Tiamat - The Sleeping Beauty: Live in Israel (1994)^{Release ID: 876}

Having kept a distance away from Tiamat for over a couple years, I decided it was time to get back in touch with this band's material, starting with their live EP The Sleeping Beauty. The show was recorded 30 years before this review in Israel, the one country I'm forbidden from entering. The recording is raw with no overdubs or mixing, resulting in lo-fi production that still sounds nice and clear.

The EP is overlooked and underrated, and fans of the band's earlier material should give it a listen. The 5 songs are from the albums The Astral Sleep and Clouds. Maybe someday I can check out the band's live rendition of the Wildhoney album, but for now, let's look back at those good ol' death-doom days...

Opening the show is Clouds' first track "In a Dream", starting with crushing slowness before speeding up in the riffing and soloing. Some nice synth-keys segue into "Ancient Entity" from The Astral Sleep, which is quite awesome and straight. Midway through is a cool breakdown.

The title track of this release, "The Sleeping Beauty" continues the eerie slowness of Clouds. A nice atmosphere is added from the leads. "Mountain of Doom" reigns as the best highlight here. The cool intro leads to killer riffing. There's even a speedy solo later on in the song. "Angels Far Beyond" is a solid finale for the show, with great riffing in the middle. Afterwards, there are two minutes of silence before a mysterious synth outro that sounds like it can be the intro for My Dying Bride's "The Cry of Mankind".

The Sleeping Beauty: Live in Israel is a great recommendation for fans of early Tiamat. It's definitely worth picking up for those fans. As much as I like this release though, there are other bands to look out for with that kind of beauty....

Favorites (one per album): "The Sleeping Beauty", "Mountain of Doom"