Review Summary: I’ll play for your joy, for your soul, for your doom
For an album titled Nightfall, Candlemass’s sophomore album is downright uplifting compared to their debut. Okay, that is a bit of exaggeration on my part since both releases share an emphasis on slow doom riffs, wailing vocals, and epic songwriting. However, Nightfall seeks to refine the formula rather than regurgitate it, boasting more bombast in its compositions with a more consolidated lineup of musicians at its helm. If Epicus Doomcius Metallicus was a network of underground catacombs, then Nightfall is like a pyramid proudly erected against the horizon.
This shift in attitude is perhaps best exemplified by this being the band’s first album with vocalist Messiah Marcolin. As iconic as Johan Langquist’s performance had been, Messiah truly elevated Candlemass much as Bruce Dickinson did for Maiden. His range is decidedly broader than his predecessor’s with an exaggerated vibrato that is no doubt campy as all hell, especially when combined with the iconically goofy music video for “Bewitched.” It might be too over the top for some but there’s an earnestness to it that makes the lyrics feel more fantastical and the choruses pop out that much more.
Even with the mad monk hogging the spotlight, the other musicians are just as confident and bolstered by a rock-solid lineup. The band also benefitted from the recruitment of lead guitarist Lars Johansson, whose grandiose solos gel with Mats Björkman’s punchy rhythm guitars. While this does have the effect of making the rhythm section a bit less prominent this time around, Jan Lindh’s drums still get their climactic surges and bandleader Leif Edling’s bass can still be felt even when it might be the closest thing we get to subtlety.
These elements make for noticeably more accessible songs compared to the debut, especially when combined with the more linear structures. Songs like “The Well Of Souls” and “At The Gallow’s End” still feature their share of tempo jumps but don’t meander around quite as much, ensuring the riffs and vocal lines are that much more impactful. I also appreciate how the moods on “Samarithan” and “Mourner’s Lament” contrast despite their shared slowness, the former detailing a parable with uplifting gospel doom while the latter sees its most melodramatic vocals alongside a dark plod and lamenting lyrics. The infectious riff set on “Bewitched” functions like a sort of “Solitude” successor while its Pied Piper theming makes it more gleefully dark than morose.
Though for all the expansion that the album has going for it, the shorter instrumentals that round things out are a bit more of a mixed bag. “Gothic Stone” pars with “The Well Of Souls” smoothly enough as a doom equivalent to “The Hellion/Electric Eye” but “Codex Gigas” is a bit redundant, not bad but one can imagine the transition to “At The Gallows End” flowing better without it. That said, the take on Chopin’s “Marche Funébre” is appropriately ominous if a little too on the nose and session guitarist Mike Wead provides a majestically melancholic denouement with “Black Candles.”
Epicus may be my preferred Candlemass release, but Nightfall deserves equal status as another one of the most iconic doom metal albums ever. It feels like the band truly found their footing here, expanding upon an incredibly strong foundation with a confident lineup and boasting some of their greatest songs. It could’ve benefitted from trimming a shorter track or two and may be a bit too cheesy for the more irony poisoned out there, but it may be the ideal starting point for anybody curious to enter the world of Candlemass and epic doom metal.
