Candlemass - Ancient Dreams (1988)

Candlemass are a magnificant band, and this is the second in their Trinity of Divine albums. No, they're not called that because of their religious overtues, I'M calling them that because they are so epic, so beautiful, so haunting that nothing else I have even compares to the majesty and emotion of the sound and the power of Messiah Marcolin's voice.

Like "Nightfall", the cover is taken from a classical painting by Thomas Cole. There are four in the set, and two of them feature on Candlemass albums. This one is Youth. You can view them all here.
It shows a rich and fertile landscape, onto which the youth sails in his golden craft, hand raised as though hailing someone. The river weaves its way off into the distance, towards a ghostly castle or cathedral. In the full image, the angel is standing on the bank and waving, but it is not visible on the CD cover. It is an image to evoke a journey into the fantastical, the mysterious and the potentially dangerous.

A simple two-fold cover, the lyrics are printed in an itty-bitty teeny tiny font that you need glasses to read. On the back are tiny thumbnails of the band. They look very 80s, rather lacking in the majesty and power that their music evokes, although Messiah still looks like a wild-haired monk. I always found the skull on a cross logo to be a bit tacky, given the sheer intensity and beauty of the music. Then again, Candlemass are not the most serious of bands.

The album opens wiht the epic "Mirror Mirror"*. Charging harmonies, chugging guitars, twiddly melodies and then the Voice. Heavy, intense.

Similarly intense, "A Cry from the Crypt" has the characteristic galloping bassline and chugging guitars.

Great and looming, "Darkness in Paradise" descends. The lyrics are filled with bittersweet pain, the vocals a force of nature. Lyrics remind me of "Solitude":

"I'm standing here in silence, disgraceful place of peace, watching the shadows come closer. The birds they sing no longer, the winds they blow no more..."

Ominous dark rhythms.

"Incarnation of Evil" is brooding and immense, looming and ominous.

Starting a wee bit faster, "Bearer of Pain" before falling into similar patterns. Whilst Messiah's voice is indeed very fine, he attains the same pitch and structure for the first five tracks of the album. Individually they are epic, but together they do blur somewhat into one another.

Which makes the next one, "Ancient Dreams" a welcome change. It starts with guitar (bass?); an echoing, sitrring rhythm that reaches deep down into the soul, before the other instruments join in.  Messiah's voice is like a crystaline shard, carrying you to a mystical, magical world where dreams become reality. This was one of the very first Candlemass songs I ever heard, and it still stirs my soul to this day:

"There's no tomorrow, just sadness and sorrow, hold on to thee ancient dreams..."

The higher pitch of the guitars and the lilting nature of the vocals make this one stand out as something quite remarkable and inspirational.

Immense and powerful, "The Bells of Acheron" ring out. Some nicely demented piano in here.

The vocals on "Epistle no 18" have an intense radiance to them, seeming to come deep from the heart and soul, soaring to the skies. The music is a heavy, brooding and dark counterpoint.

Finally we conclude with the "Black Sabbath Medley". Sabbath were induitably the inventors of the doom sound, and this is a fine tribute to them. It begins with "Symptoms of the Universe", but instead of Ozzy's nasal whine we have Messiah's mighty lungs pounding forth the words, before switching to "Sweet Leaf". I can imagine Messiah, the crazy monk himself, stalking back and forth across the stage, howling into the microphone as he gestures at the crowd, then bringing his hands together and turning to face them as he switches into "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". Then a bit of headbanging as the guitar solo comes in, fading into the lower throbbing tempo. Indeed, the mental image is so clear I cannot help but wonder if I have watched live footage**. After a brief solo, "Electric Funeral" takes over, then a bit more stomping and head-banging. A final flurry of instruments and it's over. Pretty epic tribute though!


This is a mixed bag for me - it contains two of the most awesome Candlemass songs ever - "Ancient Dreams" and "Epistle no 81", but the others are kinda same-ish in their epic scale and immensity. Messiah has a magnificant voice, but it does get a wee bit repetitive after a time.

So this one will get an 8/10.

* Candlemass's videos show they do not take themselves very seriously. It is quite entertaining, but at odds with the music.

** I do actually have footage of Candlemass live, with Tankard and Kreator I think, but the sound is distorted and messed up so I've never watched it.

Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)

Ah, the beauty and majesty of Candlemass. I know this band well, having discovered them way back when I was in my early Metal Years. This was, if I recall, my first of their albums, and I originally purchased it on cassette tape. I own the CD now, of course.

Messiah Marcolin, vocalist at this time, is a Metal God. He has the voice of an angel - albeit a somewhat large one and slightly sweaty one. That is to say - it is a lovely, beautiful voice but so much power - the sort of power that could devastate buildings or rise mountains from the sea.

He is magnificant.

This is the first of the Trinity of Divine Candlemass albums.  As I own them all, they shall all be listened to, dissected, admired and enjoyed. I am undecided as to which is my favourite, but as this is the first, it defnitely rates highly.

Okay, so you get the idea, I love these albums. I love Messiah. They are beauty and power and... let's just listen to it already, shall we? Actually, I vaguely remember analysing some of these songs for a  school project/poetry assignment. We had an awesome English teacher.

And don't worry, I'll try and find you some videos too - in case you are one of the unintiated.

Firstly - this album jacket is beautiful, taken from "The Voyage of Life: Old Age" by Thomas Cole. It depicts an aged man, in a boat afloat on a lonely ocean, dark clouds looming overhead, a ray of light splitting them asunder. Before him hovers an Angel, a vision of white and glory. In the very centre, small and unassuming but very easy to read, is the band name and the title. The sleeve itself is a simple affair - a one fold cover with all the lyrics printed in small but legible font, set against the twilight clouds.

As I noted previously, most metal albums from this era begin with a short intro piece with haunting music or - in this case - crashing lightning or perhaps a cracking "Gothic Stone".

Whatever it is, it quickly fades into the looming majesty of "The Well of Souls". Messiah's soaring and powerful voice rises above the doom-laden chords, filled with his passion and dedication to protecting the world from:

"...hatred and scorn..."

Perhaps because Messiah's customary attire is a robe, crucifix and he pretty much looks like an epic avenging monk, it is very, very easy to envisage him as the "old man" whose life is dedicated to protecting the world from the looming threat of Satan.

Lyrics indicate that he is unsuccessful in this endeavour, yet like in the earlier track "The Sorcerer's Pledge", the battle is a non-climactic one. In this case, daylight destroys the darkness. Let us just be thankful that they write lyrics, not novels.

"Codex Gigas" is another pounding instrumental, with ominous, slow beats and brooding atmosphere. I am imagining someone carrying a heavy load, ponderously through the dark.

Ah, the opening chords of "At the Gallows End" bring a shiver to my spine and a tear to my eye. Partly it is nostalgia - but also it is a beauty lead-in - slow and haunting, with Messiah's wonderful voice dripping with raw emotion and loss. I am standing with him, waiting for my death. What a swan song.

"Only the vultures will come to see me hang..."

Pounding bass, dramatic and chilling. 

And oh, now we have the most beautiful "Samarithan". Every song a memory. Slower rhythms, slightly lower vocal register; sorrow and compassion weigh down the words. A homeless man, offered sanctuary - a simple act of kindness that brings with it much reward. This song is a thing of beauty.

I am never quite sure if Candlemass are technically a Christian band - their lyrics are filled with Christian imagery, but they seem to regard it with more honour and respect than the bands that preach about hellfire and damnation. It feels biblical in the oldest sense of the word, and noble.

The ponderous and dramatic "Marche Funeral"  bridges us between this song and "Dark are the Veils of Death". This is a faster paced, and somewhat more dramatic slightly hectic song, almost desperate at times. Messiah's vocals are no less than stupendous.

"Enter the great adventure, just wait and see..."

I think Candlemass helped me to "survive" my teen years. Whilst they are, technically, a doom band, their lyrics are not filled with as much death and despair as other bands of that ilk* - they have hope - of the afterlife, of redemption, of the triumph of good against evil.

The devastatingly beautiful "Mourner's Lament" follows. A song laden so much with mourning, loss and anguish. A father mourns his deceased son. A song that sends shivers down my spine and a thrill in my heart. The power... the raw emotion... The whispered "Rest in peace" brings a tear to my eye.

Why, you could almost say that I'm "Bewitched" - which is coincidentally, the next (and almost final) track on this album. It is a song with decidedly pagan elements, putting it at odds of every other track on this album:

"Bewitched by delight, you'll reach the night dancing and singing to my fiddle. So take my hand, and understand, that no-one will see you again." 

It is a splendid song, and somewhat more upbeat than the rest of the album. Of course, the video is something of a letdown, thanks to be exceedingly cheap and cheesy and rather silly. I suspect that the band are not quite as serious as they pretend to be. Still, noone is immune to a little fun.

Candlemass are an amazing band, and this is an awesome album. Along with the other two Messiah-vocaled Candlemass albums, they are some of the finest doom and gloom albums ever made. Even the nostalgia aspect notwithstanding, it would be a crime against metal to give this album anything less than 10/10.


* Stay tuned for Confessor (music to kill yourself to). But they'll probably have to wait until I've looped through all my Candlemass. Ironically, Confessor helped me in those angst-ridden years too.

Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)

Ah, the first Candlemas album, before they took on the majesty of Messiah Marcolin and had instead Johan Langquist on vocals.

This album is very old, I was 9 when it was released. Disregarding the slightly silly title - silly it may be, but it certainly does describe this album and the pretty crummy cover - this is a damned fine album.

Candlemass were a Swedish band that formed in 1984 and I discovered in the Great Metal Revelation that was my teenage years. It may seem strange that the bands I would commonly claim as my favourites were Candlemass (admittedly, Marcolin-lead Candlemass, I discovered this CD later) and Helloween - two metal bands that may seem like polar opposites of one another. I believe Candlemass spoke to the angst-ridden, hormonely-tormented me - the me that luxuriated in feelings of misery and gloom.

I just looked up Candlemass on Wikipedia and discovered that for SIX WHOLE YEARS they had Robert Lowe as their vocalist. Robert Lowe*! The only band that can compete with Candlemass for melancholic emotion were Solitude Aeturnus. I MUST track down "King of the Grey Islands" and/or "Death Magic Doom".

Anyhow, back to this album - their very first:

With its slow and dramatic opening chords, we are immersed into the majesty of "Solitude" - a song that drips with melancholy and loneliness, a song that sings of death and the desire to be alone with it. Whilst not as elegant a vocalist as Messiah, Langquist's low voice is filled with the emotion and conveys the doomladen tone with suitable power.

"Hate is my only friend, Pain is my father. Torment is delight to me. Death is my sanctuary, I seek it with pleasure. Please let me die in solitude..."

"Demon's Gate" is suitably ominous, beginning with a rather creepy, almost demonic voice proclaiming the entry into this other realm of terror and darkness, before we are once again treated to Langquist's emotive vocal style. The bass and drums are slow but heavy, laden with doom. The tempo increases slightly, becoming more ominous as the song progresses and the vocals turn, at times, almost frenzied, before fading into a slower central beat, in which the drummer hammers away in a rather dramatic fashion. It attains an almost dirge-like quality, before the lyrics start again from the beginning, Langquist sounding somewhat more anxious.

Lyric sheet could do with a bit of a proof-read, however. Should it be "Demons Gate" or "Demon's Gate"?
Also, "...where it's darkness..."

We are pounded into "Crystal Ball," and experience once more Langquist switching from low and melancholic to shrill and frantic.

"Black Stone Wielder" is suitably pounding.

The brooding "Under the Oak" is a haunting piece. Langquist's voice soars over the instruments and tells us of a time when the world has died, and all that remains is he - a single man left after the Lord has swept away mankind. Certainly, Candlemass may have religious elements to their lyrics, but their God is anything but benign. 

The epic "A Sorcerer's Pledge" is probably my favourite song on this CD, and also displays that the sleeve-designers DO understand punctuation. It begins with low, ominous vocals, weaving the start of the story about the Sorcerer's desire to cheat time. Actually, reading the lyrics, they do not make a lot of sense. Anyhow, who cares, this is a song, not a novel! The slow build ends savagely as we soar into Part II, where the Sorcerer's evil schemes are revealed and his plans to rise and rule take hold. Part III describes the rather anti-climactic results of his plans. All in all, not a great plot, but an awesome song.

 The pacing of all these songs is slow and powerful, as befits the genre known as "doom metal", for which Candlemass were the GODS, drawing inspiration from Black Sabbath's darker moments. There are no additional instruments past the standard lead guitar, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and drums. This is basic, primeval metal. Dark and heavy, it reaches deep into your soul with its gloom-laden vocals and pounds in your viscera. It is not happy music, but it is not aggressive either. Not even depressing (although sometime of the lyrics are rather negative).

Rating = 7/10



However, now I've got distracted and am listening to Robert Lowe sing The Bleeding Baronness on youtube (no video, alas, it would be interesting to see how he has aged). Well, looking at him on wikipedia - much like the rest of us - larger, older, actually looks a little like Bill Bailey. Hrm...

* Not to be confused with the actor by the similar name, who is also rather lovely.