UMUR
"The Scarred People" is the tenth full-length studio album by Swedish metal act Tiamat. The album was released through Napalm Records in November 2012. It´s the successor to "Amanethes" from May 2008. There has been one lineup change since the preceding album as guitarist Thomas Wyreson has left and has been replaced by Roger Öjersson (who would later join Katatonia). Wyreson (originally known as Thomas Petersson) had been a member of Tiamat in three seperate periods 1990-1994, 1996-1999, and 2001-2008.
Stylistically the material on "The Scarred People" is more or less a continuation of the by now fully established gothic metal sound with the occasional psychedelic rock touches which Tiamat have played since he mid-90s. "Amanethes" brought back some of the band´s early extreme metal elements, although they were only a small part of the sound of the album. The heavier and more aggressive elements from "Amanethes" are not found on "The Scarred People" although it´s still occasionally a pretty heavy and dark gothic metal album. Tiamat as usual have written a both memorable and effective release, and the performances and the sound production values are also of a high quality.
Although I personally found "Amanethes" a bit more interesting than "The Scarred People", this is a release you don´t want to miss if you´re already a fan of Tiamat. On the other hand "The Scarred People" is not a Tiamat release which will win over those listeners who haven´t found Tiamat intereting since they left their doom/death metal roots behind now many years ago. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
