Friday Full-Length: Candlemass, Ancient Dreams
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 8th, 2017 by JJ KoczanCandlemass, Ancient Dreams (1988)
As the history of doom metal has been written and rewritten over the years, it’s easy to see how Swedish epic-doom innovators Candlemass have been pushed to the side. This is due in part to trend pulling away from their often grandiose fare in favor of rawer cultism derived from garage rock and/or the original psychedelic era, and due in part to the band themselves, whose on-again-off-again reunion-making has been going on for more than a decade marked by sparse touring and releases that at this point are good enough and unheralded enough for one to legitimately consider them underrated. This, however, does nothing to take away from the landmark nature of the Swedes’ early works.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — or, better yet, don’t — but it’s the first three records. In the case of Candlemass, I’d even go first four, considering the landmark shift in lineup that took place between the first and second, as original vocalist Johan Längquist stepped out to make way for the arrival of Messiah Marcolin, who would become one of doom’s defining frontmen. Marcolin made his debut with Candlemass on Nightfall in 1987 and would go on to leave his mark on the genre across that album, 1988’s Ancient Dreams, and 1989’s Tales of Creation before departing the band, who continued on first with Thomas Vikström on 1992’s Chapter VI and then Björn Flodkvist on 1998’s Dactylis Glomerata and 1999’s From the 13th Sun before finally running out of steam and calling it quits for a few years.
Now, I will never, ever, ever take anything away from Längquist‘s contributions to Candlemass‘ first LP, 1986’s Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. One fantasizes a day when founding bassist and main songwriter Leif Edling orchestrates a reunion with Längquist for a studio release, and all the more after Längquist delivered such a striking performance a few years back captured on the Epicus Doomicus Metallicus Live at Roadburn 2011 LP (review here), but the stage presence and all-in charisma of Marcolin isn’t to be understated. Amid Edling‘s classic, almost medieval post-Sabbathian riffing on songs like “Darkness in Paradise” and the “Mob Rules”-esque “Bells of Acheron,” Marcolin‘s command of Ancient Dreams on levels of technicality and chemistry is unflinching.
Even the chugging gallop of rhythm guitarist Mats “Mappe” Björkman and the shred of Lars “Lasse” Johansson on side B opener “Bearer of Pain” do nothing to hold Marcolin back. I’m not sure anything could. His voice pushes so easily into operatic vibrato that he not only deserves mention among the most powerful of metal singers — consider Ronnie James Dio, Robert Lowe, Hansi Kürsch, etc. — and after establishing himself on Nightfall with an inimitable performance on cuts like “At the Gallows End,” “Samarithan” and “Bewitched,” he’d continue to set a nigh on impossible standard across Ancient Dreams beginning with the speedy opener “Mirror Mirror” and continuing through the winding lumber of the title-track — speaking of underrated, drummer Jan Lindh‘s propensity for giving a crawling progression an underlying sense of motion is second to none among classic metal-style percussionists — all the way into the murk of closer “Epistle No. 81,” with lyrics written by 18th Century Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman.
The bleak minor-key intro and the ensuing headbang-ready chug of “A Cry from the Crypt” seem to be a direct answer to “At the Gallows End” from the record preceding, but Marcolin takes the melody elsewhere, soaring in the dramatic verses as only he could, and whether it’s the brief subdued movement in the second half of “Darkness in Paradise” or the I-wield-this-storm wizardry atop the double-kick circa two minutes into “Bells of Acheron,” Ancient Dreams makes it plain just how special the dynamic in Candlemass was at this stage in their career. There was doom before them and there’s certainly been a lot of doom since, but the accomplishments of Candlemass between 1986 and 1990 are not to be understated when it comes either to the quality of Edling‘s songcraft or the performances of those with which he surrounded himself. These albums, while not necessarily timeless in their production, remain stunning these 30 years later.
Marcolin would of course rejoin Candlemass for their 2005 reunion that found them signing to Nuclear Blast and issuing their self-titled full-length, but was gone again by the time 2007’s King of the Grey Islands ultimately came together, with previously-mentioned Solitude Aeturnus singer Robert Lowe stepping in last-minute to fill the void as few could. Lowe would front Candlemass for that record and the two that followed, 2009’s Death Magic Doom (review here) and 2012’s Psalms for the Dead (review here), as the band moved from Nuclear Blast to Napalm Records for the latter, and would himself leave, only to have his position taken by Mats Levén (ex-Therion, among many others), who appeared on last year’s four-song Death Thy Lover EP (review here), which one can only hope was a test-run ahead of a full-length to arrive at some later date. As it would be six years after their last full-length, 2018 would be as good a time as any so far as I’m concerned.
As always, I hope you enjoy, and of course, doom on.
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Tonight, I make pesto. It will be part of the first meal I’ve had since last Saturday not made of protein powder, and it will happen in a multi-stage process. First, I make garlic paste.
This involves store-bought roasted garlic, potentially my own fresh-roasted garlic as well — peel the cloves, foil over a ramekin with olive oil, water, black pepper; in the oven at 350 for an hour or so — plus fresh garlic, garlic powder, and a bit of olive oil. It all goes in the food processor and doesn’t come out until it looks like smooth peanut butter from an alternate universe. Should have the texture of a spread, in other words. It is delicious and lethal.
Once that’s done and in the fridge — I have a special container ready to go because I used regular tupperware for it once and had to run it through the dishwasher like six times to get the garlic smell out — then the pesto process begins in earnest. I’ll cut basil from what remains of the summer’s plant which I brought in out of the cold and have been doing my best to keep alive with a grow light and regular watering, to some avail. I have a couple store-bought packs of basil for backup as well. Once trimmed and washed, that will go in the recently-scrapped-out food processor with olive oil, more garlic, fresh-roasted pine nuts and Brazil nuts, red pepper flakes, maybe a hot pickled ring pepper or two, some onion powder, a light flourish of romano and parmesan cheeses, a splash of egg whites for thickness, salt, and indeed some of that garlic paste I just made, and be combined pretty much until it looks right. It’ll be light green with darker flecks of basil and will taste like a multi-tiered gift from the gods.
Some will go in a bowl for tonight’s meal, the rest in the fridge for whenever and some more, hopefully, in the freezer for later use. Tonight’s will be combined with more garlic paste — I’m the only one having it, so #garlicworship will be in full effect — and put to use topping four pieces of cloud bread that The Patient Mrs. will bake for me. If you don’t know what cloud bread is, it’s basically an egg-based low carb bread substitute, made my separating whites and yolks, mixing in cream cheese and a few other ingredients, recombining the eggs and baking. There are a million recipes around for it. This is where the garlic paste will really come into play, as I will throw a far-beyond-copious amount into the batter, along with some red pepper flakes, before it goes into bake for about half an hour or so. I prefer it well done because that way it holds up better to the pesto that I’m about to slather all over it.
The recipe we use and the proportions will result in four pieces of cloud bread each about the size of half a burger roll, give or take, and I will eat them with pesto and maybe a couple extra cloves of roasted garlic if I’m feeling fancy/will let myself have it, and that will be dinner. I’m looking forward to it the way I’m looking forward to the next YOB record.
It feels well enough earned after this week. The Patient Mrs. and I had my father up from North Carolina where he lives to meet The Pecan this week. He and I did not speak for well over a decade, and though we’ve been in touch for years at this point and this visit was by no means the least pleasant interaction he and I have ever shared, let’s just say the relationship is a work in progress. Garlic-pesto cloud bread: achieved.
Hoping otherwise for a quiet weekend. Some of The Patient Mrs.’ family might come up, her mother or her sister and company, but that’s fine. They know the drill at this point: Quiet hours start at 7 — everyone out. The Pecan needs wind-down time and, frankly, so do we by that point. He turned six weeks old on Wednesday. Has gotten big already. I hear that keeps happening for a while. Should be interesting.
Next week begins list season around here. I figure to do the cover-art list first, since that’s always a fun one. Here’s everything in the notes so far for the week, subject to change as always:
Mon.: 2017 artwork list; new Windhand video.
Tue.: Telescope review.
Wed.: Pretty Lightning review.
Thu.: Comacozer review.
Fri.: Borracho review.
I might jumble some of that around if premieres come along, but you can pretty much expect the next few weeks to be quiet in that regard, since the bulk of the music industry has gone into hibernation until January by now. Fair enough. Gives me some time to catch up ahead of the next Quarterly Review — likely to happen the first week of next month — and get the rest of the lists situated. I’m still not sure what my pick for album of the year is.
Speaking of, thanks to the 130-plus of you who’ve contributed to the 2017 Year-End Poll so far. That is amazing and hugely appreciated. Please keep the lists coming. There are a few tight races and I’m interested to see how they might resolve by the end of the month.
Alright, this post has gone on long enough. With pesto daydreams, I wish you a wonderful and safe weekend, whatever you might be up to. All the best from me and mine to you and yours. We’ll see you back here Monday for that list and more good times.
Thanks for reading, and please don’t forget to dig into the forum and radio stream.
