''The Astral Sleep'' is the second studio album from
Tiamat. It marks their debut on longtime label,
Century Media Records
Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million.
Background
Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Oli ...
. This album was reissued in 2006 with two tracks from ''A Winter Shadow'' single, released in 1990.
Musically, this album blends the
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
style of Tiamat's debut album with
gothic metal
Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...
elements. Lyrically, this album features a mixture of
Satanism
Satanism is a group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 1966, although a few hi ...
with introspective and esoteric themes.
Track listing
Notes
*Bonus tracks are taken from the "A Winter Shadow" EP (1990 CBR Records).
*In the lyric sheet, track 4 is titled "Dead Boys' Choir" and track 10 - "I Am the King (...of Dreams)".
Personnel
*
Johan Edlund – vocals, keyboards, & rhythm guitar
*Thomas Petersson – lead guitar & acoustic guitar
*Jörgen Thullberg – bass guitar
*Niklas Ekstrand – drums
All keyboards on this album by Jonas Malmsten.
Additional guitar solo on "Ancient Entity" by Waldemar Sorychta.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astral Sleep
Astral Sleep, The
Tiamat (band) albums
Albums with cover art by Kristian Wåhlin
Albums produced by Waldemar Sorychta