The latest couple of MDB-albums indeed sound more alike, still there are always some really good tracks.
I like their first four albums most and my favourite is "Turn Loose The Swans" (no funeral doom band can beat that!) I also find "The Light at the End of the World" (1999) a very strong album, which can be seen as a fantastic comeback of the grunt. Its opening track
She is the Dark is phenominal. I always enjoy The Bride live, they rock and sound heavy as f*ck.
Yesterday I heard the new
Candlemass record. Well, I must say that it's really heavy. And good. Perhaps I expected a tiny bit more of it because all the reviews are over the moon about it. But I only heard it once and I am pretty sure that I will appreciate it fully when I play it more often.
There's enough space for the lead guitarist (I love his characteristic solos) and there are a few unsuspected tempo changes on the album. Singer Robert Lowe really fits well into Candlemass. I am looking forward to see them live again, if I have the chance.
Oh, before I forget, I'd like to say this:
People who are not aware of Candlemass or doom metal, don't despair. This is absolutely
not a must to like this new record, or even to like this band in general. There's quite some heavy/classical metal moments in it. What's also a pro: The singer is very strong and from all clean metal singers this guy fits easily in the top 10.
Especially people who are (or were) into Sabbath, check this band out, because the influences are surely recognizable!
Come to think of it, in terms if popularity, Candlemass have made a kind of similar path as Iron Maiden, though their first two albums are broadly considered as the best albums from their own discography. That's not the case with Maiden. Of course, Maiden made more albums, but similar to Candlemass, they also made a string of less successful albums. In the nineties.
1986: Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
1987: Nightfall
Two classics, probably the two most loved albums of their whole discography.
I don't need to say much about them. Just get them!
1988: Ancient Dreams
Mainly because of its worse production this one is considered as perhaps the weakest of all the albums with vocalist Messiah Marcolin. However, my own opinion differs from this "broader" thought. I especially love the (never on stage performed?) tracks
Darkness in Paradise &
Incarnation of Evil. Great vocals and (esp. the second track I mentioned) pitchblack atmosphere. Haunting really. So good that I don't care about the weaker sounding drums or whatever.
The cover I find attractive as well, and the Black Sabbath medley is quite entertaining.
1989: Tales of Creation
I copied this from a
review somewhere else on the net:
Tales of Creation is something of a concept album--often a dirty word when it comes to modern music--but its themes of judgment, loss, redemption and rebirth are well suited to Doom Metal, particularly the "epic traditional" style of Candlemass. Its journey is one through sorrow and despair, yet one which ultimately concludes on a note of unexpected hope and reconciliation. Our narrator, the last of mankind, must face his destiny as the one who will decide the ultimate fate of humanity.
I have this one also on LP. Bit of a fantasy atmosphere, also because of the spoken storytelling words. And we get to hear a couple of beautiful guitar harmonies, which I naturally like. The uptempo
Dark Reflections has become a classic. The closing track, with its slow but steady rhythm, changing near the end into the albums intro, is excellent. Doom pur sang!
1992: Chapter VI
1998: Dactylis Glomerata
1999: From the 13th Sun
Now here comes the gap. I admit that I don't know these albums. Never tried them even. I only know that the nineties was a less successful period.
@Kopfanatic, or anyone else who has heard them, could you tell a bit more about them?
2005: Candlemass
Excellent comeback album with Messiah on vocals again. It took the band a long while to make this album. The band were reunited already 3 or 4 years before this. I saw them on stage in 2002 and they blew the house down!
2007: King of the Grey Islands
2009: Death Magic Doom
The latest two albums, with Robert Lowe (also famous of his other band Solitude Aeternus). Just like Maiden, Candlemass are really back on 6 cilinders.
Basically, imho, all Candlemass albums are worth getting, however as I mentioned before, their nineties-era is still obscure to me.
