First and foremost, it must be said that this album has the finest production values of any Candlemass album so far. It is supremely loud and, of course, HEAVY, but it's got that extra-thick modern "chunk" to it that I wish they had from the beginning. Not they they weren't the heaviest band ever, but the tone was always a little...lacking in personality, so to speak.
Anyway, to the record:
It's Leif Edling. It's real DOOM Metal. It's Candlemass. What more needs to be said?
Well, quite a bit actually. Before hearing this, I was crossing my fingers that there would be no experimental-type songs as on the last two Candlemass albums, and thankfully there are none present. There is HAPPILY no new ground broken here, because Leif already tried that on "From the 13th Sun" and "Dactylis Glomerata", to rather dubious results. No, this is the same sort of riff-centric DOOM that Leif invented and perfected on the first four Candlemass albums, albeit faster paced and lacking the fantasy lyrics. Come to think of it, that sounds more like the description of the better songs on "Dactylis" or "13th Sun"...go figure.
There is no "Solitude" to be found here, nor is there a "Bewitched", "Samarithan", or "Well of Souls". Rather, it's an album full of Abstrakt Algebra's "Stigmata"-style tunes, or perhaps even along the lines of "I Still See the Black" from "Dactylis". In fact, certain riffs here and there bring to mind at least one song from each of Leif's albums.
And here's where it gets a little sticky: Some of the riffs are a little TOO familiar. How Leif didn't run out of ideas years ago is beyond me, but it's a credit to his genius that he keeps churning out the godly DOOM. Yet here and there, on occasion, there is a riff or two that makes you think "hey, I've heard that before!"
But come on, Leif's songs are so awesome who wouldn't want to hear his classic music over and over again?
Personally I would have liked to hear some harkening back to the fantasy days of yore, and maybe a little more variation in song structure (and maybe even the original vocalist Johan Lanquist back), but I'll take whatever I can get from Candlemass anymore. This is a slick, kinetic, non-stop Doomride that sounds absolutely fantastic. As only Leif and Candlemass can deliver.