[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tiamat_4345.jpg]]

Tiamat is a Swedish metal band, considered one of the pioneers of both GothicMetal and ProgressiveDeathMetal.

Formed in 1988 as Treblinka, they changed their name to Tiamat in 1989 and released their debut album, ''Sumerian Cry'', in 1990. After the release of this album (which was straight-up DeathMetal), frontman Johan Edlund gradually changed the band's style, adding influences from Music/MercyfulFate, Music/{{Candlemass}}, Music/PinkFloyd and Music/KingCrimson, eventually culminating in ''Wildhoney'', which was universally acclaimed for its mix of ProgressiveRock and extreme metal (signalling the birth of a [[ProgressiveDeathMetal new subgenre]] pioneered by bands like Music/{{Opeth}}).

After the release of ''A Deeper Kind of Slumber'', 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 Music/TheSistersOfMercy influence.
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!! Discography:
* ''Sumerian Cry'' - 1990
* ''The Astral Sleep'' - 1991
* ''Clouds'' - 1992
* ''Wildhoney'' - 1994
* ''A Deeper Kind of Slumber'' - 1997
* ''Skeleton Skeletron'' - 1999
* ''Judas Christ'' - 2002
* ''Prey'' - 2003
* ''Amanethes'' - 2008
* ''The Scarred People'' - 2012

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!!Associated Tropes:

* Creator/AleisterCrowley: "The Pentagram"'s lyrics were lifted from Crowley's poem of the same name.
* {{Bookends}}: ''Wildhoney'' opens with lyrics about jimsonweed and psilocybin mushrooms and ends with lyrics about LSD, just in case anyone was curious if the band had any chemical inspirations when writing the music. (For those unfamiliar, all three can be used as hallucinogens.)
* BungledSuicide: Played for very dark laughs in "So Much For Suicide"
-->So much for suicide - lots of talk but you never tried\\
A few pills short of a straight line - waking up, still feeling fine
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: They all have their quirks, but Johan Edlund stands out a bit more in this case. Case in point: when he composed a song for Music/{{Ayreon}}, he sent it to Arjen Lucassen by humming the melody into his phone, while the answering machine was recording the message. He also claims to have jumped out a two story window, while being high on mushrooms and says that it was the happiest moment of his life (because the window wasn't so high up and he was relieved he didn't die).
* CoverVersion: "Sympathy for the Devil" by Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, "Sleeping (in the Fire)" by Music/WASPBand, "Born to Die" by Music/LanaDelRey.
* CreepyChildrenSinging: At the end of "Equinox of the Gods".
* DeathMetal: Early material.
** BlackMetal: ''Very'' early material (when the band name was ''Treblinka'').
* EpicRocking: "A Pocket Sized Sun", "Undressed", "Mount Marilyn", "The Pentagram". The entire ''Wildhoney'' album could count as well, seeing as it's pretty much one continuous piece of music, with the only break being in-between the songs "Gaia" and "Visionaire".
* FadingIntoTheNextSong: used a lot in ''Wildhoney'' and somewhat in ''Amanethes''.
* GaiasLament[=/=]GaiasVengeance: "Gaia" - it's right there in the title. Also qualifies as a GreenAesop, obviously.
* GenreBusting: Most of their post-''Wildhoney'' music is hard to categorize. Has bits of pretty much everything. ''Wildhoney'', for that matter, was fairly unique when it came out, though it helped kickstart the then-nascent genre of ProgressiveDeathMetal, but it's not even strictly that; it's got elements of GothicMetal and DoomMetal as well, for starters, not to mention PsychedelicRock, SpaceRock, {{Ambient}}, and several other genres.
* GenreShift: Death metal to progressive metal to gothic metal/rock.
* GothicMetal: Later material.
* GratuitousPanning: The stereo separation on ''Wildhoney'' is pretty trippy at times.
* IAmTheBand: Johan Edlund has been the only constant member of Tiamat.
* LighterAndSofter: ''Judas Christ'', much to some fans' dismay.
* LongestSongGoesLast:
** ''Clouds'' closes with "Undressed" (7:10).
** ''Wildhoney'' closes with "A Pocket Size Sun" (8:04)
** ''Prey'' closes with "The Pentagram" (7:20).
* LoveIsLikeReligion: "Wings Of Heaven".
-->The wings of heaven are descending\\
The touch of her naked skin's amending\\
The skies will collide\\
Only for a little while\\
And it will take us through the night
* MrFanservice: Depending on one's tastes, Johan was quite the sex symbol in the band's early days (the fact that he often performed [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] helped...). [[https://i.imgur.com/Jx5u84d.jpg Photographic evidence]].
* MushroomSamba: A lot of their lyrics are about this.
** "Teonanacatl". The song's name means "Flesh of the Gods" and is what the Aztecs called hallucinogenic mushrooms.
** "Whatever That Hurts" mentions psilocybin mushrooms and jimsonweed.
** "A Pocket Size Sun" is about an LSD trip.
* MustHaveCaffeine: Johan Edlund, according to some interviews.
* NonAppearingTitle: So prevalent in their music that it would be easier to list the songs in which there IS a TitleDrop.
* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Wings Of Heaven" mixes LoveIsLikeReligion and IntercourseWithYou with a bit of this:
-->I'll be your master and I'll be your slave
* ProgressiveMetal: Mainly ''Wildhoney'', but it's still there on the other albums (excluding ''Sumerian Cry'', which is straight-up old-school death metal).
** ProgressiveDeathMetal: Once again, mainly ''Wildhoney''. One of the first bands to mix prog rock and death metal.
* ShirtlessScene: Johan. He often performs on live concerts this way.
* SiameseTwinSongs: While all of ''Wildhoney'' uses FadingIntoTheNextSong (apart from the break between album sides), the transition between "Whatever That Hurts" and "The Ar" is subtle enough that if you weren't listening for it, you probably wouldn't even notice they were separate songs.
* SopranoAndGravel: Occasionally. "Brighter Than the Sun" is a good example, as is "Carry Your Cross..." ''Wildhoney'' has vocals that are about half sung and half screamed, though some are also in a strange mixture of screaming and singing (most of the vocals for "Visionaire" fall into this category). On the whole, more of the second side of the LP is more sung and more of the first side is screamed, but it's not 100% on either side.
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: For a band known as a death metal band at the time, ''Wildhoney'' likely came as a surprise, as about half of it is ProgressiveRock without any screaming or guitar distortion. This hasn't stopped the album from receiving a uniformly rapturous reception among audiences; it's the one album that fans of the band's old and new material can agree upon. This trope became less applicable to their later material, as these kinds of songs became more typical of the band's style.
* SurrealMusicVideo: Most of them fall under this category.
* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Some songs (''Prey'' is a good example) are quite simple in structure.
* TickTockTune: The beginning of the song ''Prey''.
* WatchItStoned: Most, if not all, of the band's output was heavily influenced by drugs.
* WordSaladLyrics: "Phantasma de Luxe" and "Mount Marilyn" are particularly notable examples.
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