal, or give it any kind of little sub-generic label. It can only be called metal, and metal is not a style but a way of life and a way of thinking. It's too bad about Tiamat's more recent obsession with "psychedelic" and "accessible" forms of metal/rock, since this is as psychedelic and atmospheric as it needs to be while still maintaining an aggressive energy which always initiates muscle impulses of the head and limbs!