Skeleton Skeletron

This one picks up right where the last one had left off. The opener 'Church of Tiamat' in its dawning seconds inoculates the aural space with a soothing synth ambiance backing a soulful Johan Edlund vocal line in a fashion distinctly reminiscent of the title-track 'A Deeper Kind Of Slumber' at the end of the previous album. This is like a direct extension of some psychedelic dream that's now opened the door out into more of this odd artistic reverie. And so the tone is set immediately. Heavy melancholy with mysterious words sung in a characteristic layered voice and a somber mid-range; deep but soft; at times almost funereal or at least expressing a contagious mournfulness.

Interestingly the album enjoys the groove it's found for itself and generally hangs around the same basic song-writing formula of hefty lingering power chords on choruses and quieter clean sequences with a touch of synth for the verses - and yet manages to show off various adaptations of that sound with a different feel each time. The creepy 'Dust is Our Fare' would subscribe to that description and yet comes off like some sort of hallucination from the band: "No one here drinks water - None of us is sane - If you pretend you're my daughter - We do it again and again" with an intentionally cryptic message on that chorus as Edlund's backing voice track creeps in the words in a sickly tone. The whole song's cadenced movement feels it's playing in slow motion, mirroring the state of being under the influence (which the band seems quite taken with).

'To Have and Have Not' is basically like a gothic rock anthem, gathering all the cliches but rendering a solid result in the end: the solemn voice over an economic drum beat of hi-hats and reverb-laden snare, bare and pure, before the compulsory clean guitar plucks impart their sorrow and then it's onto the wider sounding chorus with a bit of synth tinkling. The reversed-styled 'Diyala' here acts as the usual short instrumental (that's more like amorphous texture mingling and somehow producing a meaning of sorts - very much like an anxious dream transition.

The comically (and thought-provokingly) named 'Best Friend Money Can Buy' offers a bit of novelty. The occasional synth this time is replaced by piano notes for a plainer more classic look, used as accompaniment to the low lead voice from the verse that eventually intensifies into a lamentation echoed by the female guest's distant ethereal melodiousness, as soft accordion-like brushes blanket the setting for the backdrop. Undoubtedly the perfect song to listen to on a dense dark rainy day looking out the window. As highlighted by the final 'Lucy' and its theatrical doleful mood, this album isn't the most cheerful but then again little gothic rock or metal is ! It grows on you.

I can't say Skeleton Skeletron is a terrible album, merely pretty unremarkable. I had avoided A Deeper Kind of Slumber for a long time based on its shit packaging, and was pleasantly surprised when I did listen to it and found it to contain a wealth of material even better than Wildhoney in spite of its flaws. I then was given to wondering if I had missed something with Skeleton Skeletron as well.

It turns out I wasn't missing a whole hell of a lot, although Skeleton Skeletron is way better than I had expected. It's more consistent than A Deeper Kind of Slumber, but more given to rock tendencies, much like Sentenced and Nightfall did in their later work, which I feel robs the dreamy atmosphere that makes Tiamat special. I guess robbing would be extreme--it's more akin to petty theft here, because there is still a good deal of atmosphere in the synths and reverbed the fuck out vocals. Johan gives his best performance on this album, sort of a doped to the gills David Gilmore, with some expert vocal patterns.

The problem I've always had with death n' roll, or this goth n' roll, is that it is the polar opposite of progressive death/thrash/doom/black metal, and always seems to lack in the songwriting department, where clever turns make songs really jump out at you. Just look at ABBA or the Beach Boys for successful, yet sophisticated songwriting in pop or rock. Johan and the boys just aren't terribly good at that--something evident in nearly all of their work, even on here where out of place and/or half-baked riffs pop up here and there. It's that "psychedelic" influence where you decide that mixing grape soda with frozen peas is a good idea, rather than seeing god.

If you like Sisters of Mercy, this would be right up your alley, but I've always preferred Fields of the Nephilim for their sophistication, obscurity, and aura of mystery. Skeleton Skeletron mostly shirks all of those elements from a more streamlined approach which works when it's a bit hard. "Dust is Our Fare" is the heaviest of songs, with a nice Sabbath riff pounding your face and some really catchy vocal patters (although there are some of those infamous awkward Tiamat moments). The somber "Best Friend Money Can Buy" is a romantic, bass laden ballad that out-Gaia's "Gaia". It's got the perfect mix of goth and Pink Floyd, and some great vocal melodies mirrored by a female singer. The piano in here is wonderful, as well. If they had somehow managed to make a whole album out of stuff like this it would have been awesome.

The overall sound and production is an improvement from A Deeper Kind of Slumber. The electronic elements don't sound like they came from a Casio Rapman keyboard and the drum and bass are rich and full. There is more electric guitar on here and it's powerful, not HM-2 powerful, but appropriate for this kind of music. When we do have electronic elements showing up, like the instrumental "Diyala" they're well integrated into the mix and make sense. The lush keys and electronic stuff in "Lucy" really tie that one together.

That cover art is a severe abomination, and not in a good way. Is Johan trying to be the wussiest cenobite ever? A Swedish Marilyn Manson? Whoever was handling art over at Century Media in the mid-late 90's should be abducted by aliens and given daily enemas of mashed potatoes, peas, and carrots, followed by constant beatings by a gang of midgets for a term of no less than three months. There should be no statute of limitations to protect him from his punishment. Seriously, fuck that guy. Or guys. May they all eat shit.

Oh, and the Rolling Stones cover is more boring and unnecessary than you could imagine coming from Tiamat.

This album is arguably the most important one in Johan Edlund’s career; the audience was eager to see whether the artist would go even deeper down the meditation hole and would settle for the production of a string of lulling snooze-inducing CD’s; or would change the course back to times of rowdiness… no other option envisaged? Well, that’s a pity as Edlund was full of surprises back then, and had decided to welcome the dawn of a new millennium with a brand-new bag of tricks.

I personally didn’t see this coming; and I’m quite certain the same goes for the majority of the band fans. Well, I was by no means Tiamat’s most ardent fan out there as the last two instalments before that one didn’t impress me, this milder introspective direction not doing much for me with the seductively monotonous layout and the suggestive ethereal atmosphere. As a big fan of The Sisters of Mercy, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear what the man had cooked on the album reviewed here, as this is a fairly cool dark wave/gothic rock outing for at least half the time; a very unheralded turn of events having in mind that the man hasn’t displayed any predilections whatsoever towards this genre previously, the opening track from the preceding instalment "Cold Seed" the sole exception.

So Edlund has become a goth; well, again this effort is not a full-on tribute to Andrew Eldritch and his legendary cohort as half of the album still contains this ephemeral lyrical vibe characteristic of both “Wildhoney” and “A Deeper Kind of Slumber”. The mixture works quite well and is served on a near track-by-track basis with “Church of Tiamat” remaining on melancholic territory, a possible leftover from the “Wildhoney” recording sessions, a heavy atmospheric ballad which is sidestepped by “Brighter than the Sun”, the vintage gothic rocker, a major qualifier for the Sisters’ “Vision Thing” with the memorable sing-along chorus, the bouncy rhythms, and the brilliant female back vocals. A huge twist this one, it ushers the album into an entirely new realm but Edlund feels quite confident there, adding the dark sinister “As Long as You Are Mine”, the excellent balladic keyboard-infused hipster “Dust Is Our Fare”, and the very interesting individualistic, sombre cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” to match this new gloomier but by no means more pessimistic vision.

The previous passion for the anti-climactic and the meditative is reflected in the very short instrumental “Diyala” and the orchestral idyllic “Lucy” as the slumber never becomes very deep on the slower more ballad-prone material (“To Have and Have Not”, “For Her Pleasure”) with only “Best Friend Money Can Buy” hinting at some drowsy lethargic tactics but nothing too soporific or plain sleep-inducing; Edlund has learnt his lesson and this time he finely balances his repertoire, also acquitting himself with a steady hypnotic baritone, decidedly more evocative than Eldritch’s sturdy semi-recitals but still devoid of passion and pathos without sounding completely detached; think a more academic, more uplifting Type-O-Negative’s Peter Steele (R.I.P.).

The last truly experimental record in the man’s career, it set the tone for a string of efforts all the way to the latest “The Scarred People” with the goth-metal/rock sensibilities put up front but never to the point of emulation. With the psychedelic and trippy motifs from the mid-90’s period still present, it’s very unlikely that the Tiamat brand of music would ever sink into the field of mediocrity and banality, and with Eldritch not doing much on the creative front if anything at all these days, it seems as though the goth music circuit may as well have its new champion… a once belligerent doom/deathster who has gone through quite a few musical and life stages, tripping and meditating with the shamans, jamming and jumping with the goths, having come full circle from his journeys but still keeping a couple of skeletons in the closet for another potential musical revolution.

At one point, I figured this would be my favorite Tiamat release, and for a while it was. But after listening to it for nearly a year now, I think it's safe to say it no longer holds that position.

Make no mistake; this is truly a fine album, well-crafted in nearly every regard. As the follow-up to 1997's 'A Deeper Kind of Slumber', 'Skeleton Skeletron' shows the next evolution of Tiamat. This time around, there's less experimentation than the previous outing and the music seems to have gotten grittier (accented by the heavier guitars). No matter the progression, this is undeniably a Tiamat album. The dark, somber moods woven into the songs are just as powerful as previous albums and, although "dirtier"-sounding, the album still retains the psychedelic/dream/acid trip/ambience/whatever vibe first presented on the band's turning point album, 'Wildhoney'. The way the band combines the heavy and the soft is unique and captivating, and isn't replicated on any of their other albums in quite the same way. You may be grinding along with an industrial guitar riff one minute, then find yourself floating along to a serene keyboard segment the next.

Unfortunately, many songs on this album established the generic 'verse, chorus, verse, chorus, repeat chorus' song structure that Tiamat would adopt almost completely for Judas Christ. Fortunately, on this release, the band mixes it up a little with songs like 'To Have and Have Not' and 'Lucy', which both break off into cohesive and focused intrumental sessions. Not to say that the album is boring. Thankfully, unlike its successor, 'Skeleton Skeletron' has enough to offer to keep even the generic song structure entertaining.

Overall, a great album, and a must-have for the Tiamat fan. The album's biggest flaw, it seems, is that it doesn't have the immortality of 'A Deeper Kind of Slumber', and as a result of that I find myself reaching for 'A Deeper Kind...' rather than this when I want to hear some Tiamat.