Tiamat

Sweden's Tiamat are to be considered among the pioneers of death metal and gothic metal. After their debut LP "Sumerian Cry" (1990), their sound evolved to include more classic influences, from Mercyful Fate to Candlemass, from Moonspell to psychedelic and prog-inspired acts such as Pink Floyd and King Crimson. A path marked by highly creative experimentation ranging from electronics to psychedelia, by way of doom and atmospheric pop/rock.

In 1997, close on the heels of the electronic experimentation of their fifth album, "A Deeper Kind Of Slumber" (released in 1997, the same year they headlined the Dynamo Open Air in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in front of over 70,000 people), singer Johan Edlund moved to Germany and announced he was the band's only permanent member. All subsequent work leaned toward more gothic sounds, culminating in the apotheosis of "The Scarred People" (2012).

Their masterpiece, and a milestone of the entire gothic metal genre, nonetheless remains "Wildhoney" from 1994, in which dark-tinged obscure sounds merge with Floydian touches and atmospheres close to dream-pop.