Oh Lord, with quite hard competition, this must have been THE most anticipated concert for me at this year’s Wacken. Tiamat performing (they had me already at this point) a special Wildhoney show (and now you see why it was number one)!

Tiamat were for some reason put on the Party Stage, and even though they played at the same time as such a major act as Fear Factory, they had still pulled a crowd which managed to fill the place from front to back and side to side. Still, I managed to squeeze into a very nice position quite close to the stage with an excellent view.
Already during the introductory soundscape of the song Wildhoney, a deafening roar arose from the audience as they welcomed the artists on the stage; already here I knew this would be an experience far above the normal…
I won’t bore you with details of the setlist, as the band only performed the album from beginning to end, with no encore. I will say this though, I believe they had decided to keep the wholeness of the album as intact as possible, and because of this there was not left any space between songs for idle chit-chat. Instead the entire show was played out in one go, and this helped keep the atmosphere which the songs create flowing without unnecessary interruptions. It was truly just to lean back, get lost in its special universe, and enjoy.

Instead of a normal backdrop, the band had arranged for a white cloth to fill the back of the stage, upon which there where images swirling and flowing, which helped enhance the experience, although at some points this video-production was a bit hard to see as the lightshow (also perfectly integrated) sometimes blurred it out a bit.
If you have heard the album (which you certainly have, otherwise you deserve a beating), you will know that the music consists in large parts of sound-effects being played out, here directly over the p.a. system, but even these quieter and calmer moments had an almost hypnotic effect on us. And don’t ask me how, but somehow Tiamat had even managed to get the weather to cooperate with the performance to drive it into an even higher unity; yes, during the beautiful instrumental piece Kaleidoscope, with its sound of falling rain coupled with a yearning acoustic guitar, the skies opened just a little and let out a rain as light as tears…

Of course, things where not exactly as they are on the album, this was a live setting after all.
Little variations in Johan Edlund’s vocal harmonies for instance made it clear that the band was not interested in performing a carbon copy of themselves, but neither did they vary too much from the original, keeping it recognizable for everyone there.
Then there was the setting; I have already explained about the visuals and the weather, the crystal clear sound (thank you Wacken for not messing this one up), but still I find myself lacking words for the atmosphere, the feeling of standing outside, at one with nature and yet in a crowd of likeminded, simply floating away on every note and word flowing from the stage… I will never again be able to hear this album in the same way as before, that is for sure!
This was simply the best ending any festival could ever dream of having, but as this was Wacken after all, there was more to see afterwards on other stages. But nothing would be able to top this; simply listening to the album now while writing the review makes my heart pound just a little faster…

Setlist:

Wildhoney
Whatever That Hurts
The Ar
25th Floor
Gaia
Visionaire
Kaleidoscope
Do You Dream Of Me?
Planets
A Pocket Size Sun