Wildhoney

Tiamat, well, they have this uncanny ability to make the most ordinary, rudimentary music into a worthy listen. It's almost like they do it on purpose, as a challenge. Take the first track here, 'Whatever That Hurts' (after the ambient short intro 'Wildhoney'). That main hook is more or less the most basic rock riff one could possibly play in a generally minor scale on a guitar. And they go ahead and make it into this (somehow) memorable title-track; building up to it with a judicious clean guitar picking (itself suspiciously basic) that branches off into that interesting opening on the progression as the bite of the drums now lends itself to the whole, and odd metallic reflections appear as backing arrangement but not without a relevant effect. As those simple power chords ring on the chorus, Edlund temporarily migrates to his doom-metal cries, and the track turns grey and feels like relinquished faith. Soon after, the massive pounding toms grant the chorus with a powerful rhythmic strength that only accentuates the dramatic nature of it.

This is an interesting one as, being between the doom-death of 'Clouds' and the avant-garde gothic eclecticism of '...Slumber', it offers a bit from both worlds which translates into a wide array of textures and moods. 'The Ar' follows in the footsteps of 'Whatever That Hurts' and remains in a deliberately minimalist riff formula but this time conjures up a ubiquitous choir for a totally different aura from the previous, joined with the crystalline chorused keyboards of the verse. As basic as it is, it's like an orchestral dirge of sorts, that's quite hard to take out of one's head.

There isn't a song on this that'll distinguish itself from the central philosophy of keeping the music intentionally simple so as to make it sink deeper into the listener. However, specific sections will occasionally raise an eyebrow as they break the established steady groove: 'Visionaire' towards the end has that awkward lead playing over a gloomy power-chord progression that's nearly reminiscent of an Opeth (but in 1994). A sexy, maturely articulated solo ensues, and there are a few of these generally tasteful, sometimes David Gilmour-esque excursions taking place (the climactic and spacious 'Gaia'). It's nice to be able to slip into a record the way this one will welcome the audience. Tracks aren't hurried to break out their best, and there's a nice comfortable groove one can settle into instead: 'Kaleidoscope' takes forever to reveal what it's about and the journey is just as efficient as the destination; and how delicious-sounding are those recurrent synth-bells, and how much volume and room they add to the mix.

A most soothing 'Planets' comes on and offers its concise instrumental frame as perhaps a depiction for the genesis of a world, from its theatrical beginning to the cosmic beauty of its fully developed form.

Finally, no Tiamat album would be complete without a title like 'A Pocket Size Sun' that directly hints at substance consumption. The lyrics read: "The girl offered me a pocket size sun". Hmm. Right. "She said: "If you wanna have fun. It will take you to heaven for a while". Oh, dear. Edlund is probably more drugs than human at this point, but as the listeners we can't say we mind.

I just had to quote Lil' Jon for the summary...the other half of it goes something like "so fuck y'all." Wildhoney gets a lot of hate, though I feel the hate is leveled at what it isn't: a metal album. My latest perusal through Tiamat's discography has shown that despite their legendary status and being worshipped as melodic doom pioneers, they weren't really that good at the metal part apart from The Astral Sleep.

It would be hard to understate the paradigm shift that occurred when Wildhoney come out, and sadly, 14 year old Natrix, flush with money from a summer of working, had all the funds to buy a hell of a lot of Century Media and Nuclear Blast CDs. I've been swept up in Wildhoney's spell for damn near 30 years now, and unlike Amorphis' Tales from the Thousand Lakes, my appreciation for this album has morphed but always remained strong. This rediscovery of psychedlic rock in general, and Pink Floyd in particular, was unheard of in 1994, and though it's been done better and in myriad other ways since, Wildhoney remains a gold standard of psychedlic metal.

Let's get my extremely minor complaints out of the way immediately. This is not a metal album, despite a few growls and doomy riffs, so that's going to be a hurdle for most people to get over to enjoy Wildhoney. Also, there are four instrumental tracks, two of which serve only as intros to other songs ("Wildhoney" and "25th Floor"), and the other two are enjoyable with "Planets" being especially evocative. Johan's deathly bark shows up in 3 of the other songs on here ("Whatever that Hurts," "The Ar," and "Visionaire") which sometimes sounds slightly out of place. Even now, I'm not quite sure how to feel about it, because even though it doesn't distract from the songs, they're almost simply there to tie this album to previous Tiamat material. His whispered, talking vocals work best on here, kind of a shaman painting bizarre pictures as he leads you through this sometimes bewildering landscape.

Wildhoney works as a whole, even if there are a few parts of it that can be enjoyed on their own. It takes you on a well crafted, psychedelic journey with some creepy, disturbing moments that are usually brought to a peak through weird chords or synth textures. The single vinyl runtime really lends itself to the album based experience, although "Gaia" and "Whatever that Hurts" are strongest contenders for "hit song." The latter and "The Ar" are the token heavy moments that cleverly place this after Clouds with the blunders in songwriting removed. There's a big emphasis on bass through the whole album, sometimes partnering up with the bass drums to give you a pounding, which reinforces the heavy elements and gives you a pulse to follow through the psychedelic dream/nightmare.

Just like A Deeper Kind of Slumber, the quieter parts of Wildhoney are where Tiamat shines. Tiamat had always done the most with acoustic and atmospheric passages, even on Sumerian Cry, but here these melodic parts take center stage and steal the show. "Gaia" is the most obvious, with it's lush keyboard textures, sexy bass line, and waves of immaculate Gilmour-esque leads breaking up the verses. I'd almost be more tempted to go with "Do You Dream of Me?" with it's very, very prog rock ballad qualities before that unexpected acoustic jam explodes in the middle of the song.

The sound is perfect. That classic Woodhouse Studio sound with the big bass drums and bright sound perfectly matches the material here. It's all very organic sounding, and has a timeless quality that doesn't pigeonhole Wildhoney the way it would for A Deeper Kind of Slumber (which could have actually been better than this album). The packaging functions in absolute harmony with the music--it's some sort of universal, quasi-pagan thing from out of time yet timelessly appealing, like wide hipped maidens with thick locks of hair bringing psychedelic mushrooms and a big blanket so we can watch the stars come out on a summer evening. On the CD version there were little pictures that illustrated each song in some abstract way, as well, which further set the mood.

Absolute watershed moment on here. Tiamat managed to craft a cohesive album without the snags that hampered their previous work (The Astral Sleep had far less of those than the other two, though) and forge a unique masterpiece.

While it is easily assumed that any band that gets rid of its heaviness and rawness loses its appeal rather quickly, Tiamat were one of those bands that got quite more interesting after they released their occult-obsessed death metal debut. The Astral Sleep might as well be one of the band’s most unique albums, as it reached out to several elements and somehow made it work. Clouds was a solid follow-up record (even if the vocals left quite a bit to be desired), but still retained some of that heavy gothic gloom vibe. Now one would assume Wildhoney would yet be another solid offering, yet I can't help but think that this is where the band changed a lot for the worst.

It’s not like Tiamat’s earlier albums were were devoid of acoustic guitars and keyboard passages - especially on The Astral Sleep and Clouds these were important elements that helped shaping that gothic gloom atmosphere those albums possessed. Wildhoney embraces even more acoustic noodling and keys emerging in the background, but since this album sees Edlund taking a huge step back in the guitar department, the result just isn't very good. Hardly does Wildhoney evoke any emotional responses, nor does it rely on any ear-worm hooks - instead more often these songs dwell on and hardly have anything interesting to offer. Something like ‘’Visionaire’’ just consists of wandering guitar passages that don’t contribute anything to the tune, dull mid-paced riffs devoid of any emotional weight and a chorus so quiet it only makes me wonder if Edlund weren’t half asleep when he recorded his lines. The only redeeming factors on the tune are the harsh barks of Edlund, as they ironically contain more power than they did circa Clouds. However, Wildhoney introduces even more clean vocals than its predecessor did and the result is nothing but dog shit. Listening to ‘’Do you Dream of Me?’’ made me think he improvised by singing cleanly at the very last minute - The guy sounds totally apathetic and out of his element here. The song might make a decent lullaby, but an exciting tune it really isn’t.

Even the interludes go one ear in and one ear out (which to me is rather weird, given how cohesive The Astral Sleep was, where even the interludes played an important role on that album) and if that wasn't enough yet, Wildhoney saves the absolute worst for the last. This eight minute long abomination named ‘’A Pocket Sized Sun’’ sees Edlund speaking his way through this tune while the guitars play some random chords in the background - purely for background music’s sake I suppose? Alas, given Edlund’s boring delivery I’m assuming this wasn’t his most exciting encounter with a woman. I’ll just stick to his more adventurous stories about sleeping beauties and ladies trying to tempt him instead.

To finish off on a semi-positive note, Wildhoney does contain two enjoyable tunes. In fact, the album starts off rather promising! ‘’Whatever That Hurts’’ is a fine opening track, even if it might catch the listener off guard with its quiet verse, yet the song features a loud-shouted chorus that resurrects itself often enough to make things work. While rather passive, ‘’Gaia’’ is about as sentimental as Wildhoney gets - the track conveys the image of foggy landscapes and melancholic tales told by Edlund who successfully stays in the rougher register of his voice and I also like how the song finishes off with some superb shredding that’s show-off-worthy in a positive sense. Unfortunately, having two decent songs on your album isn’t really impressive and as far as I’m concerned this album defines Tiamat’s breaking point. Just stick to the band’s earlier albums instead and forget about this record.

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

Before you even put Wildhoney to play, you’ll know there is something up here. Tiamat had already considerably softened their sound from the doom/death of The Astral Sleep to the oneiric melodic doom of Clouds, but now they have also ditched the old, hilariously edgy, overdone logo and the bleak album cover pictures for something that felt much warmer and more pleasant. The title too seemed to point out to something more nature-related, though maybe in a more tropical way, not in the typical black metal forest vibe we’ve come to expect from Swedish metal. As one gives Wildhoney a spin, one finds these predictions aren’t unfounded.

Album opener, after the brief instrumental, “Whatever that Hurts,” is a colossal but misleading beast. Straight away it strikes with a punishing doom riff and pounding drums before giving way to a quieter Pink Floyd-ish break with clean guitars and no percussion. This richly textured sound gives a suffocatingly warm, lazy atmosphere, like getting high on a summer afternoon, the bedroom door and windows closed. The clean guitars go on as the remaining instruments come back, with Johan’s dreamy whispers, leading to the return of that main riff backed by his now harsh vocals, that gruff aspirated shout he had used since The Astral Sleep. Lyrics-wise, this is a love song to mind-altering substances, so much so its chorus was clearly composed while under their influence (“Honey tea, psilocybe larvae / Honeymoon, silver spoon / Psilocybe tea”, I mean, what?). But it’s a misleading track because, despite Sabbath + Pink Floyd being a sweet combination, as the album goes on, there’s not much doom there anymore, and every following track has the gothic and psychedelic influences slowly weeding out the metal.

The only other track that sounds remotely doomy is “The Visionaire,” though it has a much lighter feel, using the guitar more for texture than riffing, moving at a mid-pace and featuring clean guitars, twinkling keyboards and psychedelic soloing, while “The Ar” is a straight-away gothic rocker, in the vein of Sentenced (not yet a gothic band in 1994!) or Tiamat’s later outputs, though still featuring his harsh vocals. “Gaia” is an odd animal and, far from being my favorite, it’s mostly drum-and-bass-driven, with a lot of moving layered keyboards. As they combine a string ensemble effect with ooooh-choirs and a piano too, the effect is a bit New-Agey, which, given the “nature will wipe us all out” lyrics, is probably what Johan was aiming for. The guitar doesn’t make an appearance until after the first chorus, to shred slowly before the second verse, coming back for another solo by the end.

After “Kaleidoscope,” a filler acoustic track, it’s progressive rock all the way down, and Johan switches to his clean singing voice. “Do You Dream of Me?” is a mostly quiet acoustic track with icy background atmospheric effects for percussion, with an interesting progression, “Planets” is a basically a guitar solo backed by keyboards, with a cosmic feel, and “A Pocket Size Sun” is... I’m not sure what it is. The longest track here, also mostly acoustic, starting very minimalistic but building on up to its chaotic (though distortion-free) climax, it expounds on the lazy summer atmosphere I’d described earlier, its mellow clean guitar giving a somewhat Hawaiian feel as Johan narrates a psychedelics-fueled beach-side romance. All of these four songs do kind of flow seamlessly one to the other and the effect is pretty beautiful, definetely a high point in the album.

As you can see, musically Wildhoney is all over the place, but its warm atmosphere and love for psychedelia keeps it cohesive even as it sheds its metallic exterior to expose a more vulnerable Tiamat, the further experimentations with gothic rock and trip-hop of its follower A Deeper Kind of Slumber being witness to that. It’s not perfect, it’s not an album for everyone and it does kind of require a specific mood to be fully appreciated, but it’s a very rewarding listen.

Note: the rereleases that include extra material on the same disc are simply awful. You don’t need more versions of the songs in the album (that all sound the same anyways, with minor variations), and adding them after “A Pocket Size Sun” completely kills the mood.

One thing is for sure, "Wildhoney" is an album for open-minded freaks. Now you probably think: okay, Felix is walking over the earth for almost 50 years (horrible, I can tell you), he has seen a lot of places, various cultures and thousands of different individuals. This dude must be the prototype of a broadly interested music lover.

No way! I like metal and nothing else and therefore I tend to despise the album of a band that had previously proven its musicianship and compositional talent. Of course, "Wildhoney" does not lack musicality. I even go one step further and admit that this portion of bittersweet honey offers two good tracks. The relaxed, slightly oriental "Whatever that Hurts" is roughly comparable with "Dead Boys' Choir" from "The Astral Sleep" and the pretty rocking "The Ar" with its characteristic celestial background choirs can rely on good melodies and coherent song patterns, even though the latter is a little bit repetitive. These well shaped numbers are framed by the decent intro and a waste of time called "25th Floor" which sounds like a psychedelic experience in a steelwork. Believe me, there is no need to take the lift in order to reach this strange floor. Anyway, this piece has an important function, because it separates the good songs from the mediocre or even terrible numbers. So let's put the spotlight on the remaining pieces.

I admit that I do not understand the importance of romantic, dreamful and mysterious tracks such as "Gaia" or "Visionaire". On a positive note, Tiamat avoid schmaltz and kitsch. Yes, this kind of tunes where the emotional guitars "do the speaking" can still be worse. But these oh so intellectual, pseudo-reflective and wannabe-mystical tracks lack energy, enthusiasm and (metal) spirit. However, the worst is yet to come.

The longer the album lasts, the more painful it gets. Edlund asks "Do You Dream of Me?" and the answer is "yes, and it was a cruel nightmare". The song material moves increasingly further away from the sound that was dominating on "Clouds". Not to mention "The Astral Sleep" with hammers such as "Sumerian Cry (Part III)". Fragile keyboard sounds paint over-dimensioned landscapes, the guitars don't want to hurt anyone and Edlund is singing like a candidate for a vacancy in the local Protestant church choir. Thank God that he uses a darker, comparatively raw approach in the first two regular tracks.

Perhaps the closer wants to celebrate spirituality, but it clocks in at eight minutes and delivers nothing but great emptiness, if we leave the female vocals out of consideration. Of course, a feminine input is mandatory for such an album. Moreover, I strongly recommend to add another female contribution while listening to this difficult album. Make love to a beautiful girl with magical powers who gives you unique kisses and further erotic highlights, that's the best way to bear the lame rubbish of the second half of this product. I speak from experience - this is my preferred kind of spirituality. Maybe it is also an option to take drugs, but I am not familar with these substances. Either way, Tiamat always were prone to a certain degree of melancholy, but here they have gone too far. Apart from the good Sorychta production and a pretty promising beginning, this album is a total disappointment, at least for narrow-minded people like me. Did I already tell you that I have never been outside Europe so far?

After releasing two impressive death-doom records, Tiamat went into a musical change by 1994. Most of the members have been gone from the band, leaving only founder Johan Edlund and bassist Johnny Hagel as the remaining members. Instead of finding new members or disband Tiamat entirely, Enlund and Hagel decided to work on their 1994 album Wildhoney. Smart Move! I didn't think much of Tiamat at the time when I first listened to the band, but I got into this album simply by listening to the song Gaia and remember being mesmerized by the powerful use of the keyboards and the phenomenal lyrical content written for the song. Just by listening to this song it gave me thoughts about being on top of a mountain and stare right into the sunset. The song influenced me to give Wildhoney a chance since I have been so interested in gothic metal and because of the number of times I keep hearing about Wildhoney being a masterpiece within the genre of gothic metal.

Upon listening to the first half of the album, the album starts off strong and has some noticeable guitar riffs that you may have heard from Black Sabbath just by listening to the opening song "Whatever that Hurts." It does really good in toning down to a calmer part in the song and it hasn't lost its punch within the song or in the next couple of tracks where we will be hearing some growling and death-doom like parts in songs like "The Ar" and "Visionaire." Wildhoney does a really impressive job with using doom inspired guitar, and tempo which gives the listener the flow of head banging to the much harder songs off the album. The melodic songs are probably (dare I say it) the best in the entire album, and when they are featured after an instrumental part of the song gives the song really great depth, dynamic change, and emotional change. The album also hits more progressive with an example being the final track "A Pocket Sized Sun." The most melodic song off the album, "A Pocket Sized Sun" has a very calm atmosphere to give the listener a calm and peaceful ending. The song has some real weird guitar parts and outstanding drumming that gives the song more meaning instrumentally. "A Pocket Sized Sun" is usually a great song to listen to whenever anyone is in one of those calm, but somewhat dark mood to clear the listeners mind from any stress or drama.

What I find most interesting about Wildhoney is the lyrical themes seen in the entire album. Its lyrics from "Whatever that Hurts" and "A Pocket Sized Sun" has very weird rhyming and poetry that it almost sounds as ridiculous when someone says the lyrics out loud. That kind of lyrical direction reminds me of the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band" where the lyrics sound so ridiculous to say, but has great rhyming and flow for the song itself. Wildhoney was very diverse in its lyrical themes, ranging from nature, pentagrams, romance, and LSD. Not only do the lyrical content makes Wildhoney diverse, but it also gives the album added power and passion.

As far as Johan Edlund's vocal approach is concerned in Wildhoney, I feel that his voice is just right and was at his best during the recording of this album. Edlund's departure from the death-doom inspired growling to, melodic singing is a bold move, but that does that mean that Johan abandoned death growls entirely in Wildhoney. The album has its moments of death-doom inspired growling that again flows with the structure and music in the albums most aggressive songs. While Tiamat's contemporaries within the gothic metal scene were still sounding death-doom, but slowly showed elements of gothic metal, Tiamat's Wildhoney album made a bold move of going to a more melodic direction while still keeping death growls within their music.

Overall, Wildhoney is without a doubt one of the greatest albums I have ever heard. The album had powerful poetry, powerful atmospheric sounds, and each song connected together really well. Wildhoney is the kind of album where when someone listens to it for the first time, they are blown away instantly and are taken to a new world. It even showed connection to Pink Floyd as it felt like the entire album was a concept. Wildhoney felt like the listener is listening to just two songs as it connects right into the next song so perfectly, as if it was telling a story with a different kind of topic. I would strongly recommend listening to Wildhoney for anyone who loves doom metal or wants to know the definition of gothic metal, it would almost be a crime to not listen to this entire album in its entirety. Wildhoney will always be a classic gothic metal album to my ears for years to come.

I’m not sure what happens, to be very honest, cause I don’t have a bear yet, and there’s no way I could purchase a panda now that I live in China as here this animal is even more heavily protected than the blue and humpback whales although this is the only country where one can see pandas in the wild.

Now I suggest we take a quick flight from China to Sweden and have a look at this Scandinavian country’s biggest source of income after the products of the IKEA and Volvo manufacturing giants, the wildhoney that is. There was no way someone wouldn’t think of immortalizing it in a musical form, and here we have this ode to it, produced by the veterans (not so much at the time) Tiamat.

This was the first Tiamat album I bought, some time in 1995, and only cause the guy at the shop recommended it as a close soundalike to another cassette that I purchased on the same day, Anathema’s “The Silent Enigma”. Well, you know very well how comparable those two full-lengths are, in other words, so much for competence of our beloved “experts” behind the counter although in this particular case the man wasn’t very inordinately far from the truth as both works exude this ethereal, atmospheric melancholic vibe regardless of the different agendas the two acts had in applying it: Anathema merely upgraded their already brooding style without any drastic modifications...

while our friend(s) here made a dramatic turn towards much more melodic, even contrasting at times, ways of execution. As this was the first Tiamat album I ever listened to, I didn’t have to put up with the psychological and emotional torment that some of their fans must have gone through upon hearing it. To me this was an opus that was working well in view of the increasing interest in gothic/doom at the time, the only genre which matched the groovy/aggro-post-thrashy hordes in terms of popularity during the 90’s, and despite some of my fellow metalheads bitching about it being too mellow and blasé compared to its predecessors, I couldn’t find too many reasons to spit on it…

neither could I announce it an exorbitant masterpiece by any stretch like another substantial part of the fanbase that I knew did. Probably its merits were bigger at the time when it was released considering the musical environment, but 23 years down the line it may not even pass for the band’s magnum opus. Well, the bears of all colours and sizes should all be happy especially with the title-track opening the album although it’s just a less than a min of acoustic melancholia, predating “Whatever That Hurts”, a poignant atmospheric doomster that could have qualified for “Clouds”, with Edlund alternating subdued whispers with his staple forceful deathy shouts. “The Air” strangely reminds of mid-period The Gathering only with a heavier, darker “heart” and a male throat behind the mike, plus this overlong serene interlude that doesn’t bring much to the table except hinting at more beautiful soundscapes to be drawn later.

And those come with “Gaia”, a keyboard-dominated saga with great melodic leads and a more emotional and cleaner Edlund assisting this poignant ballad which partly influences “Visionaire”, an edgier and more dynamic proposition with depressive doomy overtones. Truckloads of romantic tenderness served with “Do You Dream of Me“, an acoustic idyll with some Spanish guitar adding more to the seriously introspective, sleep-inducing as well, mood which comes with a touch of ambience on the short instrumental “Planets”. A rousing doom/deathy opus would be more than welcome served as a redeeming finale, but no; the drowsiness in the band’s camp is just too big at this stage for a rude awakening to occur, and the final “A Pocket Size Sun” is eight whole min of hypnotic, psychedelic tranquillity, Edlund supported by a cool female throat, the latter the only audible merit on this sprawling piece of lyricism that can totally be used as a musical accompaniment to meditation although some may frown on the irritating discordant jazzisms splashed at the end.

Yes, the soundtrack to the ultimate wildhoney-guided meditation has been produced, coming with a few jars of wildhoney as well, and this package surprisingly gripped the hearts of the 90’s metal generation, those with a sweet tooth mostly, who catapulted it to the ranks of one of the biggest selling items of the decade from the metal arena. As an alternative to the groovy/grunge/industrial invasion it worked on all counts, wildhoney the default antidote for all kinds of physical and musical ailments, but with its metal merits very debatable in the second half it might as well have been placed elsewhere, outside the metal scope. Edlund, who had remained the only founding member at the time, with the bass player Johnny Hagel brought along for the ride, departed too far from his roots for this opus to be a delight for the old fandom, but he couldn’t care less with plenty of other fans warming up to the band’s new physiognomy.

It wasn’t such a risky proposition, if you think of it, as the man already had bright examples to follow, like Paradise Lost, Lake of Tears, Cemetary, Sentenced, The Gathering again, etc., these outfits having already experienced more or less profound stylistic changes, most of them commercially successful… so there was nothing to worry about. It was a safe bet, this transformation regardless of how far it was going to bring the sailing ship that was now open for other passengers to come on board, not strictly for diehard metallers anymore.

I did board it for a while back then, and have to admit I was entertained to an extent by its mild swings and sways, and although I obviously never got seasick or shaken/stirred around, I chose to get off it especially after I discovered those enigmatic thickening “Clouds”, and the Astral and Sumerian phenomena before them that were beckoning in a more sinister, more macabre manner... as an incorrigible risk-taker, I embarked on a journey to explore them more fully, and they did a really nice job to make me forget those days of pastoral, carefree idyll when wildhoney was free-flowing from every tree in the woods compelling bears, humans, and other living creatures to taste it, with the always provided option to stop if they aren’t really fond of it.

Tiamat's "Wildhoney" is one of those albums that deserves a spin every once in a while, never getting truly dull in any way. Sweden has never really been a spawning pool for many great doom metal bands, but Tiamat makes every metal fan's time worthwhile, (mostly) irrelevant of taste. While the previous Tiamat material is less than mediocre, it seems that with their 94' release they really managed to create an immortal album. By forging elements of great dismal with powerful guitar riffing, a great array of woe and eagerness emerge from the scaffolding.

The true essence and aesthetics of this album lie within the ruthless composition and beautiful melancholy. Not only that the EP itself progresses nicely with its 42 minute length, but it also creates a unique atmosphere, drawing the listener into the dark mysterious void that is exploration of human mind and nature through beautiful poetry. Not the cheesy pseudo-emotional gothic type of poetry such artists as "Theatres des Vampires" would deliver, but the good contemplative and sophisticated type. Much of their lyrical material reminds me of Pink Floyd (after their drug phase of course). Elements that have been used by this band include chanting choirs, that aren't predominant and leave enough room for the heavy guitars, the great vocals and majestic keyboard interludes. The main songs present themselves as "Whatever That Hurts", "The Ar" (A pun on the aryan), "Gaia", "Visionaire", "Do You Dream of Me?" and the final one "A Pocket Sized Sun". All there tracks adhere some kind of instrumental between them, giving you time to reflect on each individual song, comprehending what you've just listened to. This itself is a really clever idea, since the impact of each song is very different, but the mutual aspect is the mark they leave. Each individual song presents itself from a different approach, talking about diverse aspects of abstract human mind. And if you think that's scary, you should check out the instrumentals in between. Lyricless, but not voiceless.

Wildhoney. The name itself leaves a lot of questions open. Why the title? What does it have to do with the music? The basic idea is to create an album that is linked to both deep emotion and very sur(real) imagery of a variety of life's aspects. It is basically a metaphor for every depressive moment one can imagine in diverse situations. Love, sickness, awareness-expanding, to just name a basic few. If these are the things you enjoy exploring, then this is the album for you. The drifting atmosphere is amazing. Again, Pink Floyd is clearly present, but with a more gloomy approach.

While this album never wrote history, it is truly under-appreciated by many, as it is overlooked my many more. There is an overall esoteric approach to the music, citing the use of psychadaelic drugs on various occasions. The guitar work is at times a distorted mass that saws through your speakers at while being perfectly crystal clear in other certain parts. While that alone being very gloomy, the vocal duties from Johan Edlund add to the overall haunting and great atmosphere. The aforementioned keyboard and instrumentals are rather modest, not taking up very much space on the album, but still claiming their ground in a masterful manner. For instance, "the 25th floor" or "Kaleidoscope" create one of the most disturbing atmospheres I've ever heard (considering their length of course). The album itself, while being only semi-"metallic", really gets under the skin quickly. This is the album for all you nostalgic creatures. Atmosphere done right!

I've got to agree with the other reviews on here. This is just an excellent, beautiful release. I'm not even a big fan of the gothic metal genre and yet I've developed an incredible appreciation for this album.

I'm not going to go through song-by-song, but perhaps the best part of the album is the dichotomy between aggressive and progressive sounds, between light melodies and slightly heavy rhythms. Although that's something you'll find in most gothic metal, Wildhoney seems to bring it to a head.

Whatever That Hurts is probably the best song on the CD, opening with a simple riff with Black Sabbath-esque heaviness. Yet immediately after it goes into an ambient recess, with clean guitars and synthesizers setting a dark and ominous mood. The drums come in to set an uneasy atmosphere, and the whispering clean vocals are very mysterious. Yet at around 2:23 into the song, it gets much heavier and the harsh death vocals arrive, along with a tribal-esque drum beat on the toms. It's so simple, yet there's such a contrast between the two types of music that it is beautiful. It goes back into the light sounding atmospheric verse, but is then followed by that same heavy riff with an brilliantly-written guitar solo in a minor scale. Absolutely great. Tiamat is slow, heavy, and yet dark, progressive, and ominous. This song will get in your head.

Tiamat makes good use of synthesizers and does not abuse them. The drums are not stand-out, but they complement the music well and add some great brooding beats. The vocals are also not stand-out, but it does not matter because the contrast between the harsh and light vocals is what makes this album great. I can't really comment on the bass - it didn't stick out much to me at all. Perhaps the best aspect of the CD is the guitars however. Tiamat's guitarists have some heavy doom riffs (Whatever that Hurts), some clean classical parts (Do you Dream of Me), some progressively-inspired solos (Gaia), and some great distorted solos (Planets).



There are also some great lyrics on this CD that you should check out, especially on Gaia and Do You Dream Of Me.

A Pocket Size Sun is probably the most disappointing song on the CD, because it sounds like a depressing alternative rock song, which is not what I am interested in when I listen to this CD. It's pretty boring and lackluster, and it's too bad that it's the longest song and that it ends the CD.

I wish the album were a little longer. There are 10 songs; one is an intro, another is a solo, and two others are ambient pieces. That leaves 6 songs, one of which is A Pocket Size Sun which is pretty terrible as I mentioned. That leaves only 5 full-length songs, which aren't even that long to begin with. I like those 4 short filler pieces, but I wish there were 1-2 more full-length songs to go with them. These are the reasons I only give it a 92%. Other than those reasons, I have no complaints.

Overall, the album is a great work of brooding art that any fan of heavy music can appreciate. I recommend you get it.

Normally I don't give out 100s to reviews very easily. If I do then that means I view the album as a classic, one that I could take to a desert island and not get bored with. During the early to mid 90s Century Media had been releasing quite a few good albums. See my Nevermore "Dreaming Neon Black" and Moonspell "Wolfheart" reviews for more information.

In 1994 Tiamat one of the poster boys for Century Media released the album "Wildhoney". This album would mark their shift from death metal to atmospheric metal. Being an atmospheric metal album the music is a bit challenging to describe. This is not a black metal album, although Tiamat used to be known as Treblanka a black metal band. There are no harsh blast beats, no necrotic screaming, and the production is excellent. (Ok that was a crappy example.) This isn't a death metal album either, as the music is far to calming to be so, and the basslines, and bassdrums aren't as resounding as they are on many death metal albums.

Tiamat has always been known for their experimentations of music, and Wildhoney is no exception. The album starts off with the sound of birds chirping along with a guitar playing a sweet melody that soon kicks into a harsh guitar laden song about magic mushrooms. With the differant tones and trippy effects of this album it wouldn't surprise me if the band had been under the influence.

Everything about this album screams magic. The guitarists have definately taken their cues from other guitarists that would be hard to find here on MA, and added their own twist to it. The keyboards certainly belong on this album, and unlike Tiamat's later works they never run the music. Most of the time they give off the atmospheric illusion that you are outside in the wildnerness listening to birds chirping, rain falling, the wind blowing, etc.

The drumming is quite excellent too, if your the dancing type it almost makes you want to dance to the strange rhythm it gives. If your not the dancing typing you could be finding yourself tapping your foot, or slowly headbanging to the music. The bass also adds the strange rhythm to all of the songs, and as with all of the albums I have given 100s to the bass is not hidden out of tune into obscurity.

I suggest that anyone who enjoys strange metal to pick this album up. Of course they don't sell it in stores so your best bet is to buy it online.