Candlemass - Candlemass

*=Staff's pick	Black Dwarf* Seven Silver Keys Assassin Of The Light* Copernicus The Man Who Fell From The Sky Witches* Born In A Tank Spellbreaker The Day And The Night Mars And Volcanos*

Genre	Doom Metal	Messiah Marcolin	Vocals
Tracks	10	Lars Johansson	Guitar
Runningtime	59 Min.	Mats Björkman	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Leif Edling	Bass
Release	02 May 2005	Jan Lind	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

Legendary doomsters finally return with a new album, and it is with the classic Candlemass line-up. First there was a re-union and a killer comeback show at Sweden Rock Festival but after that nothing really happened and the band split up once again. But finally there is a new re-re-union and this time they have stuck together long enough to come up with a new album. This is the first album this line-up has recorded since Tales Of Creation (1989) and even if Leif Edling has kept the band going with three releases since then it has never really been the same without Messiah on vocals. I saw Candlemass for the first time in my life at Sweden Rock in 2002 and felt that it was great to finally see a band that I had liked for so many years back together again, but now that I listen to the new album the feeling I get is even greater.

The new album which is simply titled Candlemass comes with a better balance than ever, and the quality of the songs is very 'even' throughout the whole album and the quality is very high. The first song Black Dwarf kicks in to gear with a killer riff and a surprisingly fast pace for being Candlemass while it at the same time is being traditionally ultra heavy. And together with the track Witches you have two tracks that blends heaviness with melodic lead guitars with that typical melancholia Candlemass can bring out and it sounds absolutely fantastic. Seven Silver Keys is more of traditional Candlemass if you will, and with a pace and beauty that makes me think of the older albums and the mighty voice from Messiah that seems to be in perfectly good vocal shape gives the song a really good flow.

The most doom from the doomsters is served in the tracks Assassin Of The Light and Copernicus and even if they are slow and heavy they feel both vital and alive. Despite the doomy mood it feels refreshing to listen to them and that is perhaps a sign of that this is the album that is the most easy to listen to done by this line-up, it takes less time to let this album sink in compared to how long it took with their earlier works.

When it comes to write mighty and heavy music with riffs of the caliber Candlemass delivers, Leif Edling is a master. There is only one person that can create a better might with riffs in my humble opinion and that is Tony Iommi. While we have waited for so many years for this album to be done we have been able to follow Messiah in Memento Mori while Leif Edling has been doing great things with Abstrakt Algebra and Krux and that is something that has left its traces with the track Spellbreaker which features some more technical guitar playing. The music in these band has been similar to Candlemass and also sounding very good, but it is only in this surrounding they get the most out of themselves. This is where they belong, in Candlemass.

See also review of: Death Thy Lover , Psalms For The Dead , Death, Magic, Doom

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	9	8

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas