Treblinka

From the old school of black metal comes Täby, Sweden's TREBLINKA.  They are known primarily as being the band that evolved into Tiamat after slaving away in the underground for a few years.  Formed in 1987, Treblinka played a pretty straightforward old-school black metal (unlike the atmospheric blackened gothic metal of Tiamat).  Their first demo, 1988's Crawling in Vomits, testifies to this fact.

"Earwigs in Your Veins" is from their first demo

Their second demo was 1989's Sign of the Pentagram.  It continued the old-school black metal style of the first demo.  In the same year, Treblinka put out their first proper studio release as well.  Entitled Severe Abominations, this EP would be the last actual release before the band changed names to Tiamat the next year.

 "Necrophagious Shadows" is from the Sign of the Pentagram demo

Before (sort of) disbanding and re-forming as Tiamat, Treblinka did manage to record the material for a full-length album.  This is what would go on to become Tiamat's first studio release, 1990's Sumerian Cry.

The title track off of the Severe Abominations EP

On Sumerian Cry, Tiamat/Treblinka began to show the influence of the emerging Swedish death metal scene.  Tiamat didn't continue in this style very long before starting to expand their sound.  They began moving away from black/death metal entirely, and after a few years were a doom/gothic-influenced band that was straddling the line between rock and metal.  To be honest, I haven't heard anything of theirs since 1997's A Deeper Kind of Slumber, and that was boring to me.  But as a little 'post-script' to this entry, here is a Tiamat song off of Sumerian Cry:

Select Discography:

Crawling in Vomits (demo) (1988)

The Sign of the Pentagram (demo) (1989)

Severe Abominations EP (1989)

Next time:  SAMAEL