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Class 6(66)
Candlemass: Tales of creation
15/02/06 || Lord K Philipson
Released: 1991
Introduction
The last of the 4 classic Candlemass albums. Now they are all covered for this section. “Tales of creation” is the least of my faves when it comes to The First Four, but it’s nonetheless a fucken classic. It kinda sounds like Candlemass started to lose some of their magic here,something the next album would show all too well. Still, “Tales of creation” holds a bastard-load of great material but it’s hardly a masterpiece such as “Epicus” or “Nightfall”. Still, it is a classic by all means.
Songwriting
8. As mentioned, for the first time up to this album it feels like the material is starting to lack a little. “Somewhere in nowhere” is a weak track and definitely not on par with the classic shit I got used to with the previous 3 albums. But make no mistake, there are some insanely good tunes on this piece; “Dark reflections”, “The edge of heaven” and “A tale of creation” are all pieces of doomstruction. But clearly Leif had his best days behind him while recording this.
Production
8. It sounds all fine despite its age. Ofcourse it’s no “Epicus” but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the production. “Ancient dreams” sounds very compressed, something they fixed with this one. It has a little more air to it and comes across as a quite well produced effort in the end.
Guitars
8. The leads get a 9 though, that’s for sure. Playing Candlemass-riffs is about as complicated as riding the bus into town. And that’s pretty much the beauty of it – it doesn’t take 4 million notes to make a great riff, Candlemass are masters at composing simple yet fucken super effective riffs that just get into your head, pull out a few camping chairs and stay for a week or 5. Simplicity is key together with groove. Mats and Lars always deliver their shit. Lars can quite possibly be one of the most underrated lead guitarists in Sweden.
Vocals
8. It’s still Messiah, which means it’s still the same irritating vibrato. But still, it’s fucken Messiah. And still, at the time of this it was hard to imagine anyone else doing vocals for Candlemass. Eventually he needed to go since his ego was bigger than his stomach. We all know how that worked out… (and I’m not talking about the excellent Robert Lowe).
Bass
6. A little bit louder this time around. But still no punch at all to it. If playing these guys’ guitar-riffs is like taking the bus into town, playing the bass is as complicated as taking a piss, sober. Turn it up, Leif! How many times do I have to say this?
Drums
8. Jan Lindh does what he does best – keeps the beat with nothing remotely fancy put in whatsoever. And that’s all we need for quality doom metal. You won’t hear much f a progression from album to album when it comes to Jan. He’s perfected his simple style and is happy with that. So am I.
Lyrics
7. As their website states:
“A saga about the origin of life that begun on on their first demo with ”Under the oak” (also on ”Epicus”) and ”Into the unfathomed tower”. Now he wanted to do the whole thing. The lyrics – almost half a bible – was written back in 1985, had to be reworked a bit and new music had to be created to the concept”.
I guess that’s ok with me.
Cover art
4. This cover is not that cool. And the color yellow doesn’t belong in metal. The precious three were way better.
Logo
7. As always.
Booklet
And again… no booklet for me, LP only. And since that shit is in the basement I can’t even remember what it looked like and it’s not like I’m going down there to check. yes, all my LP’s are in the basement and have been so for the last few years, so prepare yourself for reading this sentence (with a few variations) over and over again in future reviews of classic albums.
Overall and ending rant
8. After this album, Candlemass parted ways and went downhill, fast. They never fully recovered and I don’t think they ever will. This is the last album where Leif actually still had parts of “it” in him. Anyways, this piece is essential for your collection together with the first three albums. Candlemass will always be the reigning doom-kings, all thanx to these 4 albums. Hail them for what the are – true legends. Also, let’s hope for a return to the glory days.
