Tiamat is a metal band that formed in Täby, Sweden in 1988. Their music has… Read Full Bio ↴Tiamat is a metal band that formed in Täby, Sweden in 1988. Their music has been the subject of debate, utilizing subgenres like death metal, doom metal, progressive and gothic, but more recently they have focused on what has been described as atmospheric gothic metal with ethnic, psychedelic and experimental elements.

Biography:
Initially, the band played straightforward black metal under the name Treblinka. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat. The Sumerian Cry album, as recorded by Treblinka, was released as Tiamat's debut album in June 1990.

After the debut, Edlund's leadership would modify the band's style with influences ranging from Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, with Sumerian lyrical themes. German guitarist Waldemar Sorychta would produce and contribute instrumentation to many of the band's albums, as well as those by Tiamat's own tour and labelmates, including Moonspell, Rotting Christ, Lacuna Coil and Samael.

1994's critically acclaimed Wildhoney mixed raw vocals, slow guitar riffs and synthesizer sounds which sounded different from other extreme metal bands active at that time. An almost continuous forty-minute piece of music, Wildhoney was considered to be a landmark release within the progressive/doom metal genres and would lead to the band's appearances at the Dynamo and Wacken Open Air metal festivals in 1995. The group would play a second gig at Dynamo two years later.

Upon the release of A Deeper Kind of Slumber (1997), Edlund relocated from Sweden to Germany and declared himself the only permanent member of the band; all albums that would follow would cement the band into a more gothic rock sound, quite different from the extreme music they did in the years before, with recent albums showing a The Sisters of Mercy influence.

The band signed to Nuclear Blast Records in June 2007. Tiamat released their new album Amanethes April 18, 2008.

Lineup:
Johan Edlund - vocals, guitar (Treblinka, Expulsion, LucyFire, Dark Age, Ayreon)
Anders Iwers - bass (Desecrator, Ceremonial Oath, In Flames, Cemetary, Mercury Tide)
Lars Skjöld - drums (Jupiter Society)
Thomas Wyreson - guitar
Former members:
Andreas Holmberg - drums (Expulsion)
Stefan Lagergren - guitar (River's Edge, Expulsion, Mr Death, Treblinka, Judge And Jury, Tranquility)
Jörgen Thullberg - bass (Expulsion, Mr Death, Treblinka)
Niklas Ekstrand - drums (Face Down)
Kenneth Roos - keyboards
Johnny Hagel - bass (Sundown, Sorcerer)
Magnus Sahlgren - guitar (Celeborn, Dismember, Lake of Tears)
P.A. Danielsson - keyboards (Veni Domine)
Thomas Petersson - guitar
Fredrik Ĺkesson - guitar (Southpaw, Talisman, Krux, John Norum, Arch Enemy, Sabbtail, Opeth, Shock Tilt)

www.churchoftiamat.com

The Desolate One
Tiamat Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

By a pool
Of amber water
A sticky smell
Of carrion kind
Integrates with nature slowly
Green fields I offer you
Snowy mountains in present air
The sunflower tongue

On a wave comes the saturn king

To grant the man on the beach
Surfing on his orbital rings
A frightened mental vortex we'll be
A sun we seek, a sun we flee
A scar
Upon mother earth
A nebular each
The desolate one

The desolate one
The desolate one

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Tiamat's "The Desolate One" are open to interpretation, but they seem to depict a desolate and bleak world. The opening lines describe a pool of amber water with a smell of carrion, which suggests death and decay. The next lines describe how nature slowly integrates for the green fields and snowy mountains, contrasting with the earlier image of the decaying pool. The line "on a wave comes the saturn king" could be interpreted as a metaphor for a powerful force invading or taking over the world.

The next section of the song describes a man surfing on his orbital rings, seeking a sun while fleeing from one. This image of a man seeking something that he both wants and fears could be interpreted as a metaphor for the human condition. The lines "a scar upon mother earth, a nebular each" could be interpreted as further commentary on the state of the world, suggesting that it has been scarred and damaged. The final repetition of "the desolate one" emphasizes the bleakness of the world being portrayed.

Line by Line Meaning

By a pool
Near a body of water

Of amber water
The water is colored amber

A sticky smell
A pungent odor

Of carrion kind
Similar to the smell of rotting flesh

Integrates with nature slowly
Becomes a natural part of the environment over time

Green fields I offer you
I present to you verdant fields

Snowy mountains in present air
Mountains covered in snow in the current atmosphere

The sunflower tongue
A symbolic reference to language or speech

On a wave comes the saturn king
The god Saturn arrives on a wave

To grant the man on the beach
To give a gift to a man on the shore

Surfing on his orbital rings
The man is moving through space on orbiting devices