Candlemass: Why We Absolutely Love Them!
Candlemass are veterans who steal the thunder from bands half their age. A look at the history, the reunions and the albums of Sweden's doom metal kings.
Near the top of most lists of great Swedish metal bands you will find Candlemass. The band was formed in Stockholm in 1984 by bassist and songwriter Leif Edling and Matz Ekström. Candlemass brought Black Sabbath's slow, crushing power chords to a new generation of metalheads and, through several break-ups and reunions, has earned the right to be called the kings of Swedish doom. It all started with the band's 1986 debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus.
That record almost single-handedly wrote the handbook for epic doom metal. Candlemass then recorded four more influential albums before calling it quits in 1994. A few years later Edling revived the name for Dactylis Glomerata in 1998, but that line-up did not last long either.
A second reunion for keeps
November 2004 was a momentous month, when the band announced that the classic line-up from 1986 to 1990 was back together: rhythm guitarist Mats Björkman, Leif Edling, lead guitarist Lars Johansson, drummer Jan Lindh and singer Messiah Marcolin. The reunion album was recorded remarkably quickly.
The self-titled album Candlemass (2005) won a Swedish Grammis. Messiah then left the group to make way for American singer Robert Lowe, who made his debut on King of the Grey Islands in 2007. Lowe also sang on Death Magic Doom in 2009 and Psalms for the Dead in 2012, before leaving the band. Mats Levén took over the microphone on stage, and in 2018 the band's original singer Johan Längqvist returned for The Door to Doom (2019). The song "Astorolus: The Great Octopus" from that album, featuring a guitar solo by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance.
Epic albums from Candlemass
The second reunion put Candlemass in an excellent position to make several acclaimed albums, including:
- Candlemass (2005)
- Psalms for the Dead (2012)
- The Door to Doom (2019)
The Candlemass musical formula
Everything that makes Candlemass one of the best metal bands in the world is present on the self-titled album: massive riffs from Edling and Lars Johansson, Jan Lindh's steady beat and Marcolin's phenomenal voice. Listening to Marcolin is a reminder of how rare it is to find a singer of that calibre.
If you have followed metal reunion albums, you will notice that many sound much better than reunions in other genres. Candlemass is a reminder that metal is ageless. The genre is all about musicianship and attitude, and many artists sound as strong as they did 20 years earlier. Read more about the roots of the Swedish scene on our page about metal bands from Sweden.
