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Sweden’s Candlemass (Messiah Marcolin – vocals, Leif Eidling – bass, Lars Johansson – guitar, Mats “Mappe” Björkman – guitar, and Jan Lind - drums) may specialize in songs of sorrow and doom, but the band’s vocalist Messiah Marcolin is anything but unhappy.  “What makes me really happy is doomy, depressive, slow heavy music.  That’s what makes the hair on my arms stand up and go, “yes, now I’ve got a reason to live.”  You play me happy music like Britney Spears then I’ll get depressed,” he says.  Candlemass took the metal scene by storm in 1986 with the release of ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’ and continued successfully until 1993, leaving behind 6 albums of epic doom.  But in the fall of 2001 the band reunited and the response from metal fans worldwide has been overwhelming.  Messiah says, “It really makes me almost cry when I think about it.  I just want to say a big thank you to all the fans.”  Although the band has played mostly in Europe since reforming, recently America got a chance to witness the undiminished power of these doom metal legends when they headlined the Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles 6-Pack weekend here in Cleveland.  I spoke with Messiah the night before his band played, and he was gracious enough to fill me in on everything I wanted to know about the resurrection of Candlemass. 

What got the reunion ball rolling was the re-release of the Candlemass back catalog in spiffy remastered editions.  The re-releases were overseen by Candlemass bassist Leif Eidling, who really went the extra mile by including bonus discs with each album as well as making sure the CD booklets were packed with photos and all the lyrics.  Then, Messiah says, “we got an offer from Sweden rock festival to play a real good show on the big stage, 8pm in the evening.  We had a pizza and some beer and had a meeting and talked about how we were going to do this.  And I said, let’s do it, but I’m not putting my foot outside this country until we have a really good manager who can do it right.  In the old days it was always chaos, no money.  Just sitting in little old vans.  Paying for everything ourselves.  That’s what broke the band up in the first place.”  Messiah  suggested they call Ole Bang, manager for King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, and Bang agreed to take the band on.  Messiah says, “We had 16 great gigs last summer.  Big festivals all over, all thanks to Ole.  He’s our manager now and it’s working out great.” 

For U.S. fans reading about the reunion shows, it was bittersweet.  While happy to see the band back together again, hopping on a plane to Europe to see a concert just isn’t an option for most.  Luckily, the folks at Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles were able to bring the band here.  Messiah says, “They gave us a good offer.  At first the offer they gave us we couldn’t make ends meet.  We would have lost money. Then they came back to us with a better deal and it all worked out.  We played this same venue [The Odeon – ed.] back in 1991, but there weren’t as many people.  Maybe 300 or 400.  So it’s cool to be back in the same venue with a vengeance.”    Candlemass has been concentrating on their classic material for their shows so far, but Messiah says a new album is in the works.  “It’s looking good.  Leif is writing great material.  We’ve rehearsed four or five songs.  It sounds like the old stuff with a new twist.  Really good stuff.” 

Whatever the new material sounds like, it’s probably safe to assume Candlemass will still be following their own path.  Messiah says, “We never followed trends.  Monk clothes have never been a fashion [Messiah wears a monk’s robe on stage – ed.], never will be.   We don’t give a fuck.  I started out as a teenager in the front row banging my head.  I’m a fan myself.”  In fact it’s because Messiah is such a big fan that he wound up in Candlemass in the first place.  He says, “I heard the first Candlemass album and went totally apeshit because it was the heaviest album I ever heard except for Trouble’s first album.  Those two are even on the scale.  So I got Leif’s phone number and said, “I’m your new singer.”  He told me if I moved up where he was I could have an audition, just trying to get rid of me.  Two weeks later I call him up and say, “So when’s the audition?”  He said, “I told you you had to move up here.”  I said, “I live here now.”  So I went to that audition and I knew the songs better than they did because I was serious about getting into this band.” 

Messiah joined the band just in time to record the classic ‘Nightfall’, and to this day it’s still his favorite Candlemass album.  He says, “That album was all positive vibes going in.  I was the new singer and we’d just put the band together, it was fucking rocking.  We just went in there with no click tracks.  We used clicks on the albums after ‘Nightfall’ and it wasn’t as good.  We’re making sure the next album no click tracks.  Just everyone playing at once.  Like the old Sabbath albums, you want to get the vibe.”  That album put the band on the map, in no small part due to Messiah’s incredible voice.  I was surprised to learn that Messiah had almost no vocal training.  He says, “I’m the bastard son of Pavorotti, man. (laughs).  No, no training at all.  When I joined Candlemass I went to a vocal coach for three weeks to learn how to sing from the stomach, but that’s all.  My father’s Italian and always nagging at me, “you’ve got to do opera.””   

There won’t be any opera side projects in the near future, though.  Messiah and Candlemass are too focused on playing the kind of heavy metal that made them legends in some circles and helped inspire many of today’s doom metal bands.  When I asked Messiah what he thought of his band’s spiritual offspring he answered modestly, “If anything we’re Trouble’s offspring.  Their first album ‘Psalm 9’ is my favorite album in the whole world.  Black Sabbath is behind it.  Kiss, my favorite band when I was young, is behind it.  I tell everyone to buy it.  It’s excellent, there’s not a bad thing on it.  And this festival will be the first time I get to see them live.  We played with them last weekend in Germany at the Rock Hard festival, but when our plane landed they went on stage.” 

Still, the fact remains that Candlemass’ music has stood the test of time.  Messiah credits enduring popularity of his band’s music to the fact that, “it’s true, it comes from the soul.  We have one of the best songwriters in the world, Mr. Leif Eidling.  And without spanking my monkey too much when I sing together with his music it works.  Everyone is vital in Candlemass.  You have the drums of doom, Mr. Jan Lind on the drums.  You’ve got Lars Johansson on lead guitar.  Mats “Mappe” Björkman who was on the first Candlemass album, the rhythm guitarist, is very important to Candlemass.  We argue all the time; we have heated discussions about backdrops, about acoustic sets, just stuff.  But when we play music and shut the fuck up it’s magic.”   

Visit the Candlemass website.