CANDLEMASS — King of the Grey Islands (review)

CANDLEMASS — King of the Grey Islands album cover Album · 2007 · Traditional Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Devil seed...

Genre: doom metal

Yet another strong doom album from Candlemass. Although very different from that of Messiah Marcolin, the experienced doom metal vocalist Rob Lowe's voice suits Candlemass' heavy, dark, melancholic and epic music very well.

The production is less polished than their earlier efforts, and the guitar distortion is actually very dirty. The typical 80s reverb craze had died out long before the release of this album, and thus the reverby production that chracterized the early epic Candlemass sound is absent on "King of the Grey Islands" - still the sound is big and epic, which shows that it is not just the production but Leif Edling's talent as a song writer which, in reality, is the source of Candlemass' epicness.

There are plenty of heavy and doom-ladden guitar riffs, and the typical Candlemass equilibrium between variation and consistency is also present on this great doom metal album.

The tracks are generally strong, but i must admit that I am not too fond of the rerecorded version of "Solitude", but never mind that - it's just a bonus track anyway ;-)

Fans of epic and other types of doom metal should like this album, and I'm sure that some power metal fans would appreciate it, too.
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