CANDLEMASS — Nightfall (review)

Album · 1987 · Traditional Doom Metal

4/5 · 2010-11-06
UMUR

"Nightfall" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish doom metal act Candlemass. The album was released through Active Records in November 1987. There have been a couple of significant lineup changes since the release of the band´s debut full-length studio album "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)". The most significant one being the change on the lead vocalist spot. Johan Lanquist who sang on the debut album has been replaced by Messiah Marcolin. A lineup change that would be defining for the sound of Candlemass in the late 80s.

The music on the album is epic sounding doom metal and unmistakably the sound of Candlemass, lineup changes or not. While the music certainly is both crushingly heavy and gloomy, it´s also very melodic and memorable. The addition of Messiah Marcolin to the lineup adds a semi-operatic dimension to the vocal department that Johan Lanquist´s vocal style didn´t provide (Johan Lanquist did other great things though). Messiah Marcolin has a very strong, distinct and instantly recognisable voice, and while his semi-operatic vocal style is probably an aquired taste, he is pretty good at varying his vocal style on the album, so his performance is not one-dimensional.

The playing on the album is delivered by skilled musicians. I´d like to give a special mention to lead guitarist Lars Johansson. His sligthly neo-classical solo approach is sometimes similar in style to the style of Andy LaRocque from King Diamond, and that can never be a bad thing. The drums on the other hand could have been more interesting. Jan Lindh is kind of a "stiff" drummer and I think he could have made some of the transitions between sections a bit more fluent. Instead some of them sound a bit awkward. It´s a minor flaw though and it´s probably not something that´ll ruin the listening experience for most listeners.

"Nightfall" features 10 tracks but 4 of them are short intros, outros and interludes (1 - 2 minutes long), so there are actually only 6 "regular" tracks on the 46:20 minutes long album. But what brilliant tracks they are. Take a listen to tracks like "At the Gallows End", "Samarithan" and "Bewitched" (which a video was made for, featuring the interlude track "Marche Funebre" as an intro). Those are quite fantastic doom metal tracks in my book.

The sound production is not as heavy as on the predecessor and the drums feature a reverb laden sound that´s pretty time typical but still not that well sounding. Other than that the production suits the music well. "Nightfall" is on almost all parameters a great follow up to the strong debut album. It´s pretty amazing how well the new lineup functions and what a luck that Leif Edling and Mats "Mappe" Björkman were able to find a qualified replacement for Johan Lanquist. There are a few minor flaws on "Nightfall" but overall it´s an excellent album fully deserving a 4 star (80%) rating.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Pure genious. One of my metal heroes.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think that they were actually supposed to keep it simple back then. I remember reading a book by musicologist Robert Walser who desscribes how surprised he was at learning that some drummer from some glam metal band (I forget whom) was actually incredibly skilled and able to do polyrythmic stuff and odd time sigs and all sorts of things that he would not do with his full time glam metal band.

Then again.... Micki Dee is a friggin' great drummer. No doubt about that.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I have the problem that I always hold other eigthies metal drummers up against the phenomenal playing by Micki Dee and most fall flat on their face in comparison.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

RE: stiff 80s drummers. I've never interpreted the Candlemass drumming as being stiff, but I've always thought that it was appropriately simple. But then again, you do have a point about 80s metal drummers. I mean, just take Dave Holland from the 80s Priest.