In continuing my singer-centric assessment of Candlemass, I was faced with an interesting procedural choice. Since Johan was the first and is the latest lead singer, I could either move forward to Messiah or backwards to Robert Lowe (not that one). I chose to step back to the trio of albums with Lowe to keep myself from falling into conventional narratives about old bands with new singers. Namely, "bold new direction," "pointless continuation," (similar to "desperate for cash" and "let's play the casino circuit") and "can't really tell the difference" aka "simple repetition."
Robert Lowe, of Solitude Aeturnus, is the kind of “good singer” venerated in certain metal circles--the kind vocal coaches do reaction videos to and say nice things about their technique. I'm pretty sure he is the first non-Scandi member of the band, and coming from the only other 'big' epic doom band I would tend to see him as a hired gun--the kind of singer Leif would have loved to snag for Epicus.
The best of this lot is easily The Grey King (2007). After an acoustic "Prologue," it really starts to burn with "Emporer of the Void." It seems to be a concept album about, well, the king of "the great islands of grey," whoever that would be. The theme is lost power, but there's no power lost in them tasty riffs and compact psuedo-psych solos. Lowe serves as narrator of this suite of first-person songs, and he does have a nice range of expression--not just all balls-out wailing but a range of vocalizations included some tasteful multi-tracking and bitten off, snarled lines, along with soaring melody and sustain. (Since I don't have the technical knowledge or even a vocal coach's reaction to crib off of, that's all just... words, really.)
Even though there's a native English speaker singing, Leif apparently remains the only lyricist. There's something off throughout--maybe going for an updated approach or something? That really shouldn't matter, as metal generally isn't noted for sophisticated word play. But there is one misstep that really annoyed me the first few listens that I never have been able to get over. The final song repeats its title as a refrain: "Embracing the Styx" (sounding a lot like the much earlier "You are bewitched," it so happens.) Evoking the river of death seems on point and the right kind of coloration for doom. Unfortunately, it sounds exactly like "embracing the sticks," which is what I thought it was for the first several listens--an absurdly awkward image. Even after I saw the written song title I thought "you can't embrace a river," though that's kind of the point, as in this final song the king opens his wrists so the blood might mingle with the water. It turns out that this is a strong track, but my early misapprehension continues to mar my appreciation of it.
Next comes Death Magic Doom (2009). This is a little more power-metal than The Grey King and a lot more so than Epicus. There’s a little swagger in it, the barest hint of groove/nu metal (i.e., gruve metal--Lowe even says, “we’re gonna groove” in the opener, “If I Ever Die.”) That non-hit is immediately followed by the tolling of a funeral bell over a slow downtuned, ultra-Sabbathy riff in “The Hammer of Doom,” thus establishing the dominant mode. We see other standby motifs, like the sea monster in "Demon of the Deep." This album ends with a track repeated from a live set. This song, "Lucifer Rising," is actually the Candlemass song I have heard more than any other, because I added it to my 13 Songs for Satan playlist. It praises the dark lord in a Dio-esque Egyptian setting and features the beatitude, "blessed are the children of doom." There is an effect called "simple repetition" that shows that, all else being equal, people like songs they've heard more often better. That was true for a long time with me and this song, but to tell the truth the super-repetition within the song itself has finally gotten to me. It repeats the chorus "Lucifer, Lucifer, Lucifer Rising" (that's the whole chorus) 20 times in a sub-4 minute song.
By contrast, the first track of Psalms for the Dead (2012), "Prophet," repeats the title 13 times in 6 minutes, and that seems like a lot! This record feels like they're continuing the doom/power-metal balance, though they introduce an element I don’t normally associate with the band at all--humor.
There's a cheesy 50's horror movie woo-oo-oo effect on "The Sound of Dying Demons," and while the narrative of "Dancing of the Temple of the Mad Queen Bee)" is told in apparent earnestness, I have to imagine there's humorous intent. And while it's not exactly humor, "Killing of the Sun" quotes "Iron Man" while the lyrics of "Siren Song" invokes the "gallows pole" (rhyming it with "the sirens will suck on your soul" which, I think, is humorous(?)). "Siren Song" has some jamming keyboard too.
The tone of this track reflects the perplexing tone of the record as a whole--it would seem to be funny, but rendered so sincerely you wind up questioning yourself.
So I wrote this as a chronology, but in the end decided the actual ranking is
- The King of the Grey Islands
- Psalms for the Dead
- Death Magic Doom
King is the only one I'm likely to listen to again, and the only one to even remotely contend with Epicus.
