Tiamat - "Wildhoney" [1994]

Artist: Tiamat

Title: Wildhoney

Genre: Gothic/Doom Metal, Industrial/Psychedelic Rock

Country: Sweden
Year: 1994

Track List:

1. Wildhoney
2. Whatever That Hurts
3. The Ar
4. 25th Floor
5. Gaia
6. Visionaire
7. Kaleidoscope
8. Do You Dream of Me?
9. Planets
10. A Pocket Size Sun
    

Finally, we got to the key album that sparked my whole interest in experimental metal. "Wildhoney" caused a lot of stir when it was released since it was too different from the earlier releases by Tiamat, marking the shift in their style from death/doom metal to industrial rock and Pink Floyd-influenced psychedelic/progressive rock. However, unlike the subsequent "A Deeper Kind of Slumber", "Wildhoney" has enough "heavy" moments to be considered a metal release.

Now, after the dust has settled, I admit that "Wildhoney" isn't as much of a masterpice as I one thought it to be. "A Deeper Kind of Slumber" is more interesting album (despite being not metal at all); that said, I love all albums by Tiamat, even their objectively sub-par death metal debut "Sumerian Cry". The first half of "Wildhoney" is unquestionably great - all 3 songs that aren't interludes ("Whatever That Hurts", "The Ar" and "Gaia") are among my all-time favourites, and the interludes fit in quite well too. The second half, however, would be better without the long and weird closing track. "Do You Dream On Me" is an acoustic ballad which is far from any metal; however, it still sounds good, and Tiamat already had one more ballad of this type on "The Astral Sleep" (1991), which was also one of the best tracks on the whole album. Overall, it's the album that completely blew my mind at the time when I first heard it, but it doesn't have quite the same effect on me after years of listening to many metal and avant-garde music albums (including other albums by Tiamat). Still, Johan Edlund is a genius, and "Wildhoney" has a great historical value: