Tiamat

Tiamat’s first DVD is a little subdued, even dour. It’s not that the band don’t rock out, they do (and snarl and croon), but within a pervasive atmosphere of restraint. Johan Edlund’s voice dominates the live footage — a thin but intense production filmed in Krakow in January ’05 — and his sombre persona looms throughout the interview and retrospective commentary, reining everything in. Highlights include an encore performance of "The Sleeping Beauty” with guest Peter Tägtgren, but the extreme metal that Tiamat once delivered gets little more than a nod. Yet even with its limitations, The Church of Tiamat is a powerful and welcome reminder of how good a band Tiamat really are.