Tiamat

Many times TIAMAT mainman Johan Edlund has been described as a chameleon, a musical genius of many faces " a man who never finds rest, always driven by new challenges that end up in the face of his audience through the music he creates. In short: An irritating artist (as far as the mainstream is concerned) who steadfastly refuses to follow the predictable logic of the music business. Now, almost 10 years after the groundbreaking album Wildhoney, which single-handedly turned TIAMAT into a brand name, it's time to delve into the myths surrounding this person. Let's start with a fact: Nothing about Prey sounds like Wildhoney. Even Edlund's vocals have acquired a stylistic variation and self-confidence that " at least in this respect -- allow for the ongoing use of the picture of a chameleon. This album continues where TIAMAT left us with Judas Christ. You may still call the style Gothic Rock, although one moniker will never be enough to do justice to the complexity you find on any TIAMAT album: not on Judas Christ, nor on its predecessor Skeleton Skeletron, and not on Prey. Still, this line of ancestors should make one thing perfectly clear: Prey is not "irritating" or stepping on anybody's toes. It has been many years since Johan Edlund went out into the jungle of potentially great music to reflect his personality. He has found his songs, he's cultivating them, pushing them towards perfection. Prey takes us onto an adventurous ride into his garden of sounds " showing the many faces of his personality in fascinating detail. TIAMAT are no longer questioning the musical process; they have spent the last few years in refining the art of turning emotions, moods and thoughts into songs. By doing this, they always present another mosaic of the inner life of Johan Edlund. Prey is displaying the rifts, the ambivalence inside this man stronger than all predecessors. Edlund himself describes the album as most likely his most personal one. Always melodic, filigree when the tender sides of the romantic Edlund vibrate, then heavy and majestic when his eternal broodings about good and evil are articulating themselves in songs like "Cain", the first single which was released before the album. Prey is a straight dance into the abyss as well as manifestation of pure sensuality, both warm and welcoming. And, most importantly, despite all its introspective moments never an unwieldy, egocentric monster of an album, but an aesthetical, brilliantly structured masterpiece full of wonderful songs. Johan searches for the mastery of the true composer, the one that transcribes his life into music without thus describing a life of transcriptions -- and on Prey he admirably succeeds. And thus he is anything but a chameleon, someone who is blending in with his environment, but an artist who is revealing more about himself to his audience at large than other people ever will to their immediate surroundings. Many elements on Prey seem to contradict themselves, but that's what makes the album such a vivid experience: There are any grand biblical references throughout the album, but the one he searched authorisation for is "The Pentagram", based on a poem by renowned Satanist Aleister Crowley, and approved by the Ordo Templi Orientes. The delicate "Carry Your Cross And I'll Carry Mine" sounds seducing with its almost erotic, suggestive melody, but talks about the spirit of pure egoism. Musically the whole CD exudes a positive vibe, but especially towards the end the lyrics offer nothing but growing darkness. Prey doesn't shock you, Prey is fascinating through the richness of its musical ways of expression, the manifold emotions it carries, the intimate closeness it allows with one of the most interesting artists ever to come out of the metal-underground. So in the end there is only one expression I want to keep from the introductory description: Johan Edlund is a musical genius. (Original by Robert Müller, August 2003, translated into English)