TIAMAT JUDAS CHRIST ALBUM CENTURY MEDIA RELEASE: FEBRUARY 18, 2002 REVIEW: JANUARY 21, 2002

At last, Tiamat have found themselves. I have been with the band since the death metal record "The Astral Sleep" in 1991, through the brilliant "Wildhoney", psychedelic goth/synth masterpiece "A Deeper Kind of Slumber" to the shaky "Skeleton Skeletron" - all good albums, but always with some flaw.
Now, at last, Tiamat have condensed down all their experiences from the previous records into one, almost perfect, piece of harder goth rock.
From the heavy masterpiece "The Return of the Son of Nothing", to the Sisters of Mercy-sounding "Vote for Love" and "Wildhoney"-echoing "Fireflower/Sumer by Night", this is as good as it gets, without actually becoming Fields of the Nephilim, Sisters or Pink Floyd.
Some may, and will, say that Tiamat deliberately have made a record that is as close to the mainstream as it can be, just to sell more. Maybe so, but I don't think that is the case. "Judas Christ" simply is the album the Swedes, with Johan Edlund as pointman, always has had in them, but couldn't make until now. It contains all the influences Edlund always has spoken of (the three mentioned above), but modelled into something completely of their own. The guitars are heavy or dreamy, the choruses sometimes very catchy, and the lyrics dark, but with a brighter touch than usual. I can't promise that this record will last for ten years, but it will definitely last all the way through the party, right into the hangover and beyond. This is heavy goth-rock, maybe with echoes from the past, but with the sights set on the dark night ahead and with fists pumping in the air.
Cowboy hats off for Edlund and company.

KALLE MALMSTEDT