CANDLEMASS - Candlemass Bloody Candlemass
by Martin Popoff

Whether you go with Candlemass or with Trouble, one of those two looming institutions is the greatest doom band on the planet, after Black Sabbath. Well, as the perennially distant and drifting Trouble continues to tempt us with news of a new record, Mssrs. Edling and Marcolin have come to an understanding, having emerged from the priory with what is perhaps the best labum of the band's occasional career - Candlemass, by Candlemass, so bloody classic they hadda name it twice (hey, it's been a while since I've used that one, OK?).

"It's a really nice spring day here in Stockholm," begins Candlemass mastermind Leif Edling, setting the scene for a discussion of doom, "and I just did a very, very interesting interview with a newspaper here in Stockholm, where they told me to bring my favourite metal records, which inspired Candlemass. It's been a very good day."

What did you bring?

"All the stuff we listened to in the beginning, like Mercyful Fate, Pentagram, Metal Church, Sabotage, Warlord, Manilla Road, Hawaii."

My surprise at a lack of doom, made we wonder, just who Leif considered to be the unsung heroes of the genre...

"Oh, that's hard question. But I think, even though a lot of people talk about Trouble today, I think Trouble is a bit underrated. They caught a break when they released the self-titled Rick Rubin record, back in 1990. That sold pretty well, but after that, they kind of disappeared. But I think Pentagram is also a bit underrated, Turn To Stone, the compilations..."

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