Review by Brian McLean
Candlemass, the twice reunited Swedish epic doom metallers, have returned with the release of their latest effort, and eleventh overall, fittingly titled Candlemass through Nuclear Blast Records.
With the release of Candlemass, fans of the slow motion tempos worldwide are rejoicing and for good reason. Simply stated, Candlemass is a masterpiece of nine tracks, including one instrumental, of pure songwriting and production brilliance. No one fan could ask for anything better from a band that has broken up twice.
Making up the Candlemass doom machine is vocalist Messiah Marcolin, bassist, song writing mastermind and disc producer Leif Edling, guitarists Mats Bjorkmand and Lars Johansson rounded out with Jan Lindh on drums.
Edling captures what Candlemass is all about, heaviness with hints of Ian Gillian’s vocals throughout the disc.
With the opening riff “Black Dwarf,” the steady and heavy disc opener, the listener will immediately be pulled in for the duration of the disc and will not want to escape its grasp. Hitting pause or eject will not even enter the mind.
The listener will continue to be pulled in deeper with the much slower “Seven Silver Keys” followed by “Assassin of the Light,” “Copernicus,” the disc instrumental “The Man Who Fell from the Sky” that fades in from the beginning, and then “Witches”.
The seventh track, “Born in a Tank” will have listeners swaying their heads back and forth at mid tempo. “Spellbreaker”, “The Day and the Night” and bonus track “Mars and Volcanoes” slow the tempo back down and brings the listener to that final epicus doomicus melting point.
The artwork for the digi release of Candlemass is absolutely stunning, a solid glossy white cover with a raised embossed logo on the front. It’s a very simplistic cover along with the classy interior band photos, five doomsters in black suits, white shirts and black ties standing on snow covered steps.
Candlemass may well be top release of the year for Nuclear Blast as well as a contender for Album of the Year. It’s that strong. Inking Candlemass to a contract was a wise move by Nuclear Blast.
Slow motion has never sounded so good and swaying has never felt so good. If the Swedes understand baseball lingo, Candlemass is a Grand Slam from sound to packaging to artwork.