If I realized I'd be returning from the dead, so to speak, with post #123, I might have planned something more... sequential. But doom metal goes with the resurrection theme at least. Long story short, I've decided to break my silence with an idea that strikes me as stupid and beautiful--ranking the albums of the Swedish epic doom band Candlemass by singer. While I do find this a beautifully stupid idea, I'm having trouble explaining the appeal. I hope I'll figure it along the way, so by the time you get to the end of this I will figure out what I actually have to say.
123.1 If you want a history of Candlemass, go to Wikipedia and then Encylopedia Metallum. There, you'll learn Johan Langquist was the first singer for the band (with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in 1986) and has returned to become the latest (with Door to Doom in 2019). This is kind of like Paul Dianno coming back to front Iron Maiden after all these year, provided that the first Maiden albums had been stone classics which Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind and the rest just didn't live up to.
Pitting these two against each other is not a fair fight. Epicus is unassailable. That first album is a genre-establishing classic. There were a few bands who based their sound on Black Sabbath already, but the great innovation of bassist and mastermind Lars Edling was to cross seventies Sabbath with eighties Sabbath. (That sounds like a bullshit statement to me. I'm not sure if it's supportable or even what it means.) Lars couldn't find the singer who had the sound for his vision (apparently he is a singer himself, of too limited range). Johan was hired as a guest musician and given a few weeks to learn the songs. (Is there another album in metal, or rock or pop for that matter, which lists both the lead singer and lead guitarist as guests? Makes you wonder what "lead" means!) Compared to his replacements (we will get them later, of course), Johan does have some technical limitations, and his voice is awash with echoes and layering in Epicus. He's not at all bad, and I think the record would have been just fine if they'd just let him sing. Instead (and like Dianno, mentioned above), he is limited singer asked to sing in an opera (Also like Dianno, he was replaced by a succession of more technically proficient singers.)
There are many bands who never live up to their first album, but Candlemass never lived up to their first song, "Solitude." The initial vocal line is doubled and echoed, but Johan imbues real sense of desperation and death-love into the suicidal lyrics. The “Earth to earth” bridge gets me every time, the riff, oh my dark lord the riff, by long-time member Mappe Bjorkman, is one of the heaviest in existence. In “Demon’s Gate” the initial cheesy vocal effects (and lyrics: the distorted demon vocals say Beyond all nightmares I met my fate/an ancient passage surrounded by hate") and the heavy synth are forgiven once you get to the riff and those blasting, jackhammer drums. The song includes the first explicit use of the word "doom": "The place is cursed by the hands of doom." A little later on, it tries a little bass and drums break before one of the many pick-slides on the album and before it ends, the Arabic textures return in a guitar solo and so do the distorted demon vox end. The next song, “Crysal Ball” doubles down on the cheesy lyrics, with the couplet "Gaze into the crystal, see what it tells/It can bring you all fortune, do you so well." Leif is, I believe, responsible for all Candlemass lyrics, and they often sound like they were written by a Swedish teen pulling Cs in English who's obsessed with the Monster Manual. (I assume this was the case.) The lyrics tend to be a mishmash of a light variety of Satanism and mythology (the river Styx shows up alot). They mostly just set the mood for doom, but sometimes stumble into something interesting. “Black Stone Wielder” invents, I guess, a dark figure with a black stone that functions as the opposite of the Star of Bethlehem. I guess. As long as lyricist Lars can avoid embarrassment, populate the songs with wizards and devils, and occasionally throw in a cool sounding line like “The Devil gives and evil takes,” he is doing his job.
As a head-to-head matchup, Door hasn’t a chance. It’s a good record though. Johann’s vocals are controlled throughout this album. I lack the technical knowledge to be any more specific, but his singing seems held in. He doesn’t reach too far and so he doesn’t fall on his face--like the more subdued aspects of Ian Gillian. Although it reunites three members from the debut (Langquist, Eiflung, and rhythm guitarist Mappe Bjorkman), Candlemass has updated their sound over the years--the galloping rhythm and choir vocals in “Splendor Demon Majesty” suggest the influence of power metal, as does the clanky anvil percussion in the second track, “Under the Ocean.” But as far as doomy maneuvers go, getting Tony Iommi to do a guest solo is about as good as you can do. That solo, on the crushing “Astorolus,” starts underwater and emerges like a giant octopus from underwater, pulling sailors from the decks of their ships.
Songs in the back half continue the updated “doom but new” sound. “Death Wheel” has a nice bridge and lovely, two part guitar solo that ends with a fuzz second part accompanied by-- flute? “Black Trinity” carries on in the tradition of ‘devil shit is so cool’ shared by “Splendor Demo Majesty” and, you'd be forgiven for thinking, most Candlemass songs. The evil trinity is referred to as “the ambassadors of doom,” which just about explains the continuing existence of this band. The purpose of Candlemass is to doom. Not only are they the self-appointed “ambassadors of doom,” but they live in “The House of Doom” (the title of the penultimate track, which presumably has the Door to Doom on the front--painted black) and belong to the “club of doom” (in the the finale, “The Omega Circle.”) By the end of this album, I feel like I’ve had enough, and in fact, apart from “Under the Ocean” and “Astorolus,” I’m unlikely to listen to this album much again.
Next time, I'll step back one singer (or forward four) and consider the three albums with Robert Lowe.
