When I first heard of the Church of Tiamat, I was immediately intrigued. As a mythology buff, I know the story of Tiamat, the dragon goddess of ancient Sumerian folklore. She is not often mentioned in modern popular culture, so I was anxious to hear a Metal band named after her. Unfortunately, instead of a dragon, I discovered a gecko!
The Church of Tiamat plays bland, uninspiring music with little of the dynamic energy normally assoicated with modern Swedish Metal. In fact, their style is more like 80s Pop/Rock.
The lead singer, Johan Edlund, has a limited vocal range, too deep for Metal, although to his credit, he sings in perfect English. The guitar work and the drums follow the same pattern, song by song, with virtually no originality. The band tries to pass itself off as a dark, scary, sinister band, but their style is too mellow.
Filmed in Krakow, Poland in January 2005, the poor editing quality of this DVD is disappointing, and the lighting is too dark. The disc comes with bonus footage, but that is not enough to change my opinion of the boring stage performance or the boring music.
The Church of Tiamat is nothing more than a Pop band trying to pass itself off as a Heavy Metal force to be reckoned with. Instead they are more like retro band that should be wearing Spandex instead of leather. They are nothing like the goddess they are named for.
Reviewed by Melissa Plamer on November 29th, 2006
