If you're wondering why it's been almost a month (again) since the last update, even though I did the cop-out entry on Solitude Aeturnus to avoid that, it's because it took me the better part of a month to write this damn thing. Seriously. Doing a quick wordcount on this write-up yields excess of 5k words. I have officially written research papers shorter than this. Jesus. The write-ups also start to get shorter around the Robert Lowe era because I was getting tired.
---
For some, Candlemass is the epitome of all that the Doom Metal genre encompasses. The plodding, downtuned riffs that sacrifice technicality and melody in favor of being bloody heavy above all else succeed in doing just that. In the early days there was not a major chord to be found amongst these guys: they took downtrodden to a plane far beyond that of their American contemporaries. But while it's one thing to simply take what others had done before and turn it to 11, Candlemass brought something else to the table, namely the introduction of a baritone, operatic vocalist. So unusual and influential was this for the time that Candlemass is credited with spawning its own sub-genre, Epic Doom Metal, named after its first album (mostly just Doom Metal with a vocalist who can actually sing). While giving them their own genre simply for the vocalist might be a bit much, their contribution has unarguably created the template for most European doom metal, which stripped the blues elements out of the likes of their American peers Saint Vitus and Pentagram, much as NWOBHM and Thrash stripped the blues elements from early traditional metal before it.
Taken from Allmusic's biography page:
1986 - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Candlemass's first album is unquestionably one of the best debut metal albums ever released, demonstrating a compositional maturity that most other bands would not see until their junior or even senior effort. The album's quality is even more jarring, given that it was an album crafted almost entirely with session musicians: lead guitarist Klas Bergwall and female guest vocalist Cille Svenson were entirely session, while vocalist Johan Längqvist and drummer Matz Ekstroem, despite being founding members, left soon after recording. This left bassist Leif Edling (primary songwriter and brainchild of the entire band) and rhythm guitarist Mats Björkman as the only constant members throughout the band's career. If anything, it is a testament to the sheer force of Edling's riffs to sustain the music through a band otherwise lacking chemistry.
The album opens with "Solitude," a track that, once heard, will not soon be forgotten. The lyrics combined with Johan's incredibly soulful, baritone delivery create an atmosphere that has gained the song particular notoriety, if not infamy. Indeed they are a tad melodramatic, and had it been a decade-and-a-half later we might accuse them of being Emo. But since they largely abandon suicidal thoughts for traditional witches and goblins elsewhere, we'll forgive it just this once. Melodrama aside, it remains a fantastic opener and still one of the best songs in Candlemass's library. Johan's performance in particular shines here in a way that his replacement, Messiah Marcolin, never could. Candlemass enjoyed much greater success during Messiah's tenure, and his vibrato-laced tenor gave the band a popular operatic quality that most fans and critics characterize as the Bruce Dickinson arrival. While I'm not going to knock Messiah (at least not for his singing ability; as a person he's somewhat of a douche), but I happen to be in the Johan camp, for no other reason than that for all of Messiah's technical prowess, he could never infuse his delivery with the same level of emotion that Johan did. The distinction is all the more apparent when comparing Messiah's re-recording of Solitude against Johan's original. Vibrato can only take one so far; Johan's voice had a density to it where every syllable undulates in pitch and urgency.
Six tracks would be a brief outing for your average band, but when your average track is around six minutes in length, it works just fine for Candlemass. There is not a weak track on here (although Demon's Gate falls a little short of its peers). Whether it's the horror-music chorus of Crystal Ball or the interweaving riffs of Black Stone Wielder, each one building in intensity until an epic climax at the six-minute mark, there's no shortage of classic songs on this album. The album closes with perhaps the strongest track of the bunch, A Sorcerer's Pledge, showcasing just how high Johan can go when he really wants to, and fades out with a haunting female vocal.
A masterpiece from beginning to end, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus still stands (depending on whom you ask) as Candlemass's most consistent effort, challenged only by its immediate successor. Nightfall will surely have its defenders, and certainly critics will push for it in the same way they would Master of Puppets or British Steel, but ask dedicated doom metalheads their favorite Candlemass album, and they're likely to put EDM at the top. Classic songs, amazing riffs, and a vocal performance that is completely without equal. Given that Johan's own singing these days lacks the range and emotion that it once had, the peerless performance documented here is likely to stay that way.
EDM was remastered/reissued in 2003 with a bonus disc of live cuts (although these were performed by the Nightfall lineup, not the original).
1986 - Nightfall
After Edling was unable to convince Johan to stay (he departed to pursue a career in pop music, from which his voice never recovered), the band's original lineup, left without a singer, essentially broke-up. Enter Eddie "Messiah" Marcolin, a wild-haired, portly, eccentric Swede with the lungs of an opera singer and the stage-presence of a chimera, who was known to don a monk's robe when performing--fittingly, he announced his arrival into the band where most singers would be auditioning by phoning Edling in the middle of the night to tell him that Candlemass's new singer had arrived. A new drummer and guitarist soon followed. The resulting album, Nightfall, remains their most popular and critically-acclaimed work.
Instrumental opener "Gothic Stone" sets the stage with ambient, dissonant soundscapes resembling something like the intro to A Clockwork Orange. This portends the bleak nature of the songs to come, as well as an unfortunate decision to pad out the album with various filler/interlude tracks. More often than not, they don't work; it's one of the many reasons EDM's compact six tracks ages slightly better. But trimming away the fat, there are solid tracks to be found here. Our first taste of Candlemass's new vocalist in "The Well of Souls" immediately showcases his powerful vibrato with an equally muscular riff backing him up; an impressive feat indeed in a genre where the riff usually takes center stage. Another mediocre filler segues into what is easily the best track on the album, if not the band's entire Messiah-fronted catalog. "At the Gallows End" features a simplistic but positively infectious pentatonic riff, juxtaposed next to Messiah cramming every corner and nuance of his vocal range into a singular performance. Messiah's voice is something of a love-it-or-hate-it affair: his technical ability is unarguably impressive, yet his vocal theatrics, so over-the-top that they would make King Diamond blush, can occasionally be a turn-off, even to fans. It can also be disappointing when someone clearly possessing so much talent seems content to simply mime the main riff as his vocal line. But here Messiah delivers. As always, the lyrics are a little hokey, and the song's contemplation-before-execution premise feels a little too close to Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name," but the damn song works.
The disappointingly-sentimental "Samarithan" and another filler follow (the latter, "March Funebre," being a rendering of Chopin's famous funeral march), finally redeemed by "Dark are the Veils of Death". Mourners Lament is another miss track, while Bewitched remains somewhat difficult to classify. The song remains one of the few to receive a music video treatment, for which Candlemass wisely took the tongue-in-cheek route:
The low-budget video's cadre of headbanging zombies provided an underground counterpoint to some more popular videos of the day in MTV's rotation. Fun Fact: the Bewitched video also featured a teenaged Per "Dead" Ohlin of Mayhem fame as one of the random background headbangers (yes, that one, the one whose suicide was photographed and used as an album cover). As stated, not taking itself too seriously saves an otherwise ridiculous video and, by extension, the song. Closing out the album is yet another instrumental, "Black Candles"; as much as I hate filler, this one is actually pretty good. Despite Doom Metal being the antithesis of Thrash, the song wouldn't sound out-of-place next to Metallica's "Call of Ktulu" or "Orion".
If I sound like I'm being overly-critical, it is really quite a good album, and the fact that it elicits such quibbles at all is to its credit, particularly against some other albums whose sheer mediocrity makes it nearly impossible to muster anything at all to say. It's clear that the line-up established here had some great chemistry going for it, and they continued to ride that for another two albums.
Nightfall was originally released in 1987, but was remastered/rereleased in 2001 with a bonus disc of demos and live performances.
1988 - Ancient Dreams
Ancient Dreams is one of those albums that every band releases at some point--you know the one. The band's lineup is finally stable, so they basically release the exact same album they had released prior, but they're forgiven for sounding less-inspired because the band as a whole sounds tighter? That's the one. And like those, the general consensus will be "This album as a whole is not as good as Landmark Album X or Y, but it's got some of their best individual songs on it." This holds true as well, for tracks like opener "Mirror Mirror" and "Bells of Acheron" remain concert staples and fan-favorites. Messiah's operatic bellowing is, as always, best enjoyed with a grain of salt; "Mirror Mirror" is a solid song and an even better vocal performance, but, taken seriously, there is little salvaging a song title lifted from a fairy-tale mantra. Messiah's vocals carry the next track, "A Cry from the Crypt", whose main riff sounds suspiciously like At the Gallows End's at a slightly slower tempo. The title track attempts an epic fantasy narrative with some success, while tracks like "Incarnation of Evil" and "Bearer of Pain" tend to drag on slightly longer than they should. "Bells of Acheron" is a curious beast, with a furious riff sounding at one moment like "Mob Rules" only to evolve an Iron Maiden-like gallop the next. Neither of these scream "Doom" in the conventional sense but, against all odds, the song still works. A solid album that's not likely to win any newcomers over, but keep fans happy.
Ancient Dreams was originally released in 1988. The CD rerelease in 2001 included a live bonus disc and a Black Sabbath Medley at the end of the first disc that was commonly performed at their earlier concerts. Curiously, some of Sabbath's doomiest numbers, such as Children of the Grave or War Pigs, are absent, while Sweat Leaf and Supernaut are present. Go figure.
---
For some, Candlemass is the epitome of all that the Doom Metal genre encompasses. The plodding, downtuned riffs that sacrifice technicality and melody in favor of being bloody heavy above all else succeed in doing just that. In the early days there was not a major chord to be found amongst these guys: they took downtrodden to a plane far beyond that of their American contemporaries. But while it's one thing to simply take what others had done before and turn it to 11, Candlemass brought something else to the table, namely the introduction of a baritone, operatic vocalist. So unusual and influential was this for the time that Candlemass is credited with spawning its own sub-genre, Epic Doom Metal, named after its first album (mostly just Doom Metal with a vocalist who can actually sing). While giving them their own genre simply for the vocalist might be a bit much, their contribution has unarguably created the template for most European doom metal, which stripped the blues elements out of the likes of their American peers Saint Vitus and Pentagram, much as NWOBHM and Thrash stripped the blues elements from early traditional metal before it.
Taken from Allmusic's biography page:
Sweden's Candlemass helped reintroduce the lumbering power chords of Black Sabbath to an entire generation of post-New Wave of British Heavy Metal and post-thrash metalheads, almost single-handedly writing the handbook for the modern doom metal movement in the process. After the breakup of his first band, Nemesis, in 1985, bassist Leif Edling founded Candlemass with vocalist Johan Lanquist, guitarist Mats Bjorkman, and drummer Matz Ekstroem. Their watershed debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, was released the following year, and though it immediately secured their standing within metal circles, it was only with the arrival of new vocalist Messiah Marcolin for 1987's Nightfall that the band found its true voice -- quite literally -- as the singer's vibrato-laden operatic tone remains completely original to this day. The album, which also saw the arrival of lead guitarist Lars Johansson and new drummer Jan Lindh, combined massive riffs and dark melodies into songs of epic proportions, which were made even more dramatic by Marcolin's religious lyrics and monk's habit stage costume. Candlemass repeated this formula with less inspired results on the ensuing albums Ancient Dreams (1988) and Tales of Creation (1989), each of which also saw a noticeable improvement in the production department. The appropriately titled Live closed the golden era of their career with Marcolin departing to form his own band, Memento Mori.
1986 - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Candlemass's first album is unquestionably one of the best debut metal albums ever released, demonstrating a compositional maturity that most other bands would not see until their junior or even senior effort. The album's quality is even more jarring, given that it was an album crafted almost entirely with session musicians: lead guitarist Klas Bergwall and female guest vocalist Cille Svenson were entirely session, while vocalist Johan Längqvist and drummer Matz Ekstroem, despite being founding members, left soon after recording. This left bassist Leif Edling (primary songwriter and brainchild of the entire band) and rhythm guitarist Mats Björkman as the only constant members throughout the band's career. If anything, it is a testament to the sheer force of Edling's riffs to sustain the music through a band otherwise lacking chemistry.
The album opens with "Solitude," a track that, once heard, will not soon be forgotten. The lyrics combined with Johan's incredibly soulful, baritone delivery create an atmosphere that has gained the song particular notoriety, if not infamy. Indeed they are a tad melodramatic, and had it been a decade-and-a-half later we might accuse them of being Emo. But since they largely abandon suicidal thoughts for traditional witches and goblins elsewhere, we'll forgive it just this once. Melodrama aside, it remains a fantastic opener and still one of the best songs in Candlemass's library. Johan's performance in particular shines here in a way that his replacement, Messiah Marcolin, never could. Candlemass enjoyed much greater success during Messiah's tenure, and his vibrato-laced tenor gave the band a popular operatic quality that most fans and critics characterize as the Bruce Dickinson arrival. While I'm not going to knock Messiah (at least not for his singing ability; as a person he's somewhat of a douche), but I happen to be in the Johan camp, for no other reason than that for all of Messiah's technical prowess, he could never infuse his delivery with the same level of emotion that Johan did. The distinction is all the more apparent when comparing Messiah's re-recording of Solitude against Johan's original. Vibrato can only take one so far; Johan's voice had a density to it where every syllable undulates in pitch and urgency.
Six tracks would be a brief outing for your average band, but when your average track is around six minutes in length, it works just fine for Candlemass. There is not a weak track on here (although Demon's Gate falls a little short of its peers). Whether it's the horror-music chorus of Crystal Ball or the interweaving riffs of Black Stone Wielder, each one building in intensity until an epic climax at the six-minute mark, there's no shortage of classic songs on this album. The album closes with perhaps the strongest track of the bunch, A Sorcerer's Pledge, showcasing just how high Johan can go when he really wants to, and fades out with a haunting female vocal.
A masterpiece from beginning to end, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus still stands (depending on whom you ask) as Candlemass's most consistent effort, challenged only by its immediate successor. Nightfall will surely have its defenders, and certainly critics will push for it in the same way they would Master of Puppets or British Steel, but ask dedicated doom metalheads their favorite Candlemass album, and they're likely to put EDM at the top. Classic songs, amazing riffs, and a vocal performance that is completely without equal. Given that Johan's own singing these days lacks the range and emotion that it once had, the peerless performance documented here is likely to stay that way.
EDM was remastered/reissued in 2003 with a bonus disc of live cuts (although these were performed by the Nightfall lineup, not the original).
http://www.mediafire.com/?68l3twdct6c9xgs
http://www.mediafire.com/?sbd7lx1bb42b6cc
1986 - Nightfall
After Edling was unable to convince Johan to stay (he departed to pursue a career in pop music, from which his voice never recovered), the band's original lineup, left without a singer, essentially broke-up. Enter Eddie "Messiah" Marcolin, a wild-haired, portly, eccentric Swede with the lungs of an opera singer and the stage-presence of a chimera, who was known to don a monk's robe when performing--fittingly, he announced his arrival into the band where most singers would be auditioning by phoning Edling in the middle of the night to tell him that Candlemass's new singer had arrived. A new drummer and guitarist soon followed. The resulting album, Nightfall, remains their most popular and critically-acclaimed work.
Instrumental opener "Gothic Stone" sets the stage with ambient, dissonant soundscapes resembling something like the intro to A Clockwork Orange. This portends the bleak nature of the songs to come, as well as an unfortunate decision to pad out the album with various filler/interlude tracks. More often than not, they don't work; it's one of the many reasons EDM's compact six tracks ages slightly better. But trimming away the fat, there are solid tracks to be found here. Our first taste of Candlemass's new vocalist in "The Well of Souls" immediately showcases his powerful vibrato with an equally muscular riff backing him up; an impressive feat indeed in a genre where the riff usually takes center stage. Another mediocre filler segues into what is easily the best track on the album, if not the band's entire Messiah-fronted catalog. "At the Gallows End" features a simplistic but positively infectious pentatonic riff, juxtaposed next to Messiah cramming every corner and nuance of his vocal range into a singular performance. Messiah's voice is something of a love-it-or-hate-it affair: his technical ability is unarguably impressive, yet his vocal theatrics, so over-the-top that they would make King Diamond blush, can occasionally be a turn-off, even to fans. It can also be disappointing when someone clearly possessing so much talent seems content to simply mime the main riff as his vocal line. But here Messiah delivers. As always, the lyrics are a little hokey, and the song's contemplation-before-execution premise feels a little too close to Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name," but the damn song works.
The disappointingly-sentimental "Samarithan" and another filler follow (the latter, "March Funebre," being a rendering of Chopin's famous funeral march), finally redeemed by "Dark are the Veils of Death". Mourners Lament is another miss track, while Bewitched remains somewhat difficult to classify. The song remains one of the few to receive a music video treatment, for which Candlemass wisely took the tongue-in-cheek route:
The low-budget video's cadre of headbanging zombies provided an underground counterpoint to some more popular videos of the day in MTV's rotation. Fun Fact: the Bewitched video also featured a teenaged Per "Dead" Ohlin of Mayhem fame as one of the random background headbangers (yes, that one, the one whose suicide was photographed and used as an album cover). As stated, not taking itself too seriously saves an otherwise ridiculous video and, by extension, the song. Closing out the album is yet another instrumental, "Black Candles"; as much as I hate filler, this one is actually pretty good. Despite Doom Metal being the antithesis of Thrash, the song wouldn't sound out-of-place next to Metallica's "Call of Ktulu" or "Orion".
If I sound like I'm being overly-critical, it is really quite a good album, and the fact that it elicits such quibbles at all is to its credit, particularly against some other albums whose sheer mediocrity makes it nearly impossible to muster anything at all to say. It's clear that the line-up established here had some great chemistry going for it, and they continued to ride that for another two albums.
Nightfall was originally released in 1987, but was remastered/rereleased in 2001 with a bonus disc of demos and live performances.
 |
| The cover is taken from Thomas Cole's "The Voyage of Life" series |
http://www.mediafire.com/?rjarindr6jd2vn9
http://www.mediafire.com/?bbflfx9ugbqy5w9
1988 - Ancient Dreams
Ancient Dreams is one of those albums that every band releases at some point--you know the one. The band's lineup is finally stable, so they basically release the exact same album they had released prior, but they're forgiven for sounding less-inspired because the band as a whole sounds tighter? That's the one. And like those, the general consensus will be "This album as a whole is not as good as Landmark Album X or Y, but it's got some of their best individual songs on it." This holds true as well, for tracks like opener "Mirror Mirror" and "Bells of Acheron" remain concert staples and fan-favorites. Messiah's operatic bellowing is, as always, best enjoyed with a grain of salt; "Mirror Mirror" is a solid song and an even better vocal performance, but, taken seriously, there is little salvaging a song title lifted from a fairy-tale mantra. Messiah's vocals carry the next track, "A Cry from the Crypt", whose main riff sounds suspiciously like At the Gallows End's at a slightly slower tempo. The title track attempts an epic fantasy narrative with some success, while tracks like "Incarnation of Evil" and "Bearer of Pain" tend to drag on slightly longer than they should. "Bells of Acheron" is a curious beast, with a furious riff sounding at one moment like "Mob Rules" only to evolve an Iron Maiden-like gallop the next. Neither of these scream "Doom" in the conventional sense but, against all odds, the song still works. A solid album that's not likely to win any newcomers over, but keep fans happy.
Ancient Dreams was originally released in 1988. The CD rerelease in 2001 included a live bonus disc and a Black Sabbath Medley at the end of the first disc that was commonly performed at their earlier concerts. Curiously, some of Sabbath's doomiest numbers, such as Children of the Grave or War Pigs, are absent, while Sweat Leaf and Supernaut are present. Go figure.
 |
| Another cover lifted from Cole's "Voyage of Life" series. I have yet to figure out how it relates to the album. |
http://www.mediafire.com/?xx5my596xkw599a
http://www.mediafire.com/?0eyr8z1ip5vw00h
1992 - Chapter VI
Messiah departed the band on less-than-amicable terms in 1991, not long after the release of their Live album (this is presumably the "fifth" chapter in their release timeline if we assume Chapter VI is the sixth; but who the hell includes a live album in their official chronology?). The band eventually learned to soldier on without him, but their first attempt was something of a stumble.
From the opening track, you'll immediately notice the presence of keyboards, a famously unwelcome instrument in the music of true doomheads. I am not so quick to dismiss them altogether, provided they're used properly (purists are quick to forget that even Dio-era Sabbath indulged in keyboards on occasion). Improperly, however, they give the music a Power Metal slant, and my feeling is that if you're gonna start incorporating power-metal synth, your only hope is to go for all-out cheese. New vocalist Thomas Vikström does little to alleviate this: his post-Candlemass career includes Power Metal band Stormwind and Symphonic Metal progenitors Therion (although I wouldn't necessarily hold the latter against him). His voice has neither the bold baritone of Johan nor the operatic grandeur of Messiah, sounding instead like something closer to Tony Martin. Indeed, the album as a whole draws a great of similarities towards Black Sabbath's Tony Martin era. While there's something quaint, even admirable about Candlemass's decision to follow Sabbath's even through the drunken stupor of their late-80's/early-90's days, the vibe is ultimately the same: a band grasping for direction.
Tracks like "Julia Laughs No More" demonstrate Leif's ability to still write a decent riff, but the iffy vocal-performance and not-sure-if-serious fairy-tale lyrics aren't doing it any favors. Elsewhere, the keyboards really do hurt otherwise competent numbers. Attempted epic "Where the Runes Still Speak" contains a Dream Theater-esque keyboard solo midway through, while the opening to "The Ebony Throne" includes horror-movie sound-effects and repeated pinch harmonics. Metal Songwriting 101: never go for horror-movie vibes unless that's your schtick, and never have a sustained pinch-harmonic as part of your main riff. "Aftermath" is probably the only track I can't find fault with, putting an excellent, if simple riff at the forefront and a generally competent vocal performance, to boot.
Ultimately, the album received poor sales and luke-warm critical praise, no doubt influencing Candlemass's decision to disband for the first time in in 1994. I can't say I blame them. Mostly skippable.
1998 - Dactylis Glomerata
Leif started another band shortly after Candlemass's breakup dubbed Abstrakt Algebra, indicative perhaps of its more experimental nature. Their album furthered the power metal influences present on Chapter VI, with some more unorthodox influences thrown in for good measure. A second album was planned and recorded, but apparently the record label wasn't interested in publishing anything that didn't bear the Candlemass name (not unheard-of in the music biz, unfortunately). Leif presumably figured, "Well fuck, if that's what it's going to take..." and promptly reformed Candlemass, taking with him Abstrakt Algebra's drummer and keyboardist as well as a number of songs from the planned second album. Rounding the lineup off was Mike Amott of Arch Enemy fame and vocalist unknown Björn Flodkvist.
From the outset, the name and cover don't inspire confidence. The minimalist cover seems to recycle the skull image from EDM and shove it to the bottom-right corner of an otherwise-empty picture, while the name is evidently the scientific name for Cocksfoot grass. Unless this grass has drug paraphernalia connotations I'm not aware of, the significance of the title completely eludes me. Did the album title come to Leif while he was buying some for his cat?
Given the Candlemass-cum-Algebra makeup, I was expecting even more intrusive keyboards from Chapter VI to resurface. I was hence pleasantly surprised to find that, for the most part, the keyboards used here are tasteful. The light organ in "I Still See the Black" works, and contributes greatly to the subdued nature of the following track. "Dustflow" itself works pretty well until a poor, overly-distorted guitar solo invades the latter half of the song, while opener "Wiz" goes for a speeder doom-rock sound, with "Nostrakt Sun" arguably entering straight rock territory. While the old-timey gimmick of interlude "Cylinder" might not click with some, I found it effective in being ever-so-slightly unsettling. Unfortunately, while amusing in isolation it doesn't segue particularly well into either of the tracks that bookend it, rendering it merely a curiosity.
While tracks have their interesting moments, none of the tracks on the whole are particularly noteworthy, and this is perhaps the album's biggest problem. I could harp on the lackluster vocals or muddled production, but ultimately they're not even worth complaining about because the album is so bloody forgettable that I can't imagine fixing them would have produced a markedly-improved album. Even the quasi-punk tempo of "Lidocain God" does little to elicit a reaction.
In the end, it's a thoroughly mediocre album. Not terrible, as the hardcore fans would have you believe, but then, few albums are ever actually the trainwrecks the community makes them out to be. Entirely skippable.
1999 - From the 13th Sun
Space rock? In my Doom? That seems to have been the impetus behind this obscure Candlemass album from the late 90's. Pushing even more on their "experimental" edge, the lineup from the forgettable previous album returns here for another try, minus Amott. Some of the same problems of this lineup return as well. The vocalist's performance is still forgettable, the production still muddled (especially confusing at times when an aerial keyboard space synth sails over a lo-fi guitar tone), and despite Mats Ståhl being listed as both lead and rhythm guitars, they might as well have just been double-tracked rhythm guitars, because I'm not sure I heard a solo anywhere on the album. And yet, for all its problems, it's still a pretty decent album. What should be an unholy abomination of crossed genres turns out to be one of their better recordings of the 90's because, sonofabitch, it works.
In retrospect, it's not difficult to see why. Unlike the last album, where neither riffs nor vocals could overpower the pitifully bland nature of the songs, there are a surprising number of quality riffs to be found, further supported by the spacey atmosphere. Psychotropics and crazy sound-effects aside, space rock has always been about the riff, making it an unexpected companion to the similarly riff-minded doom genre. Indeed, the stoner rock genre popularized in the 90's by the likes of Kyuss and the stoner-doom hybrid popularized by Sleep owe much of their sound to the likes of Hawkwind and early UFO (as demonstrated by this tour poster). So while the combination is not unheard of, it is perhaps slightly unusual in its method: where stoner bands synthesized the two in a way that sounded seamless and organic, some of the songs here appear to be little more than Space-rock sound effects overlayed onto what would otherwise be conventional Doom songs. This is probably the album's shortcoming, in fact. A song like "Tot" would not sound out-of-place on Black Sabbath's first album, particularly with its use of tritone, until a completely distinct second half abruptly blasts the song into space. It's as though they know they want equal helpings of Doom and Space in their songs but can't quite make up their mind how much to mix in at any given moment. The tracks which fully embrace the wandering space-leanings like "Zog" are easily the best on the album. That's not to say they're all great, as the opening of "Arx-Ng" can lean a little too heavily on the sound effects for my liking. But they nonetheless fare better than the straight-doom tracks like "Blumma Apt" or "Elephant Star", which seems to steal Symptom of the Universe's riff outright. "Cyclo-F" doesn't shoot for space but instead seems content with a mere laid-back doom outing, while the vocalist tries his best to do a Layne Staley impression. Nearly redeemed by a tasty stoner-rific riff at the end, but all too quickly fades out into sound effects.
From the 13th Sun is both surprising and disappointing, in that it is surprisingly good but disappointing that it could have been very good had they simply committed a bit more to the space-doom style. It bears listening, particularly for those of us who spin Kyuss and Acrimony as often as we do Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, but only a few tracks will warrant repeated listens.
2005 - Candlemass
Sometime in 2001, the "golden" lineup of Candlemass reunited. What started as a reunion jam turned into a show, turned into a concert, turned into a tour. Recording sessions, however, proved difficult and contentious, and more than once disputes with Messiah threatened to kill the whole project. These were evidently contained long enough to finish the album, but not before considerable time had passed. The band released a reunion live album in 2002 to keep hungry fans off their backs, but it was not until 2005 that Candlemass's self-titled album finally hit shelves. I've voiced my disdain for self-titled albums released mid-career before: more often than not they seem like a cheap way for a band to insist they've "reinvented" themselves, particularly here where, quite to the contrary, they've just reassembled their best-known lineup. But then, this is exactly what fans wanted, right?
So how does the Second Coming of the Messiah fare? Pretty well, actually. Opener and album highlight "Black Dwarf" immediately bursts out with its crushing riff to let you know that the Candlemass you know and love is back. The band sounds enthusiastic and re-energized, no longer meandering for inspiration; it knows exactly what it wants to do and sets about to do it. The tempo is a little bit speedier than vintage Candlemass, sounding more like Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell days where the earlier albums were happier to stick to Paranoid emulation. To boot, someone actually seems to have convinced Messiah to turn down his vibrato a notch.While one might quickly assume that Messiah sans vibrato is an unremarkable singer, he's more than capable of carrying the songs without it. If anything, it makes the songs more dynamic and the moments when he does pull it out more appreciated. So props to him.
There's definitely some catchy tracks here. The aforementioned "Black Dwarf" has already become a concert staple among the likes of Solitude and At the Gallows End. Others include the rifftastic doom epic "Witches" and the plodding "The Day and the Night". The rest of the tracks tend to be competent, if not quite as memorable. While there's little to complain about, the package on the whole falls below EDM and Nightfall, fitting in closer to Ancient Dreams and Tales of Creation's likes. There are standout tracks and some weaker ones that benefit from having been written by a decade-matured band that really seems to know what it's doing, even if it's not as inspired as it once was.
1989 - Tales of Creation
The last album from Candlemass's golden years is a competent, if predictable affair. The band is in top form and the album itself sounds great, properly owing to a bigger budget or simply better mastering. The song selection itself regrettably doesn't hold up as well, as they once again opted for pointless spoken interludes in an attempt to create some kind of quasi concept album, but we get a few prime cuts out of it anyway. The first real track, speeds things up to a gallop from their normal dirge speed, but largely maintains the same level of intensity. Messiah still takes center stage, but his voice seems to have been pushed back slightly in the mix compared to earlier albums, where his bellowing sounded as though you were inside a ringing church-bell. After another interlude, we run into a re-recorded "Under the Oak" from their first album. Which version sounds better will depend largely upon which singer you preferred; vocals aside, I will say that I preferred the EDM's guitar solos quite a bit to the ones present here.
"Tears" is a pleasant surprise, alternating between a somber, slow-plucked riff not unlike the beginning of "Solitude" with sudden changes to a faster, power-chord chorus riff. Messiah still can't resist showing off his vibrato, even for what is clearly an emotional-contemplative number, but his theatrics are largely toned down and it comes out well in the end. Probably one of my favorite cuts from the album. The lyrics could use a little bit of work, though, as the chorus, "Step into the dreams of wonder / Open up the gates of wonder / Stare into the face of wonder / Free yourself from the spell you're under" just sounds lazy. If you can't be bothered to find three other words that rhyme with "wonder", don't try to make it rhyme. The track is followed by the inexplicable instrumental, "Into the Unfathomed Tower". While the question as to the songs quality is debatable, the more pressing question on everyone's mind after hearing the thing is usually, "What the hell is a generic speed metal outtake doing on a Candlemass album?" There are no answers, only more questions.
The second half of the album is largely forgettable. A brief moment of inspiration returns at the end with the title-track, which can at least boast a decent riff. Most of the song follows true doom templates, but the heavy use of synth choir gives it something of a Power Metal edge at certain points. Nice, I suppose, if you're into that; my understanding is most aren't. It's worth noting that a good deal of the material on Tales of Creation, including the title track, were demo'd long before the album's recording, and even predate EDM, as evidenced by the demos included on the bonus disc (and confirmed by Leif in the bonus interview). It might help explain the less-focused musical style of these songs, as opposed to the straight gloom-and-doom of EDM. Still a pretty good album, overall. Also the last studio album that would feature Messiah until the self-titled reunion album some years later.
Tales of Creation was re-released in 2001 with a bonus disc of demos and an interview.
 |
| The cover borrows a Doré painting. I love me some Dore, but it's not one of his better works. |
http://www.mediafire.com/?beh7p1lla83rnha
1992 - Chapter VI
Messiah departed the band on less-than-amicable terms in 1991, not long after the release of their Live album (this is presumably the "fifth" chapter in their release timeline if we assume Chapter VI is the sixth; but who the hell includes a live album in their official chronology?). The band eventually learned to soldier on without him, but their first attempt was something of a stumble.
From the opening track, you'll immediately notice the presence of keyboards, a famously unwelcome instrument in the music of true doomheads. I am not so quick to dismiss them altogether, provided they're used properly (purists are quick to forget that even Dio-era Sabbath indulged in keyboards on occasion). Improperly, however, they give the music a Power Metal slant, and my feeling is that if you're gonna start incorporating power-metal synth, your only hope is to go for all-out cheese. New vocalist Thomas Vikström does little to alleviate this: his post-Candlemass career includes Power Metal band Stormwind and Symphonic Metal progenitors Therion (although I wouldn't necessarily hold the latter against him). His voice has neither the bold baritone of Johan nor the operatic grandeur of Messiah, sounding instead like something closer to Tony Martin. Indeed, the album as a whole draws a great of similarities towards Black Sabbath's Tony Martin era. While there's something quaint, even admirable about Candlemass's decision to follow Sabbath's even through the drunken stupor of their late-80's/early-90's days, the vibe is ultimately the same: a band grasping for direction.
Tracks like "Julia Laughs No More" demonstrate Leif's ability to still write a decent riff, but the iffy vocal-performance and not-sure-if-serious fairy-tale lyrics aren't doing it any favors. Elsewhere, the keyboards really do hurt otherwise competent numbers. Attempted epic "Where the Runes Still Speak" contains a Dream Theater-esque keyboard solo midway through, while the opening to "The Ebony Throne" includes horror-movie sound-effects and repeated pinch harmonics. Metal Songwriting 101: never go for horror-movie vibes unless that's your schtick, and never have a sustained pinch-harmonic as part of your main riff. "Aftermath" is probably the only track I can't find fault with, putting an excellent, if simple riff at the forefront and a generally competent vocal performance, to boot.
Ultimately, the album received poor sales and luke-warm critical praise, no doubt influencing Candlemass's decision to disband for the first time in in 1994. I can't say I blame them. Mostly skippable.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3fmy1n2zoxl6q2h
1998 - Dactylis Glomerata
Leif started another band shortly after Candlemass's breakup dubbed Abstrakt Algebra, indicative perhaps of its more experimental nature. Their album furthered the power metal influences present on Chapter VI, with some more unorthodox influences thrown in for good measure. A second album was planned and recorded, but apparently the record label wasn't interested in publishing anything that didn't bear the Candlemass name (not unheard-of in the music biz, unfortunately). Leif presumably figured, "Well fuck, if that's what it's going to take..." and promptly reformed Candlemass, taking with him Abstrakt Algebra's drummer and keyboardist as well as a number of songs from the planned second album. Rounding the lineup off was Mike Amott of Arch Enemy fame and vocalist unknown Björn Flodkvist.
From the outset, the name and cover don't inspire confidence. The minimalist cover seems to recycle the skull image from EDM and shove it to the bottom-right corner of an otherwise-empty picture, while the name is evidently the scientific name for Cocksfoot grass. Unless this grass has drug paraphernalia connotations I'm not aware of, the significance of the title completely eludes me. Did the album title come to Leif while he was buying some for his cat?
Given the Candlemass-cum-Algebra makeup, I was expecting even more intrusive keyboards from Chapter VI to resurface. I was hence pleasantly surprised to find that, for the most part, the keyboards used here are tasteful. The light organ in "I Still See the Black" works, and contributes greatly to the subdued nature of the following track. "Dustflow" itself works pretty well until a poor, overly-distorted guitar solo invades the latter half of the song, while opener "Wiz" goes for a speeder doom-rock sound, with "Nostrakt Sun" arguably entering straight rock territory. While the old-timey gimmick of interlude "Cylinder" might not click with some, I found it effective in being ever-so-slightly unsettling. Unfortunately, while amusing in isolation it doesn't segue particularly well into either of the tracks that bookend it, rendering it merely a curiosity.
While tracks have their interesting moments, none of the tracks on the whole are particularly noteworthy, and this is perhaps the album's biggest problem. I could harp on the lackluster vocals or muddled production, but ultimately they're not even worth complaining about because the album is so bloody forgettable that I can't imagine fixing them would have produced a markedly-improved album. Even the quasi-punk tempo of "Lidocain God" does little to elicit a reaction.
In the end, it's a thoroughly mediocre album. Not terrible, as the hardcore fans would have you believe, but then, few albums are ever actually the trainwrecks the community makes them out to be. Entirely skippable.
http://www.mediafire.com/?jy1c99t7svvta41
1999 - From the 13th Sun
Space rock? In my Doom? That seems to have been the impetus behind this obscure Candlemass album from the late 90's. Pushing even more on their "experimental" edge, the lineup from the forgettable previous album returns here for another try, minus Amott. Some of the same problems of this lineup return as well. The vocalist's performance is still forgettable, the production still muddled (especially confusing at times when an aerial keyboard space synth sails over a lo-fi guitar tone), and despite Mats Ståhl being listed as both lead and rhythm guitars, they might as well have just been double-tracked rhythm guitars, because I'm not sure I heard a solo anywhere on the album. And yet, for all its problems, it's still a pretty decent album. What should be an unholy abomination of crossed genres turns out to be one of their better recordings of the 90's because, sonofabitch, it works.
In retrospect, it's not difficult to see why. Unlike the last album, where neither riffs nor vocals could overpower the pitifully bland nature of the songs, there are a surprising number of quality riffs to be found, further supported by the spacey atmosphere. Psychotropics and crazy sound-effects aside, space rock has always been about the riff, making it an unexpected companion to the similarly riff-minded doom genre. Indeed, the stoner rock genre popularized in the 90's by the likes of Kyuss and the stoner-doom hybrid popularized by Sleep owe much of their sound to the likes of Hawkwind and early UFO (as demonstrated by this tour poster). So while the combination is not unheard of, it is perhaps slightly unusual in its method: where stoner bands synthesized the two in a way that sounded seamless and organic, some of the songs here appear to be little more than Space-rock sound effects overlayed onto what would otherwise be conventional Doom songs. This is probably the album's shortcoming, in fact. A song like "Tot" would not sound out-of-place on Black Sabbath's first album, particularly with its use of tritone, until a completely distinct second half abruptly blasts the song into space. It's as though they know they want equal helpings of Doom and Space in their songs but can't quite make up their mind how much to mix in at any given moment. The tracks which fully embrace the wandering space-leanings like "Zog" are easily the best on the album. That's not to say they're all great, as the opening of "Arx-Ng" can lean a little too heavily on the sound effects for my liking. But they nonetheless fare better than the straight-doom tracks like "Blumma Apt" or "Elephant Star", which seems to steal Symptom of the Universe's riff outright. "Cyclo-F" doesn't shoot for space but instead seems content with a mere laid-back doom outing, while the vocalist tries his best to do a Layne Staley impression. Nearly redeemed by a tasty stoner-rific riff at the end, but all too quickly fades out into sound effects.
From the 13th Sun is both surprising and disappointing, in that it is surprisingly good but disappointing that it could have been very good had they simply committed a bit more to the space-doom style. It bears listening, particularly for those of us who spin Kyuss and Acrimony as often as we do Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, but only a few tracks will warrant repeated listens.
http://www.mediafire.com/?5496bxrhvv1mcmx
2005 - Candlemass
Sometime in 2001, the "golden" lineup of Candlemass reunited. What started as a reunion jam turned into a show, turned into a concert, turned into a tour. Recording sessions, however, proved difficult and contentious, and more than once disputes with Messiah threatened to kill the whole project. These were evidently contained long enough to finish the album, but not before considerable time had passed. The band released a reunion live album in 2002 to keep hungry fans off their backs, but it was not until 2005 that Candlemass's self-titled album finally hit shelves. I've voiced my disdain for self-titled albums released mid-career before: more often than not they seem like a cheap way for a band to insist they've "reinvented" themselves, particularly here where, quite to the contrary, they've just reassembled their best-known lineup. But then, this is exactly what fans wanted, right?
So how does the Second Coming of the Messiah fare? Pretty well, actually. Opener and album highlight "Black Dwarf" immediately bursts out with its crushing riff to let you know that the Candlemass you know and love is back. The band sounds enthusiastic and re-energized, no longer meandering for inspiration; it knows exactly what it wants to do and sets about to do it. The tempo is a little bit speedier than vintage Candlemass, sounding more like Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell days where the earlier albums were happier to stick to Paranoid emulation. To boot, someone actually seems to have convinced Messiah to turn down his vibrato a notch.While one might quickly assume that Messiah sans vibrato is an unremarkable singer, he's more than capable of carrying the songs without it. If anything, it makes the songs more dynamic and the moments when he does pull it out more appreciated. So props to him.
There's definitely some catchy tracks here. The aforementioned "Black Dwarf" has already become a concert staple among the likes of Solitude and At the Gallows End. Others include the rifftastic doom epic "Witches" and the plodding "The Day and the Night". The rest of the tracks tend to be competent, if not quite as memorable. While there's little to complain about, the package on the whole falls below EDM and Nightfall, fitting in closer to Ancient Dreams and Tales of Creation's likes. There are standout tracks and some weaker ones that benefit from having been written by a decade-matured band that really seems to know what it's doing, even if it's not as inspired as it once was.
 |
| Not even Gothic font can save a lazy album-cover, boys |
http://www.mediafire.com/?zpx1viav6hddzj8
2007 - King of the Grey Islands
The Second Coming turned out to be short-lived. Messiah left again in 2006, this time for good. Messiah himself said he wasn't happy with the direction of the album, although the band's official statement paints a different picture. After scrambling to find a new vocalist for the album left unfinished with Messiah, Candlemass settled on Robert Lowe of Solitude Aeturnus. While one would think this might spell the end of SA, Lowe has managed to remain the frontman for that as well. Don't ask me how he manages to front two largely identical bands without getting burned out--I'm getting burned out just trying to write about them. Lowe lacks Messiah's booming pipes, but he's got plenty of range and fits Candlemass's post-2000 sound well enough. The songs have a distinctly "modern" feel to them, which may be something of a turn-off to the retro-minded nature of Doom. But they're perfectly serviceable. They failed to produce much reaction out of me one way or the other, but I may just be reaching a saturation point on this band.
http://www.mediafire.com/?j1zkfh1mlqgdmm0
2009 - Death Magic Doom
Having now had time to acclimatize to their new frontman and given him a chance to work on a fresh batch of songs not written for another singer, Candlemass' most recent effort is a solid, by-the-books outing. You've got your speedy, "Die Young"-esque number at track one, the unnerving "Black Sabbath" (the song) reminiscent creeper at track two, and pretty much every other flavor in-between of Black Sabbath (the band) somewhere across the rest. "The Bleeding Baroness" loses a few points for tired lyrical content (the requisite "evil woman" track) and an unimaginative vocal line that too often just follows the guitar riff, but the riffs themselves are of such quality that it's forgiven; it remains one of the better tracks on the album. "House of 1,000 Voices" attempts to mix it up with a brief bass solo--unheard of in this day and age--and a synth choir, simulating the haunted voices of the song's namesake. While I think it works, I can't help but feel disappointing that they didn't get an actual choir. You've recorded ten albums and have achieved international success, guys; the "it's out of our budget" excuse is no longer viable. The latter half of the album seems loses steam, but Candlemass does its best to keep things interesting; just not always successfully.
For a band that's been going since the mid 80's with roughly the same lineup, I imagine this is everything you could want out of them. Metal fans are notoriously hostile towards bands they perceive as having radically changed their sound, usually concurrent with a rise in popularity, which they then dub "selling out". They would much prefer the drawbacks of a Motörhead or Manilla Road discography, where exists an amazing consistency across fifteen albums (with it coming the all-too-common complaint, "But every albums sounds the same"). As such, Candlemass has offered just that: a consistency of quality and sound that has persisted for over two decades while deviating just slightly enough between periods so as not to (greatly) offend. While it ultimately means that you can't help but listen to Death Magic Doom without comparing it to its better-executed peers, it's something you can spin on occasion and still enjoy, without shaking your head into your hands and wondering what has become of your childhood heroes.
On some editions the track "Lucifer Rising" from an EP they had released a year prior is included. It's not bad.
Thus concludes Candlemass's discography up to this point. They have supposedly decided to do one more album before calling it quits. We'll see how it turns out. Even if they quit tomorrow, they'd still leave behind an enduring legacy in the pantheon of heavy metal gods. Now let's just hope they don't do something idiotic before then and change guitarists on their farewell tour.
---
Next-up: Penance
For a band that's been going since the mid 80's with roughly the same lineup, I imagine this is everything you could want out of them. Metal fans are notoriously hostile towards bands they perceive as having radically changed their sound, usually concurrent with a rise in popularity, which they then dub "selling out". They would much prefer the drawbacks of a Motörhead or Manilla Road discography, where exists an amazing consistency across fifteen albums (with it coming the all-too-common complaint, "But every albums sounds the same"). As such, Candlemass has offered just that: a consistency of quality and sound that has persisted for over two decades while deviating just slightly enough between periods so as not to (greatly) offend. While it ultimately means that you can't help but listen to Death Magic Doom without comparing it to its better-executed peers, it's something you can spin on occasion and still enjoy, without shaking your head into your hands and wondering what has become of your childhood heroes.
On some editions the track "Lucifer Rising" from an EP they had released a year prior is included. It's not bad.
http://www.mediafire.com/?bad9buzm5rz1cjw
Thus concludes Candlemass's discography up to this point. They have supposedly decided to do one more album before calling it quits. We'll see how it turns out. Even if they quit tomorrow, they'd still leave behind an enduring legacy in the pantheon of heavy metal gods. Now let's just hope they don't do something idiotic before then and change guitarists on their farewell tour.
---
Next-up: Penance
