It’s fair to say that Rob Lowe era Candlemass has been ever so slightly divisive for Candlemass fans. There are legions of Candlemass supporters who are all massively invested in their own particular favourite album from their long back catalogue. There are the purists, who will only sing the praises of “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”, there are refined individuals of excellent taste who will argue for the superiority of “Nightfall” above all, while still some others that will debate intensely that the “comeback” album – the self titled “Candlemass” is their best. Yet I have not met anyone that will protest that either “King of the Grey Islands” nor “Death Doom Magic” are their best. For the point of clarity, I have enjoyed all eras of this brilliant band, and indeed, having seen them live on a number of occasions, I have concluded that their appearances with Rob Lowe have been their best. Will “Psalms for the Dead” – the third full length album with Lowe behind lead vocals – finally prove to be their new fan favourite?
The short answer, I’m forced to conclude, is “no”. That isn’t to say that this is a bad album – to believe that Candlemass could produce such a thing is frankly incomprehensible – but there is a slightly spread shot approach to song writing here that stops this being a cohesive whole. On more than one occasion, the songs have a heavy 1970’s vibe, not completely divorced from the musical elements of the mysterious doom(ish) band, Ghost – perhaps for obvious reasons. Thus tracks like, “Prophet” and the title track are heavy on the Hammond Organ, they both have that slightly hazy retro feel to them. Of course, the doom quotient is several notches higher, with the sound of those Candlemass riffing particularly crushing alongside the soaring majesty of Lowe’s singing, which is better here than on any other recorded output. “Dancing in theTemple (Of The Mad Queen Bee)” is perhaps as close as they’ve ever come to recording their own classic rock track, complete with relatively radio friendly guitar soloing throughout. “Siren Song” is a straight forward stomper, again absolutely drenched in Hammond Organ. You could ring this track out, and I’m sure organ strains would come tumbling out of the bottom. “The Killing of the Sun” has the most “classic” sound of the band, with a main riff that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on one of the early trilogy of albums. Likewise, “The Lights of Thebes” has a slightly Middle Eastern vibe to it, again sounding like old Candlemass. The bizarre “Sound of Dying Demons”, complete with hokey 1950’s horror B-movie sound effects does perhaps speak most confidently of the slightly jarring style toyed with on “Death Doom Magic”, while the epic seven minute “Waterwitch” shows that Candlemass are kings of doom metal with good reason. “Black As Time” is vintage, the sound of the band firing on all four cylinders.
There are no bad songs here – indeed, there aren’t even any average tracks, save maybe for the forgettable “Siren Song”. All the elements you would expect are here too – the amazing ear for melody and doom-laden hooks provided by the genius-at-work Leif Edling and company. The production is amazing, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a band half their age, given the amount of energy that has clearly gone into this album. Yet for all that, I just can’t award it a nine or a higher – because rather than a cohesive album, this sounds more like a collection of tracks. It could be, of course, that in this day and age that this is all anyone expects, but from the amazing Candlemass, I’ve come to expect a package that is also an experience. This falls just short of that expectation. Mind you, it’ll still probably be the best doom album of the year.
(8/10 Chris Davison)
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