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CANDLEMASS
Sweet Evil Sun

Napalm (2022)
Rating: 8.5/10

I guess there’s only so much you can do with a doom metal riff, but boy do Candlemass still know how to cause earthquakes with their juddering, brooding brand of metal. I will admit to flitting in and out of Candlemass albums since my favourite vocalist Messiah Marcolin first departed the ranks in 1991, but every time I dip my toes into such black waters I am frozen by the mesmeric quality of this Swedish clan.

The monstrously epic ‘Scandinavian Gods’, the hefty title track with its snarling vocals, and ‘When Death Sighs’ – featuring Avatarium frontwoman Jennie-Ann Smith – are mesmeric and punchy, although ‘Devil Voodoo’ is a tad daft even at an epic seven-minutes and more. Vocalist Johan Längqvist is arguably one of the more grittier singers to front the band, but his style doesn’t distract from the fact that Candlemass remains a colossus in its chosen field.

‘Black Butterfly’ is classic, storm-brewing doom metal and one can only praise the axe linguistics of Lars “Lasse” Johansson and Mats “Mappe” Björkman. These guys trade blows like thunder claps rumbling through pallid skies as the sombre sighs of ‘Angel Battle’ offer variations of pace but all wrapped in that sodden blanket of melancholy, while Jan Lindh pummels his snare on the mighty ‘Crucified’.

Candlemass can never replicate the titanic tolling of those classic early albums but they remain as constant and foreboding in the scene as an old castle casting shadows from a hill. Imposing, threatening and bellowing, Sweet Evil Sun shakes mighty fists and crashes down to earth with severity as mystical showers rain with an abysmal grace. The Hammond tones of ‘Goddess’ and the rhythmic trudge of opener ‘Wizard Of The Vortex’ showcase how Candlemass remain masters of the misery within a genre bogged down by weed.

Neil Arnold

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