Candlemass
King Of The Grey Islands

Introduction: It makes no sense to talk about the new work of Candlemass by exclusively referencing the fact that the historical singer Messiah Marcolin, who had returned to the lineup after a previous split, has left (or was kicked out, depending on one's point of view) after just one album. This is because, although his significance is undoubtedly considerable and his voice unmistakable, it must be clear that the band has found in Robert Lowe (coming from the great Solitude Aeturnus) not only a valid replacement, but a frontman capable of holding his own against anyone, with a tone different from Marcolin, almost to highlight how in Candlemass it's the sound that dictates the rules. Having clarified that the vocal performance is excellent and perfectly fits the granitic heaviness (in a doom perspective) of the pieces, even better than Marcolin himself could have done, let's move on to considerations regarding the sound.

A sound that for Candlemass is not dogma since, despite being placed within the doom realm, over more than twenty years of career, they have been able to provide different instrumental interpretations of the material. When leader Leif Edling described "King Of The Grey Islands" as the darkest work ever produced by the Swedish group, you should believe him (if only because the concept developed in the ten tracks revolves around depression and suicide in contemporary society). In fact, the songs, while not straying from their classic target, rely on relentless rhythms (more so than in the past) and settled on mid-tempo, decadent and disturbing atmospheres, with an evocative and epic approach and more than one reference to the American heavy metal school and, inevitably, to a monolithic version of the early Black Sabbath. The album progresses with impressive consistency, continuously instilling awe in the listener, who finds themselves trapped in a dramatic groove and becomes infatuated with the sounds that Candlemass have created.

An album that is slow, leaden, funereal and ominous, hypnotic, massive, claustrophobic, soaked unimaginably with musical inspiration, evident both in the spectacular collection of riffs produced and in an approach to songwriting that was not only conservative but also forward-looking and visionary. Magnificent!