Candlemass – Lords of Doom

Ok Candlemass, Doom Legends from Sweden (well we all know that don’t we??) they have been a long time favourite of mine, in particular Tales of Creation, I am sure I could be one of the only people alive that rate Candlemass higher than Black Sabbath, or and other Doom band that walks this earth.

Their latest opus, Doom Magic Doom leaked the other day, much to my glee, as I had been hanging out for it for quite some time. Candlemass prove that they are still a force in the metal scene and in no way was the departure of Messiah a loss in anyway, Robert Lowe is so powerful and in your face he instantly makes you forget that Candlemass ever had anyone else singing for them.

As for the riffs, oh my fucking god, there is a moment in Hammer of Doom that is so reminiscent of Iron Man that I was instantly taken back to the day when I first heard Sabbath.

This album will be physically in my cd collection as soon as it hits the shelves. So I leave you with the vid to Emperor of the Void.

My Dying Bride

Already 2009 is shaping up to be an excellent year for metal and just to add to the excellence My Dying Bride are releasing a new album on March the 23rd. After the awesomness that was A Line Of Deathless Kings the new album For Lies I Sire is sure to kick arse.

An Impressive start.

When I first heard this album I was quite new to the doom metal genre. I had been a fan of Empyrium’s earler works so i figured Noekk being formed by the talented Markus Stock and Thomas Helm I’d give this one a whirl. It was a very good desision indeed.

The Water Sprite is a piece that contains many elements, spanning the metal genre. Its safe to say that this is progressive doom but with influences of black metal, gothic metal, folk and even classic heavy metal. At first your not sure what your listening to but after a few listens this album will click with you.

The overall sound of this album and band is really hard to describe because really, there's nothing else like it. They have their own sound basically and it just takes a few listen to get used to. Overall though, I'm tempted to label it as a folky type sound but with a menacing twist to it. Also, fore some reason, I'm reminded of mountains.

Musically the album is phenomenal. The variation of guitar, acoustic and keyboards in combination with Thomas' strong, deep, melodic vocals mix together perfectly. The mood is definitely an ambient one a majority of the time but the occasional heavy breakout is not over-looked with these guys ether. The riffing actually gets quite technical at times, yet the music never loses its somber atmosphere because you always get brought back into dark ambiance of the forest with the acoustics and the keys.


As for the lyrical themes, well... I'm not one to look into lyrics too much but they seem to deal mostly with the usual abstract pagan type poetry you would expect and they also seem to contain a lot of fantasy/mythical type themes in them too. The lyrics are well suited to this type of music and are quite emotional and epic, however they are communicated in a very odd way.

In a nutshell, this is a great release by the band. Its very impressive musically and is well suited for any doom or black metal fans. But really i would recommend this album to anyone with a good appreciation for folk metal type music or with a hunger to hear something different.

8.5/10