Wildhoney is the critically acclaimed 1994 album by Tiamat

Tiamat (band)

-Biography:Initially, the band played straightforward black metal under the name Treblinka. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat...

. Released after their worldwide tour with Entombed

Entombed (band)

Entombed is a Swedish death metal band which formed in 1987 under the name of Nihilist. Though Entombed began their career as an early pioneer of Scandinavian death metal which initially differed itself from its American counterpart with its distinct guitar tone, by the early 1990s their sound had...

 and Unleashed

Unleashed (band)

Unleashed is a Swedish death metal band that was formed in 1989 by Johnny Hedlund. Viking culture, recollection of a pre-Christian world, and Norse folklore are common themes found in the band's songs. A number of their recent songs also contain references to J. R. R. Tolkien.-Biography:Unleashed...

, the record made the band one of the first (along with Opeth

Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...

) to progress beyond genre lines in the renowned Swedish death metal scene.

Stylistically, the album owes a lot to psychedelic

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 and progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

; Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

 and King Crimson

King Crimson

King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...

 have been cited by band members as a particular influence on the album. Several tracks make references to hallucinogenic drugs (Jimsonweed and psilocybe mushrooms

Psilocybe

Psilocybe is a genus of small mushrooms growing worldwide. This genus is best known for its species with psychedelic or hallucinogenic properties, widely known as "magic mushrooms", though the majority of species do not contain hallucinogenic compounds...

 are explicitly mentioned http://www.straechav.com/noise/index.php?n=Reviews.Tiamat-Wildhoney), and the entire album has a transcendent, otherworldly quality, which is enhanced by the fact that the entire album, with the exception of a brief gap in between tracks five and six, is seamless. There are several sections of the album that barely even qualify as traditional metal at all, with four tracks ("Wildhoney", "25th Floor," "Kaleidoscope" and "Planets") being instrumentals (although the title track features printed lyrics in the liner notes, they are actually part of the lyrics to the following track, "Whatever That Hurts") and an additional two ("Do You Dream of Me" and "A Pocket Size Sun") containing no growled vocals. As such, Wildhoney is often cited as a strong introduction to death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 for fans of progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 and vice versa.

Johan Edlund

Johan Edlund

Johan Edlund is a Swedish singer, guitarist and keyboardist who is the leader of the bands Tiamat and Lucyfire. He has also done remixes for some of Rammstein's and London After Midnight's songs. He was also a guest singer in the Dutch progressive metal project, Ayreon...

speaks briefly of the themes in Wildhoney, in the liner notes of the 2007 Remaster of Wildhoney:

"Everything has been said about the songs by now, but what I'm personally most pleased with is the variety they show. Kind of like ABBA... They had a song about money, about being on stage, one about Waterloo, one about Fernando etc... We also picked different topics for each song... The pentagram (The Ar), nature (Gaia), LSD (A Pocket Size Sun), Satanism (Visionaire)... Still we managed - with great help from Waldemar, Siggi Bemm and some of my sound effects CDs with birdsongs - to tie it all together in a way that totally made sense. All done by a bunch of young, beer drinking football fans. Not bad at all!"

Track listing

1. "Wildhoney" – 0:52 (Johan Edlund, John Hagel)
2. "Whatever That Hurts" – 5:47 (Edlund)
3. "The Ar" – 5:03 (Edlund, Hagel, Waldemar Sorychta)
4. "25th Floor" – 1:49 (Edlund, Sorychta)
5. "Gaia" – 6:26 (Edlund, Hagel)
6. "Visionaire" – 4:19 (Edlund, Thomas Petersson)
7. "Kaleidoscope" – 1:19 (Edlund)
8. "Do You Dream of Me?" – 5:07 (Edlund, Sorychta)
9. "Planets" – 3:11 (Edlund, Magnus Sahlgren)
10. "A Pocket Size Sun" – 8:03 (Edlund)

Tiamat

• Johan Edlund: Vocals, Rhythm & Lead Guitar
• Magnus Sahlgren: Lead Guitar (recording session only)
• John Hagel: Bass
• Lars Sköld: Drums, Percussion

Production

• Produced By Waldemar Sorychta
• Engineered By Siggi Bemm & Waldemar Sorychta
• Mastered By DMS (aka Klaus Pauliks)