Reviews
Rating
8.9
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
3rd April 2009
01. If I Ever Die
02. Hammer Of Doom
03. The Bleeding Baroness
04. Demon Of The Deep
05. House Of 1000 Voices
06. Dead Angel
07. Clouds Of Dementia
08. My Funeral Dreams
09. Lucifer Rising [US bonus]
Throughout their lengthy career, Candlemass has shown various faces. Well, what do you expect when your sound is very vocal-driven and you change vocalist on numerous occasions in your career? When Messiah left/got kicked out of the band in '06, they quickly introduced the -other- guy with the dazzling voice - Robert Lowe. Known for his works with the long-running Solitude Aeturnus, there were no doubts concerning his skills, but still their first album together felt a little uncomfortable and lacking in chemistry.
That, my doomed companions, is now no longer an issue. With their second album together "Death Magic Doom", and the tenth full-length album in Candlemass' life, both parties have found each other in a magnificent album. What Candlemass is today is a groovy, doomy and relentless killing machine. The characteristic despairing wails of Messiah have been replaced with Lowe's angry, bellowing lines. Still, the biggest change that this band went through in recent times has to do with the riffs. Where they used to be lead-heavy and pummelling, they are now fast(er) and full of catchy firework (especially the solos). This band has matured a lot, despite how superfluous and meaningless such a term actually is.
As opposed to the previous vocalists of Candlemass, who peaked early in their Candlemass-career, Lowe seems to work the other way around. "Death Magic Doom" is a definite step-up from their previous album and a very accessible, but nonetheless very enjoyable album. At times, they even sound more like a US Power metal act than a Traditional Doom metal one, with "If I Ever Die" as best example. Don't fear though, only on a few occasions and well, the band has always possessed a fair amount of cheese, right? Besides, the opener is compensated by the jaw dropping "Hammer Of Doom", with its stunning vocal performance and ditto main riff. And when the riffs are subtly accentuated by the keyboard in the background, things get even better (House Of Thousand Voices). Not every song is worth its weight in gold, but there are certainly no below-average tracks on this. Hell, "My Funeral Dreams" and "Clouds Of Dementia" are my least favourite songs on this album but they still kick the ass of a ton of Doom bands out there.
Lowe brought a significant amount of change and keeps the band fresh and vibrant, however paradoxical that may sound. "Death Magic Doom" is another great release from this highly prolific and important band. I personally think it is amazing how this band manages to maintain an interesting sound, even if the changes were forced upon them and Lowe is certainly not my favourite of the Candlemass vocalists. And truth be told: no Doom metal lover will be able to resist this baby. Swinging The Hammer Of Doooooooooooom!
Band profile: Candlemass Album: Death Magic Doom
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 7
Production: 8
written by Lucas | published 15.04.2009 (metalstorm.ee)
GospelofDoom.in Review
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Review by Khushal Bhadra (GospelofDoom.in)
Nuclear Blast
Release date: 3rd April 2009
All this time I have been seriously and continuously listening to the new Candlemass album. And finally the songs that stand out is what I am going to point out. Its a very strong album and has a potential to be the best Candlemass album. I also do not agree when the critics point out that Leif Edling only uses good songs for the Krux project although I equally like this band. Candlemass is all together a serious Doom metal band which can be differentiated with the music style of Krux .
After listening to the new Death Magic Doom I can say it is a very strong intense album full of emotions and the way Robert lowe has sung on it is appreciable.
The Bleeding Baroness - one of my favorite tracks on this album starts with a mellow intro with a very interesting riff and on top of that the way Robert Lowe sings is like he is flirting with words and the melody would sound so intense and evil. After the intro the song moves on to a very fast paced twisted riff, unique in its own way. This song has a progressive feel to it with a very good solo and chorus on it.
The highlight of the song is when Robert sings "The white queen smiles, the creature's alive" its so fucking amazing.
My Funeral Dreams - Again this songs starts with clean guitars as an intro with very good melody from Mr Lowe which is worth concentrating that escalates into one of the best riffs on the album. Guitar solo on this song is really very cool and I am sure you'll will enjoy it the most.
Highlight of the song is the heavy intro riff with amazing vocal melody.
Rest of the album is also top notch but I just wanted to grab your attention with just the reviews of the 2 songs which I think is extra special. I am not good at writing reviews but I hope this will help you'll to listen to the album more and more. Since no one has fully reviewed this album here in this thread I thought I should give it a try with atleast pointing out the highlights of this beautiful album.
StonerRock.com Review
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Review by JJ Koczan (StonerRock.com)
Nuclear Blast
Release date: Available now
The second among the ranks of this years goofily-titled releases by legendary doom acts (the other two being Heaven and Hells The Devil You Know and Trouble's The Dark Riff), Swedish gods Candlemass present their sophomore full-length in their incarnation fronted by Robert Lowe of Solitude Aeturnus, Death Magic Doom. Considering the vivacious sound the band had on 2007's King of the Grey Islands — despite the fact that Lowe joined the band just shortly before it was recorded and all the material had long since been penned by bassist Leif Edling Death Magic Doom has a lot to live up to, but with tales of demons and death, they present eight solid tracks in their trademark classic style.
Ideally, I'd like to construct a narrative about how these songs were written differently with Edling considering the power of Lowe's voice specifically as regards the vocal melodies, but I just don't think that's the way it went down. Rather, I think Lowe was picked as a replacement for Messiah Marcolin precisely because his voice already fit what Candlemass was doing; there was no adjustment necessary. On that level, Death Magic Doom continues their already well-suited coupling. After some time on the road together, Lowe does sound assured and confident of his role in the band, but it's not like King of the Grey Islands was unsure vocally. It's just a good match.
Death Magic Doom is first couple of tracks play out like Candlemass showing off tempo changes. Like King of the Grey Islands, the album opens with a strong, forceful rocker that's one of the faster cuts in the repertoire. If I Ever Die may not be as catchy as Emperor of the Void was, but as a lead in for the slow, Sabbathian, bell-laden Hammer of Doom it works quite well in setting up the contrast. Lowe's vocals are firm and well-mixed over the riffs of rhythm guitarist Mats Mappe Bjorkman and the solo emitted by lead guitarist Lars Lasse Johansson at 4:30 after a velocity increase just after the four-minute mark elevates the track from anykind of cool to classic Candlemass.
Lyrically, much of the over-the-top operatics of early works like 1988's Ancient Dreams or the next year's Tales of Creation is gone, but there's plenty of horror imagery in The Bleeding Baroness and Demon of the Deep to fill any gaps. On the former Edling proves once again why he's considered by many (myself included) to be one of the top three doom riffers of all time, and by including an organ, Demon shows some of the epic flair that Candlemass has always had a mysterious penchant for being able to carry across without being corny. Another slower track but about a minute shorter than Hammer of Doom, the song wanders some but is constructed so that it never really loses the audience's attention.
Likewise, the unassuming start of House of Thousand Voices, which is Death Magic Doom's longest song at 7:50, could just as easily be seen as a filler riff, but Lowe delivers a narrative lyric reminiscent of the great Candlemass stories like Samarithan or Black Stone Wielder and any dip in quality is redeemed by the gradual build and groove that begins at 3:47. More synth, more gargantuan soloing, and House of Thousand Voices turns out to be one of the strongest tracks of the bunch. The band does well to follow it with Dead Angel, the shortest and possibly fastest song on the record. A multi-tracked chorus on top of a bed of flowing double-kick from drummer Jan Lindh marks the change in mood from House of Thousand Voices, and rather than be anti-climactic, Dead Angel acts as a payoff for the build that came before it. Of course, yet another fantastic solo from Johansson doesn't hurt.
Clouds of Dementia stomps at a middling meter, but even middle-of-the-road Candlemass is better than almost anything else, and closer “My Funeral Dreams, with a quiet intro similar in feel to Demon of the Deep, wraps Death Magic Doom in strong and grand fashion with more keys and a sudden concluding stop. Simply put, the expectations on any Candlemass release are nearly if not blatantly ridiculous and this one is no exception, but the record manages to live up to them and sound energetic. One hopes that with Death Magic Doom, Edling and company are hitting a stride in terms of songwriting that will carry them through their next several albums. If this is to be their new formula, I'll happily take it.
HEAVEN & HELL
The Devil You Know (Rhino)
Courtesy - http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
01. Atom and Evil
02. Fear
03. Bible Black
04. Double the Pain
05. Rock and Roll Angel
06. The Turn of the Screw
07. Eating the Cannibals
08. Follow the Tears
09. Neverwhere
10. Breaking Into Heaven
Crawling out of the gate with a doom dirge blast from the subterranean hollows of 1970, Tony Iommi leads his aging troops into one more battle with a riff and a tone that could level Mordor. It's BLACK SABBATH, the Ronnie James Dio-fronted version of the band, although the new moniker provides both a balm to Ozzy's wounded feelings and a steely statement of intent. This isn't a county-fair knockoff milking the customers with ever-more-cringeworthy renditions of "Paranoid" and "Iron Man"... it's a band, a partnership firing on all cylinders creatively, with plenty of dark magic left to dispense and no intentions of resting on laurels.
Dio still sounds amazing, writing in a lower register these days but possessed of a grandeur and gravity that's just awe-inspiring. He's always been a consummate professional, able to give the dodgiest material a patina of class and grace, and when he's working with Iommi and Geezer Butler, he's clearly inspired to kick things up a notch. And speaking of Butler, the band's oft-underrated secret weapon is all over "The Devil You Know", his bass high up in the mix, with a larger-than-life tone and plenty of sly accents and fills burbling under the obsidian sheen of Iommi's riffing.
The songs are generally big, staid tanks of lead, built on Vinny Appice's plodding 4/4 pound and loaded with a stately majesty that recalls this lineup's classics — the atmosphere of "Heaven and Hell" (the song) and "Children of the Sea", brought into the modern day and made just a little darker and more weighty. Some are decrying the sheer metric tonnage of doom on "The Devil You Know", but I submit that HEAVEN & HELL are at their brooding best on this more ponderous, epic material. The more uptempo "Double the Pain", for instance, is one of the few less-than-stellar cuts on the record, seeming like a castoff from Iommi's late-Eighties riff tapes (though even here, the band's effortless conviction comes pretty damn close to selling it).
And besides, it's not all pristine 16rpm sludge after an archetypal Iommi doom opener, "Turn of the Screw" delivers a verse that flirts with AOR, while "Eating the Cannibals" is the "TV Crimes" of this record, a hard-charging raveup with a monster main riff, a scorching solo and a little welcome Appice thundering in the bridge. It could be said that one more song of this tempo and attitude, maybe a little earlier in the proceedings, would have given "The Devil You Know" the final kick in the ass it needed to reach perfection a little more raucousness on what is, admittedly, a pretty stern and dour record overall.
But it's hard to get picky or ask for more when the riff for "Follow the Tears" or the soaring open chords of "Breaking Into Heaven" thunder down the mountain giant notes of polished granite, barely accented with atmospheric keyboards, bass throbbing through your sternum, Dio by turns pleading, testifying, cold and sardonic. It encapsulates the vibe of this whole black, bleak, cathartic ride, a stalking monster of timeless riffing from the very wellspring of heavy metal itself, howls from the hills of Valhalla delivered not as a feel-good nostalgia trip, but as an eloquent, elegant piece of hard rock for the faithful. "The Devil You Know" isn't a perfect album, but when it's on, it's nothing less than the sound of age, wisdom, and a lifetime of craft alchemized into a joyous, communal heavy metal milestone. If it doesn't give you goosebumps at least a few times, you might as well just leave the damn hall.
- Keith Bergman (Blabbermouth, Roadrunner)
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