Album Review: Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun

One of the things I find rather amazing is how we, as a culture, tolerate liars. We seem to now live in a world where a man's word is not his bond, it's just what he says until he needs to say something else. We have fallen so far that there is seemingly no bottom left in the barrel. Ethics is often thought of as not being an absolute thing, but we've gone so far that basic tenets of respect for one another are ridiculed as weakness. Assholes and frauds are rewarded for how ruthlessly they play us for fools, abusing us because we apparently have no will to fight back.

That's a long-winded way of saying I seem to be the only person left in the music world who remembers that Candlemass promised they were retiring, then gave us the finger when they couldn't get other bands going successfully enough to leave this one behind. It isn't any different than what Scorpions did, or what Motley Crue is doing right now. Actually, Motley Crue is even worse, since now they are heading back out on the road not even as the full group people want to see reunited. The point is; we get lied to, and no one ever seems to care.

I've said all this before, but I wanted to say it again, because this second Candlemass album with original singer Johan Lanquist back in the fold raises a question for me; what is the point of showing yourself to be a fraud if the results are so lackluster?

Candlemass has never been a favorite of mine, I'll be honest, but I did enjoy the Robert Lowe years. Those albums found a nice balance of heavy doom, dramatic vocals, and some darn catchy songs. They were able to thread that needle between doom and rock, which is not an easy thing to do.

Unfortunately, something happened afterward, and the previous Candlemass album was so focused on sounding dirty and heavy that the songs were severely lacking. That was never clearer than with "Porcelain Skull", which Avatatium proved was a fantastic track. When Candlemass recorded it, however, it sounded like a demo by comparison. If I can play amateur psychologist, perhaps the band is at that age where they feel they have to prove they are still as heavy and rocking as they ever were. That is a very dangerous mindset.

The good news for Candlemass is they do a better job this time around. They still come across a little too rough-around-the-edges, but the songs hit most of the right notes. There still isn't anything as sweepingly melodic as "Of Stars And Smoke", but only one or two songs on this album drag to the point of being unbearable. That would include "Scandinavian Gods", which was released as a single. When I heard it, I was thinking Candlemass had completely lost the plot, as the song was totally lacking just about anything that made it sound like a song, and not a jam the band came up with in five minutes. As it turns out, they just had terrible, terrible taste in picking out the song that should be used to sell the record.

I actually like "Black Butterfly" a fair amount. That song, along with the title track, are what Candlemass does best. They are heavy, but melodic, and the hints of organ give the sinister vibe without the tracks needing to slow to a crawl. An album full of those type songs would actually be really good.

But now we ask ourselves another question; is this album good enough to atone for Candlemass' sins? No, of course it isn't. They may not be guilty of mortal sins, but they still need to prove to me a good reason why they went back on their word. This record is an improvement over the previous one, but it still isn't good enough to win me back over. And if you think I'm being hard on them, well, maybe I am. But keep this in mind; they chose to say what they said. I presume thought went into their choice, and if so, abandoning it so quickly says something about them. Not me.

"Sweet Evil Sun" is adequate doom, but it certainly isn't worth making a deal with the devil for.