Review by Adam M on January 19, 2016.

The new Wrvth blends ambient music with hardcore in an effective blend. These songs feature numerous style changes along the course of their running time. There are plenty of hardcore breakdowns mixed in with small segues of atmospheric gentleness. The end result is much completely unlike anything else you’ve ever heard.

The vocals typically take the form of shrieked ones. Though they aren’t the most pleasant, these vocals complement the remainder of the music nicely. The songs here are often epic in their construction. This leads to a variety of emotional responses on the part of the listener. Depending on the mood, the band Wrvth is able to convey a lot of mood within their tracks quite effectively. Appropriately, the vocals fit the mould the band is trying to obtain. It’s some of the moments where the vocals are shrieked that the music becomes the most intense. There is still some variation that adds subtle moments at the correct occasions to break up the music into loud and soft portions. This album is still a very harsh and aggressive one in tone at most of the opportune times. It brings forth the chaos in an organized and thoughtful manner, however. The most abrasive portions of the disc are those that catch your attention, but the quiet ones that break things up are usually just as effective. See the track Lured by Knaves for an example of a track that has the right amount of aggression in places, but is broken up by a smooth saxophone portion. If you’re looking for an album with a nice variety of brutality and subtlety, this could be your album.

Though it’s one solid work through and through, I still think this fails to be one of the best albums of 2015 because of a lack of a standout characteristic. Wrvth still remains something for hardcore and atmospheric music fans to lap up.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 30, 2019.

One thing is for sure, Wildhoney is an album for open-minded freaks. Now you probably think: okay, Felix is walking over the earth for almost 50 years (horrible, I can tell you), he has seen a lot of places, various cultures and thousands of different individuals. This dude must be the prototype of a broadly interested music lover.

No way! I like metal and nothing else and therefore I tend to despise the album of a band that had previously proven its musicianship and compositional talent. Of course, Wildhoney does not lack musicality. I even go one step further and admit that this portion of bittersweet honey offers two good tracks. The relaxed, slightly oriental "Whatever that Hurts" is roughly comparable with "Dead Boys' Choir" from The Astral Sleep and the pretty rocking "The Ar" with its characteristic celestial background choirs can rely on good melodies and coherent song patterns, even though the latter is a little bit repetitive. These well shaped numbers are framed by the decent intro and a waste of time called "25th Floor" which sounds like a psychedelic experience in a steelwork. Believe me, there is no need to take the lift in order to reach this strange floor. Anyway, this piece has an important function, because it separates the good songs from the mediocre or even terrible numbers. So, let's put the spotlight on the remaining pieces.

I admit that I do not understand the importance of romantic, dreamful and mysterious tracks such as "Gaia" or "Visionaire". On a positive note, Tiamat avoid schmaltz and kitsch. Yes, this kind of tunes where the emotional guitars "do the speaking" can still be worse. But these oh so intellectual, pseudo-reflective and wannabe-mystical tracks lack energy, enthusiasm and (metal) spirit. However, the worst is yet to come.

The longer the album lasts, the more painful it gets. Edlund asks "Do You Dream of Me?" and the answer is "yes, and it was a cruel nightmare". The song material moves increasingly further away from the sound that was dominating on Clouds. Not to mention The Astral Sleep with hammers such as "Sumerian Cry (Part III)". Fragile keyboard sounds paint over-dimensioned landscapes, the guitars don't want to hurt anyone and Edlund is singing like a candidate for a vacancy in the local Protestant church choir. Thank God that he uses a darker, comparatively raw approach in the first two regular tracks. 

Perhaps the closer wants to celebrate spirituality, but it clocks in at eight minutes and delivers nothing but great emptiness, if we leave the female vocals out of consideration. Of course, a feminine input is mandatory for such an album. Moreover, I strongly recommend adding another female contribution while listening to this difficult album. Make love to a beautiful girl with magical powers who gives you unique kisses and further erotic highlights, that's the best way to bear the lame rubbish of the second half of this product. I speak from experience - this is my preferred kind of spirituality. Maybe it is also an option to take drugs, but I am not familiar with these substances. Either way, Tiamat always were prone to a certain degree of melancholy, but here they have gone too far. Apart from the good Sorychta production and a pretty promising beginning, this album is a total disappointment, at least for narrow-minded people like me. Did I already tell you that I have never been outside Europe so far?

Rating: 3.3 out of 10