| Wildhoney | ||||
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| Studio album by Tiamat | ||||
| Released | October 25, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | 1994 | |||
| Genre | Gothic metal Death/doom Progressive rock Psychedelic rock |
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| Length | 42:08 | |||
| Label | Century Media | |||
| Producer | Waldemar Sorychta | |||
| Tiamat chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic | [1] |
Wildhoney is the critically acclaimed 1994 album by Tiamat. Released after their worldwide tour with Entombed and Unleashed, the record made the band one of the first (along with Opeth) to progress beyond genre lines in the renowned Swedish death metal scene.
Stylistically, the album owes a lot to psychedelic and progressive rock; Pink Floyd and King Crimson have been cited by band members as a particular influence on the album. Several tracks make references to hallucinogenic drugs (Jimsonweed and psilocybe mushrooms are explicitly mentioned [1]), and the entire album has a transcendent, otherworldly quality, which is enhanced by the fact that the entire album, with the exception of a brief gap in between tracks five and six, is seamless. There are several sections of the album that barely even qualify as traditional metal at all, with four tracks ("Wildhoney", "25th Floor," "Kaleidoscope" and "Planets") being instrumentals (although the title track features printed lyrics in the liner notes, they are actually part of the lyrics to the following track, "Whatever That Hurts") and an additional two ("Do You Dream of Me" and "A Pocket Size Sun") containing no growled vocals. As such, Wildhoney is often cited as a strong introduction to death metal for fans of progressive rock and vice versa.
Johan Edlund speaks briefly of the themes in Wildhoney, in the liner notes of the 2007 Remaster of Wildhoney:
"Everything has been said about the songs by now, but what I'm personally most pleased with is the variety they show. Kind of like ABBA... They had a song about money, about being on stage, one about Waterloo, one about Fernando etc... We also picked different topics for each song... The pentagram (The Ar), nature (Gaia), LSD (A Pocket Size Sun), Satanism (Visionaire)... Still we managed - with great help from Waldemar, Siggi Bemm and some of my sound effects CDs with birdsongs - to tie it all together in a way that totally made sense. All done by a bunch of young, beer drinking football fans. Not bad at all!"
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