UMUR
"King of the Grey Islands" is the 9th full-length studio album by Swedish doom metal act Candlemass. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in June 2007. There´s been one significant lineup change since the release of the 2005 self-titled 8th album release as lead vocalist Messiah Marcolin has been replaced by Robert Lowe (also known for his work with US doom metal act Solitude Aeturnus). The rest of the lineup is intact.
The music on the album is epic sounding doom metal with melodic and memorable vocal/melody lines. While the music is certainly both crushingly heavy and doomy as you´d expect, there´s a slight touch of power metal in the sound that helps keep the music interesting and a bit more light than the more dark and heavy bands in the genre. It´s unmistakable the sound of Candlemass, new lead vocalist or not.
Replacing a distinct sounding and skilled vocalist like Messiah Marcolin was probably a daunting task, but Robert Lowe has quite a different voice and singing style to his predecessor´s semi-operatic delivery, and it´s clear from the start, that Robert Lowe has vowed to put his own mark on Candlemass sound, instead of trying to imitate Messiah Marcolin. It´s no doubt a smart decision and while his voice is not as distinct sounding as his predecessor´s ditto, he is still a skilled lead vocalist with a strong voice, showing many aspects of his vocal skills throughout "King of the Grey Islands".
The material on the 10 track, 53:55 minutes long album (the limited edition digipack features to bonus tracks) are predominantly heavy epic doom metal tracks and structure wise they are pretty standard vers/chorus based. Standout tracks on the album are "Emperor of the Void", "Of Stars and Smoke" (featuring a great power metal tinged chorus) and the progressive metal oriented "Man of Shadows". All tracks are of high quality though.
The sound production is powerful, heavy, and relatively organic, which suits the music perfectly. So upon conclusion "King of the Grey Islands" is yet another high quality doom metal release by Candlemass and it´s also a great introduction album for Robert Lowe, who pass the "new vocalist test" in a convincing style. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.