''Wildhoney'' is the fourth studio album from Swedish music group

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( akk, or , grc, Θαλάττη, Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creati ...

. The album was produced by

Waldemar Sorychta Waldemar Sorychta (born 1967) is a Polish heavy metal record producer and musician who has lived in Germany since 1982. Career He initially worked with German thrash metal band Despair, founded in 1986. In 1994 he took part in the recording ...

and released by

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

records in 1994. Vocalist

Johan Edlund Johan * Johan (given name) * ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada * Jo-Han, a manu ...

and John Hagel were the only two remaining members of Tiamat who were still with the group after their previous album ''

Clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...

'' in 1992. The album was marked a strong change in the style of Tiamat's music with more

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

and

psychedelic music Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline, and cannabis to ...

-influenced music and a less

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 ...

-oriented style. The music on the album deals with the occult, nature, and LSD. The album was released on September 1, 1994 and was one of the highest-selling records for Century Media on its release. AllMusic praised the album, referring to it as "one of the classics of the genre".

Production

Tiamat vocalist

was unhappy with the recording of the album ''

'', stating that it "definitely didn't turn out the way I wanted it to".Ekeroth, 2008. p.212 After the release of their 1994 tour EP, ''

The Sleeping Beauty (Live in Israel) Tiamat is a Swedish metal band that formed in Stockholm in 1987 and led by Johan Edlund. The band went through a number of stylistic changes, usually leaning toward gothic metal. History Initially, the band had the name Treblinka and a style o ...

'', Edlund fired all members of Tiamat except for John Hagel. In 1994, Tiamat began working on an album that would become ''Wildhoney'' with session musicians

Magnus Sahlgren Magnus Sahlgren (born 1 January 1973) is a Sweden, Swedish computational linguistics, computational linguist and guitarist. Academic career Magnus Sahlgren is known for his work on Random indexing applied to distributional semantics published thro ...

Lars Sköld Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was born ...

and

, who acted as a keyboardist and producer. Edlund later stated that on ''Wildhoney'' that he "really did what I wanted to do on ''Clouds''". The

bird songs Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

on the album were from a sound effects album Edlund had. The album was recorded at

Woodhouse Studio Woodhouse may refer to: People *Woodhouse (surname) Places * Woodhouse, Alberta, Canada * Woodhouse, Bradford, a location in West Yorkshire, England * Woodhouse, Calderdale, a location in West Yorkshire, England * Woodhouse, Copeland, a loca ...

Style

''Wildhoney'' was a move away from the

sound that was previously heard on their last album ''Clouds''. ''Wildhoney'' has been described as their first album where the "psychedelic/progressive influences were more widespread". Edlund looked back on the album later, stating that he was "just a very young guy howanted to sound like his favorite band, Pink Floyd". In 2007, Edlund stated that the themes of the album revolved around the

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

("The Ar"), nature ("Gaia"),

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

("A Pocket Size Sun") and satanism ("Visionaire"). Regarding the somewhat controversial lyrics on "The Ar", including the mention of "the sign of the Aryan race" therein, Edlund have stated that: "The symbol was called like this by the people who lived some 5000 years ago in the place now called Iraq. I didn't want to censor myself, because I knew that this could be understood wrongly, now, in this century, but I thought that's not what I'm writing about, so even if people get it wrong, I'd better explain it and stand for it".

Release

''Wildhoney'' was released on September 1, 1994 by

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 ...

. ''Wildhoney'' was a very successful album for Century Media.Wagner, 2010. p.233 The album sold better than the previous best sellers on the label;

Grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

and

Unleashed Unleashed may refer to: Art and entertainment Film and television * ''Unleashed'' (2001 film), a film featuring Jeff Anderson * ''Unleashed'' (2005 film), a 2005 martial arts film starring Jet Li * ''Unleashed'' (2016 film), a film starring ...

. The album was re-released to include the ''Gaia'' EP with it in 2001 by Century Media.

Reception

Online music database

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album a rating of four and a half stars out of five, stating that the album "elevated the group's combination of lingering death metal roots and ambient soundscapes to unparalleled heights of invention". AllMusic gave five stars to the reissue that included the ''Gaia'' EP, referring to the album as "one of the classics of the genre".

Track listing

All songs written by Johan Edlund except where noted.

Personnel

Per the liner notes. *

– vocals, rhythm guitar * John Hagel – bass *

– session lead guitar * Lars Sköld – session drums *

– keyboards, production, engineering * Birgit Zacher – additional vocals * Siggi Bemm – audio engineer * Carsten Drescher – layout * Johan Edlund – photography * Kristian Whalin – cover art and inlay paintings * DMS - mastering

Notes

References * * {{Authority control 1994 albums Albums with cover art by Kristian Wåhlin Tiamat (band) albums Century Media Records albums Albums produced by Waldemar Sorychta