Tiamat

In 1987, Tiamat was formed in Täby, Sweden as Treblinka. Treblinka released two demo tapes, "Crawling in Vomits" and "The Sign of the Pentagram", before changing their name and releasing the 1990 debut full-length Sumerian Cry.

Tiamat was originally a black metal band in the vein of other early 90's innovators like Samael and Mayhem, but influenced by the likes of Mercyful Fate and Candlemass they gradually dropped their extreme metal stylings in favour of a psychedelic/progressive heavy/doom metal sound in the mid 90's.

The very Pink Floyd inspired, though within metal then quite innovative, use of keyboards and acoustic guitars, peaked with their 1997 A Deeper Kind of Slumber, now nearly completely lacking any semblance of metal. After this, the band changed to a gothic rock/metal style that their last 3 albums have stuck fairly close to.

Their commercial "break-through" and most well-known album is 1994's Wildhoney, an album that made Tiamat one of the most popular European metal bands, and that is arguably the best representation of Tiamat's overall sound, containing both the death metal-esque vocal stylings of old and the newer psychedelic/goth rock-influenced sound.

Current Lineup:
Johan Edlund - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Theremin
Thomas Wyreson - Guitar
Anders Iwers - Bass
Lars Sköld - Drums

Trivia:
Edlund also fronts Lucyfire, a side project with a similar direction to recent Tiamat.
Anders Iwers is the brother of current In Flames bassist Peter Iwers.
Toby Driver, former member of maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot, spoke about Tiamat as one of his most important musical influences.
Moonspell singer Fernando Ribeiro mentioned Tiamat several times in interviews as one of their major influences.