Album Review : Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun (2022)
There aren’t many metal bands more beloved than Candlemass. The legendary Swedish doomsters mastered a very personal blend of heaviness and classic rock melodrama that endeared them to the most hardcore metalheads, Sabbath worshippers and ganja-smoking dads around the world. Their first two albums Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and Nightfall are legit metal classics, but they’ve never really stopped making music for thirty-five years and getting old in the business is a challenge.
On their new record Sweet Evil Sun, Candlemass embraces this challenge to an uneven degree of success.
First thing that jumps at you when listening to Sweet Evil Sun is that lead guitarist and heart-and-soul of Candlemass Lars Johansson hasn't lost his fastball. That man can write guitar riffs which are groovy, chunky and that aren't enamored with their own technicality. The title song is a great example of late-era Candlemass doing what they do best: a mid-tempo banger with a catchy chorus, classic fantasy lyrics and grit to spare. It's not as monolithically doomy as it once was, but it rips in a different way.
The obvious parallel for late-era Candlemass is Dio. A very contemporary approach on the icon's classic sound. Vocalist Johan Langquist borrows some of Ronnie James' vocal mannerism and delivery too. It reaches a point where you can almost imagine him dance the same way on stage. Angel Battle and Devil Voodoo also share the same galloping quality in their riffing and energy. Sweet Evil Sun is a lot heavier and chunkier than classic Dio, but otherwise it sometimes borderlines on worship.
I'm talking here about the most inspired moments on the record. Candlemass might've lost the lumbering melancholia that made them iconic, but they didn't lose any of the heaviness. It's understandable to some degree. The dudes are in their late fifties, early sixties. Sensibilities change in that era of your life and it’s normal to a certain degree to be less emo than you were in your thirties and forties. I'm fine with towering anthems like Black Butterfly or Goddess.
Some of the songs on Sweet Evil Sun drag their feet a little too much, though. When Death Sighs isn't even six minutes long, but it feels like one of the longest and more drawn-out Candlemass songs I've ever heard. The chorus also crosses the Rubicon from catchy to corny with the female back vocals who feel out of place with the already intense and operating Langquist wailing away. I’m all for challenging what the band considers to be good taste in principle, but When Death Sighs crosses the line.
The best and most classic Candlemass-like song on Sweet Evil Sun is, in my opinion, Scandinavian Gods. Built on a simple, but obsessing drum beat and one of Johansson’s thickest and slowest riffs on the records, it's a song where Johan Langquist really lets loose and crosses into arena rock territory and explores the depth of his range from raspy lows to Robert Plant highs. In traditional heavy metal fashion, it's a song that is both communal and reflexive that you can draw inspiration and power from.
One of the problems of Sweet Evil Sun is that songs kind of blend into one another past a certain point. One to six has its generous share of bangers, but second half feels built on the heels of the first. Lars Johansson's riffs can take you through mountains and valleys, but they can only take you so far. For a band that made its reputation on writing songs like Solitude or Dark are the Veils of Death, Sweet Evil Sun has a circular feel to it. Themes resemble one another. Some of them come back from song to song.
What I’m saying here is that Candlemass has lost some songwriting feathers along the way and it's normal to some extent. You can't write with the same introspection and smoldering intensity at sixty than you did at forty. Some people can to some extent, but they’re the exception. Not the rule. At some point in your life, you make peace with some of your inner struggle and you start doing things because you actually enjoy them. This is what Candlemass is doing on Sweet Evil Sun.
They wrote a record they had fun writing.
*
Not everyone is going to get a kick out of Sweet Evil Sun and understandably so. It depends what your expectations are. If you're looking for the transcendent intensity of earlier albums you're going to be disappointed. If you're just looking to vibe to new material from a band you already liked, Sweet Evil Sun is an album for you. It's an album made by old musicians in the purest rock n' roll mindset. You're supposed to throw your horns, drink some beer and sing your heart out to it.
