Candlemass fail to shine on their 13th album
IT SAYS MUCH about the steadfastness of Candlemass bassist and bandleader Leif Edling’s vision that the Stockholm doom kings have retained such a consistent approach across a number of different singers, just as Black Sabbath remained the vehicle for Tony Iommi’s guitar, whichever vocalist he was employing. It wouldn’t be too flippant to quip that Candlemass remain the vehicle for Iommi’s guitar too. They are the Swedish Sabs at this point, the comparison echoed as much in their bullish persistence and continuity across a wayward, decades-long career as in the songs themselves, still devotedly steeped in the art of flatted fifth string-bending and sounds of rainfall and tolling bells.