CANDLEMASS — Death Magic Doom (review)

CANDLEMASS — Death Magic Doom album cover Album · 2009 · Traditional Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Death Magic Doom" is the 10th full-length studio album by Swedish doom metal act Candlemass. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in April 2009. The lineup that recorded "King of the Grey Islands (2007)" is still intact which means that this is lead vocalist Robert Lowe´s second album with Candlemass.

The music on the album is unmistakably the sound of Candlemass. Crushingly heavy yet melodic and epic sounding doom metal. The 8 tracks on the album are of high quality with strong vocals by Robert Lowe, memorable songwriting and generally excellent musicianship. I´d like to give a special mention to Lars "Lasse" Johansson´s strong and melodic guitar solos but the rest of the band are really tight and well playing too. Robert Lowe has grown even more into his role as Candlemass frontman, and his performance on "Death Magic Doom" is if possible even stronger than his performance on "King of the Grey Islands (2007)".

The album opens with the pretty fast-paced (well... fast-paced for Candlemass standards) and powerful "If I Ever Die" and goes right into the crushingly heavy "Hammer of Doom". What a great way to start an album! Other highlight are the progressively tinged "House of 1000 Voices" and the closing track "My Funeral Dream"s but as mentioned above all tracks are of high quality and the album features an overall effective flow.

The sound production suits the music well. It´s very powerful and clear but still raw and not too polished. So overall "Death Magic Doom" cemented the position that Candlemass already had as one of the leading acts in doom metal. Candlemass simply sounds stronger than ever on this release. Like a fine tuned unit fully at ease with what they do, but not content to rest on their laurels or to release a less than stellar album. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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