Johan Edlund Swedish singer, guitarist and keyboardist Date of Birth: 09.03.1971 Country: Sweden

Biography of Johan Edlund

Johan Edlund, born on March 9, 1971, is a Swedish singer, guitarist, and keyboardist. He is best known as the leader of the gothic metal band Tiamat. In the mid-1980s, a young Johan Edlund, along with Niklas Ekstrand, formed the band Treblinka. The name was chosen as a protest against not only fascist ideologies but also Christianity. From the age of 13, Edlund wore an inverted cross, which led to numerous attacks from those around him. It is from this period that the composition "Scapegoat" from the album "Clouds" takes its origins. At the time of the release of their first album, Johan was known under the pseudonym Hellslaughter. Soon, the name was changed to Tiamat.

Johan Edlund was the author of all the songs of the band, as well as the majority of the music. Although their debut album, "Sumerian Cry," went unnoticed in the music world, their album "Clouds," released in 1992, brought Tiamat worldwide recognition. Edlund's songs gave voice to themes of mysterious and dark dreams, images of what awaits a person after death, and unrequited tragic love. His keyboards, which received a lot of attention on the album, emphasized the heaviness of the guitar parts and created a unique atmosphere of dark, enigmatic visions. In the early albums, Edlund used the typical growling style of death metal, but in the mid-1990s, Tiamat changed their style mainly at Edlund's will. He switched to a deep baritone, and the music completely moved away from death metal. Thus, the album "Wildhoney" featured psychedelic compositions ("The Ar," "Planets," and "Pocked Size Sun") that were spiritually close to the work of Pink Floyd, Johan Edlund's favorite band.

Edlund continued his experiments with musical style in the band's subsequent albums, undeterred by the fact that many fans poorly received the album "A Deeper Kind of Slumber," considering it too experimental and far from metal. Edlund himself spoke about his creative metamorphoses: "Out of my ten favorite records of all time, seven are Pink Floyd albums. I am a very, very, very big fan of Pink Floyd. I am just a fanatic! For me, it is almost like a religion. Pink Floyd is my absolute favorite and the first band I heard and got into music with. But I only began to understand what true psychedelia was relatively recently. I realized that achieving such a result without drugs is simply impossible. No, I am not a drug addict, and I am definitely not a preacher. I don't want to say if it's good or bad - I just had some experience with these things and reflect them in my music and lyrics. I have a lot of songs about drugs, but Tiamat, as a band, in no way promotes them. Moreover, I think that after a couple of such texts, a person should have completely opposite feelings."

Johan Edlund has made several remixes of songs by the German band Rammstein, including their single "Stripped." As a guest guitarist, he participated in the Dutch progressive metal project Ayreon. In 2000, Edlund created a new music project, the band Lucyfire, in which he participates alongside Tiamat. According to Johan, this band is necessary for his musical experiments that do not fit into the format of his first band. In 2001, the new band released their first (and so far only) album, "This Dollar Saved My Life at Whitehorse," with straightforward rock sound and lyrics addressing well-known themes of guilt, women, and songs. The album symbolizes the typical rock 'n' roll dream, which Edlund deemed incompatible with Tiamat's image.