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The legendary personality of Leif Edling is revealed! This double CD package is a cool compilation including some truly amazing stuff that will make all Candlemass fans get some tough shivers! It starts from the very early period of Edling’s creativity with the band Nemesis, who released only one EP in 1982 and goes up to the year 2000 with some very rare recordings of the last Candlemass mark before the classical one got reunited. If we exclude the vocals of Leif, who sings in all of the first CD recordings and has a below average voice, all of the songs are worth their existence in both CDs. Concerning the first CD: the songs “The King Is Dead” and “Burn The Witch” are some different demo versions of the two self-titled songs that can be found in 1982 “The Day Of Retribution” EP of Nemesis and they are recorded in 1983; the first one is a great epic doom metal tune and the second is more on the NWOBHM style with double-bass and a continuous up-tempo speed. The song “Black Messiah” is a demo recording of 1984 by Nemesis (it’s different than the official EP version) and it is actually the very first version of the song “Incarnation Of Evil” that can be found in the “Ancient Dreams” (1988) album of Candlemass. “Nemesis” and “Lucifer” are two tracks from 1983, which had not been included in the EP at all; “Nemesis” is a cool yet typical NWOBHM tune with a bit of epic touch especially in the nice guitar solo and “Lucifer” is one of the greatest compositions of that era, a really powerful heavy song with great riffing and atmosphere. From now on, Leif formed legendary Candlemass. “Warchild”, “Crystal Ball”, “Sorcerer’s Pledge” and “Into The Unfathomed Tower” are recorded in 1985 as a demo for the debut Candlemass album that followed next year. “Warchild” is another classical metal-rooted composition with a discreet epic touch, which anyway gives a very good result, showing the most classical/power metal influences of Leif. The next two songs can be also found in the first Candlemass album with some different lyrics and maybe some riffs also and the fourth song is the famous instrumental piece from the “Tales Of Creation” album of 1989 in just a bit different version and with a worse sound of course. The last two songs of the first disc, “Black Stone Wielder” and “Demons Gate” are also coming from 1985 with a different line-up and they are both some demo versions of the self-titled songs from their debut album. Concerning the second CD: “Shadowplay” and “Nameless” are two demo versions of the correlative songs contained in the only Abstract Algebra album that was released in 1995. Next comes the song “Remulus And Romus”, which is a studio outtake from that era (1995) and it’s a great instrumental piece in the vein of Abstract Algebra, maybe given with more emotion; actually it’s so good that I wonder why it didn’t end up in the official album. Then comes “White Heat, Red Hot” a 1996 cover to the mighty Judas Priest! This must be the most bizarre song of this whole compilation, since it has a very heavy industrial touch on it, totally very far away from anything Leif has done during his career; whether you like it or not, it definitely worth a listen. “Blue Wizard” and “Thirst” are two other strange compositions, still in the path of Abstract Algebra, but with a tiny influence by alternative and industrial, both being rather interesting. What is nice to realize, is the fact that “Thirst” contains some ideas that were used in the song “Popocatépetl” from the recent great album of Krux. “Venusian” and “Oil” were recorded in 1998 for the reunited Candlemass mark IV. “Venusian” is a really nice song with a touch of jazz and alternative rock elements, which adds to the song a bold “cool” and relaxing atmosphere. It reminded me that Leif has stated that he considers “OK Computer” of Radiohead to be the greatest album of the 90’s decade. “Oil” is a track that was a bonus for the japanese version of “Dactylis Glomerata” album. It’s a nice tune that is mostly appropriate when you want to relax, although it gets heavier towards the end; it’s probably one of the most emotional and ballad-like songs Leif has composed. “Rock ‘N’ Roll” was a 7” b-side released in 2000 and I personally find it the most un-interesting song of Leif. “Planet Of The Apes” comes from the same year and it’s the only song that was not composed by Leif, but instead it’s a creation of Ståhl, the guitarist of the band for that period; it’s just a pack of noises that create the image of space and nothing more – not of my taste. Finally, the song that closes the compilation goes back to the Nemesis years, 1983, and it’s a live performance of “Lucifer” with average interest. The whole package is given with a simple and beautiful way. The booklet contains a few photos from Nemesis of 1982 until Candlemass of 1999, a note of Leif Edling himself about his thoughts on this release (which he personally compiled) and also a track-by-track explanation about where (year), when (studio) and from exactly which line-up were the songs recorded. |
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KJP / November 2003 |
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