Sweden's Tiamat displayed an incredible learning curve in the year after their debut, resulting in 1991's excellent The Astral Sleep.
Short synthesizer instrumentals ("Neon Aeon" and "The Seal") open and close the album, setting the stage for the band's new ability to incorporate background keyboard textures (often resembling angelic choirs) to even their most aggressive death metal.
Vocalist Johan Edlund has already begun transforming his grunt into a raspy growl (actual singing would follow), and his songwriting is original and diversified on standouts like "Mountain of Doom," "Lady Temptress," and the multifaceted "A Winter Shadow." Acoustic guitar precipitates the otherwise furious "On Golden Wings" and "The Southernmost Voyage" (another highlight) and the band finally thrashes out a bit on "Ancient Entity" and "I Am the King (Of Dreams).".
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lady TemptressJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 03:44 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Mountain of DoomJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 04:36 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Dead Boys' ChoirJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 01:53 | 4 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | On Golden WingsJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Niklas Ekstrand, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 04:58 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Ancient EntityJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund | Tiamat | Play | 05:53 | 13 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | The Southernmost VoyageJohan Edlund, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 03:12 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Angels Far BeyondJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund | Tiamat | Play | 04:42 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | I Am the King (...Of Dreams)Johan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Niklas Ekstrand | Tiamat | Play | 04:34 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | A Winter ShadowJohan Edlund, Petersson Edlund, Thomas Petersson | Tiamat | Play | 05:23 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | A Winter ShadowJohan Edlund | Tiamat | Play | 05:23 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | Ancient EntityJohan Edlund | Tiamat | Play | 05:53 | 13 MB | 0 MB |
| 12 | Neo Aeon | Tiamat | Play | 02:09 | 4 MB | 0 MB |
| 13 | Sumerian Cry, Pt. III | Tiamat | Play | 05:16 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 14 | The Seal | Tiamat | Play | 01:52 | 4 MB | 0 MB |
| 59 mins | 136 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco Barbieri | Reissue Coordination |
| 2 | Siggi Bemm | Engineer |
| 3 | Alan Douches | Remastering |
| 4 | Johan Edlund | Composer, Guitar (Rhythm), Liner Notes, Vocals |
| 5 | Petersson Edlund | Composer |
| 6 | Niklas Ekstrand | Composer, Drums |
| 7 | Ralf Figura | Engineer |
| 8 | Lutz Kampert | Photography |
| 9 | Jonas Malmsten | Keyboards |
| 10 | Raj Naik | Design, Layout Design |
| 11 | Thomas Petersson | Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic) |
| 12 | Büro Dirk Rudolph | Design |
| 13 | Waldemar Sorychta | Guitar, Producer |
| 14 | Jörgen "Juck" Thullberg | Guitar (Bass) |
| 15 | Tiamat | Primary Artist |
| 16 | Kristian Wahlin | Cover Art, Cover Design |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |