TIAMAT founder, vocalist and guitarist Johan Edlund has suffered a brain hemorrhage and is hospitalized until further notice. The Swedish band announced the news on social media on Saturday, November 14, the day it was due to play Zappa Barka in Belgrade, Serbia. That concert has been canceled.
"Due to a medical emergency involving TIAMAT founder and vocalist Johan Edlund, we regret to announce the cancellation of today's concert at Zappa Barka in Belgrade," the band wrote, adding that Edlund "is currently hospitalized until further notice." The statement asked fans to keep him in their thoughts and to wish him "strength and a full and speedy recovery." No further details on his condition, or on the band's remaining dates, have been given so far.
Edlund formed TIAMAT in Stockholm in 1988 out of the death metal outfit TREBLINKA and has been the band's one constant through every lineup change since. Over ten studio albums the group moved from the raw death/doom of its early records to the dark, psychedelic gothic metal of Clouds (1992) and Wildhoney (1994), the album most fans still regard as its defining statement, and on to the moodier A Deeper Kind Of Slumber (1997).
TIAMAT's most recent studio album, The Scarred People, came out in 2012. Edlund has said in recent interviews that the band has been working on new material on and off, but no release has been announced.
The MetalList has followed TIAMAT for more than two decades. We wish Johan a full and speedy recovery and will update as more information becomes available.