TIAMAT - Clouds Digi-CD

Remastered re-release includes “The Sleeping Beauty – Live in Israel” mini-album (1994),
recorded live in Tel Aviv, Israel in June 3rd 1993.
Limited Edition Deluxe 24-kt Gold Translucent CD, housed in luxury Digibook with
selective varnish and silver foil stamping.

The first few albums from this Swedish act were decent slabs of death and doom, but Clouds is the true turning point in their career; where it became clear they were destined for so much more. It may not have the psychedelic, crushing weight of its successor Wildhoney nor the abstract brilliance of A Deeper Kind of Slumber, but in its day, Clouds was a pretty monumental effort.

This was pretty classic material, it possessed a lot more ambition than Sumerian Cry or The Astral Sleep and I was quite taken with it. I still am. I've always been a Tiamat fan, even in their more openly gothic phase way ahead of this, but it's the trio of Clouds, Wildhoney and A Deeper Kind of Slumber that the band will always be legendary for. Easily recommended to fans of gothic death/doom or unique and quality metal in general. And if you're named for a draconic Babylonian sea goddess, you've got quite the legend to live up to.