UMUR
"Skeleton Skeletron" is the 6th full-length studio album by Swedish band Tiamat. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 1999. It´s the successor to "A Deeper Kind of Slumber" from 1997 and features one lineup change as guitarist Thomas Petersson has jumped ship, leaving Tiamat a trio for the recording of "Skeleton Skeletron". The album features quite a few guests/session musicians though.
Tiamat had been an almost ever changing act on their preceding releases, starting out playing old school Swedish death metal on their debut album, quickly moving into death/doom metal territory on the next couple of releases, and on "Wildhoney (1994)" and especially "A Deeper Kind of Slumber (1997)", they played an atmospheric Pink Floyd influenced psychadelic tinged heavy rock/metal style, and actually completely abandoning the distorted guitars from their sound on the latter. To those who feel Tiamat strayed a bit too far from the metal path on "A Deeper Kind of Slumber (1997)", they will be glad to hear that "Skeleton Skeletron" is a heavier and more metal oriented release than its direct predecessor. The psychadelic Pink Floyd influence is also more or less gone from the soundscape and instead Tiamat play a dark gothic rock/metal influenced style and it´s now artists like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, and Fields of the Nephilim, which are valid references. Contemporary releases by artists like Paradise Lost and Kreator (their 1999 "Endorama" album) are also references which can be used to describe the sound on "Skeleton Skeletron".
The 10 track, 45:34 minutes long album features both heavy and atmospheric tracks and more energetic and slightly faster-paced tracks. An example of the latter is the The Sisters of Mercy influenced "Brighter Than the Sun", which is a full fledged gothic rock song, featuring deep male vocals and female vocals on the chorus. "Skeleton Skeletron" also features a heavy cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones, which works well with the rest of the material.
"Skeleton Skeletron" is a well produced album, featuring a clear, detailed, and powerful sounding production, which suits the material well. Upon conclusion "Skeleton Skeletron" is a good quality release by Tiamat. The fact that the band seem to have suffered from an identity crisis almost since their inception isn´t that important when they churn out quality music like this. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.