After a sufficient bout of appetite whetting with last years excellent 4 track EP, Leif Edling’s The Doomsday Kingdom now unleash their full length album debut. Thankfully retaining the excellent services of Anders Johansson on drums, Avatarium buddy Marcus Jidell on guitar (who aside from bringing Edling’s signature riffs into reality, adds some fabulous lead-work throughout the album AND does a rather fabulous job on the production!), and of course Wolf vocalist Niklas Stalvind lends his unique and compelling style expertly to proceedings once more.

As with the EP, this is not Candlemass. It could be Candlemass – it exudes Edling’s trademark doom-laden writing style at every juncture and thinking back to some Candlemass releases, it certainly will be of plenty of interest to Candlemass fans, but thanks in the main to Stalvind’s NWOBHM vocal leanings it has slightly wider appeal. Yes it’s dark and doomy – and so it should be – but it also has an energy and diversity that shows Edling’s present desire to just write and record what comes naturally. This approach means there are more unexpected moments than your average Candlemass release would be limited to contain – and I very much applaud The Doomsday Kingdom for that!

Aside from the vocal approach, it’s the variations in tempo set this album aside from Candlemass for me. There’s a couple of quicker tracks (the fabulous opener ‘Silent Kingdom’ and the equally beguiling ‘Hand Of Hell’, which reminds me a little of the Candlemass track ‘The Dying Illusion’, just to give an idea of it’s speed and energy) but they are hardly Power Metal after all, and besides there are plenty of groovers contained within as well as some downright doomsters. ‘The Never Machine’ differs from the EP version – it’s cleaner, more polished, but has lost none of it’s edge, same goes for ‘The Sceptre’, which slithers and winds with renewed vigour thanks to Jidell’s excellent production. ‘The Silence’ crams in so many time-changes and mood swings that it’s almost prog-doom, which keeps the listener guessing at every turn, yet keeps an excellent cohesion due to it’s delivery and smooth arrangement.

‘The God Particle’ brings the album to an epic 9 minute+ conclusion and is as dark and gloomy as any Candlemass devotee could hope for, yet possesses a back-to-basics doom-ness that totally echoes the earlier doom leanings of bands like Revelation, Count Raven or even early Tiamat, with it’s laid back almost whispered vocal style and drawn out instrumentation. Almost forgot to mention the rather wonderful heartfelt guitar/piano ‘Fluff’-esque instrumental ‘See You Tomorrow’ which is utterly enchanting! But just sometimes a band writes it’s own description, and surely this is to be found in the lyrics to the oh-so-heavy ‘A Spoonful Of Darkness’. So we’ll leave the final word with the band themselves as I couldn’t have described The Doomsday Kingdom any better myself – “A Spoonful Of Darkness, a mouthful of rain, small bits of misery and half a pound of pain”.

(8.5/10 Andy Barker)

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