SilentScream213 An album that leaves me with very mixed feelings. Halfway innovative masterpiece, halfway boring directionless filler. Wildhoney is considered to be Tiamat’s best release, as well as the one where they found their signature Gothic sound. It’s aesthetically unique and many steps ahead of the game, leaving a lasting impression on the Gothic Metal world. But can it back up that legacy?

Calling Wildhoney “Gothic Metal” is only correct because it’s the closest thing to a unifying sound found here. Less than half the runtime is Metal – the rest is a mix of Ambient, Darkwave, Rock, and Psychedelia. And therein lies the verdict. You see, the Metal here is great – particularly the doomier stuff, like Visionare. This track mixes some crushing Death Doom melancholia with the prettier and more ethereal Gothic Metal pretty much invented on this album. A great track, and the other Metal tracks aren’t far behind.

The weakness lies in everything else. Nothing against those other genres of music, but none of the songs are done particularly well. The album doesn’t sound like a super creative mix of many styles; rather, it sounds like a few great Gothic Metal tracks and then a bunch of filler stuff that was easy to put together to fill out the runtime. None of the ambient or darkwave stuff is memorable, and the last track which is an odd combo of Psychedelic Rock, Ethereal Wave and Folk doesn’t have nearly enough going on to justify an over 8-minute runtime. This album was an important piece of art in Metal history, but offers much less than its legacy might imply.

UMUR "Wildhoney" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish death/doom/goth metal act Tiamat. The album was released through Century Media Records in September 1994. It´s the successor to "Clouds" from 1992 and features quite a few lineup changes since the predecessor. Although Tiamat experienced a fair bit of success with "Clouds (1992)", lead vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund wasn´t completely satisfied with the way the album turned out and after touring in support of the album, Edlund fired all members of the band except bassist Johnny Hagel. "Wildhoney" was therefore recorded by the duo of Johan Edlund (guitars, vocals) and Johnny Hagel (bass), with the help from sessions musicians Magnus Sahlgren (lead guitars), Lars Sköld (drums), Waldemar Sorychta (keyboards, also credited as engineer and producer on the album), and Birgit Zacher (additional vocals).

Stylistically Tiamat have changed their musical direction quite a bit compared to their early output. "Clouds (1992)" still featured a few (very few) death metal elements, but predominantly featured a melodic tinged heavy/doom metal style with gothic metal leanings, but "Wildhoney" is an almost entirely different sounding beast. Other than a couple of heavy riffs and some raw shouting vocal parts, "Wildhoney" isn´t a very heavy album. In fact much of the album feautures an ambient (sometimes almost spiritual), dark, psychadelic and mellow music style. Acoustic/clean guitars, atmospheric keyboards, male clean singing/talking, occasional female vocals, and some nicely energetic and creative drumming.

Artists like Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Mike Oldfield are valid references at various points during the playing time. As mentioned it´s still occasionally pretty heavy music with distorted riffs and harsh shouting vocals, but just as often the listener is transported to a much more mellow and psychadelic tinged place. I´m not going to mention highlights, because the strength of "Wildhoney" is more the overall flow of the album and the dynamic of the heavy and the mellow tracks, which compliment each other perfectly.

While Edlund isn´t the most skilled nor the most interesting vocalist on the scene, he makes it work well here with what he has got. The instrumental performances are high class on all posts, and "Wildhoney" also features a dark, organic, and very well sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. So upon conclusion it´s a high quality album, which upon initial release was considered quite adventurous. In terms of being relevant today, I think the album has aged pretty well, and to my ears it´s one of those timeless releases which works as well today as it did back then. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Warthur Tiamat's Wildhoney finds the band still with one foot in the gothic metal arena, but also moving towards the Floydian gothic rock which would characterise subsequent releases; the followup album A Deeper Kind of Slumber, in particular, seem so to have been constructed to further explore the possibilities unlocked on this album's closing track (A Pocket Size Sun). Still, I'd rate this over most of the other Tiamat I've heard precisely because of the diversity involved in the album and the adeptness with which they fuse their old and new musical approaches into a seamless whole which flows marvellously. I'd suggest anyone new to the band should start here and then start exploring earlier albums if you prefer their metal side and their later albums if you prefer their space-goth side.