Up until this album, I had only ever heard or seen the name Candlemass in passing. That’s not to belittle them, but rather to highlight how much I had overlooked them.
I’m not sure how this had happened, but I suspect it comes down to genres. Doom Metal wasn’t something that, based on my previous impressions, inspired me to go find more.
Ironically then, when a friend sent me the song Solitude, I suddenly realised that for the past however many years I had made a mistake, and corrected it on the same day.
So, why did I buy The Door To Doom, and not an older, and perhaps more classic, album?
Quite simply: time and impatience.
I can be rather impulsive when it comes to purchases, and really wanted to grab a record that would scratch an itch I had; something that wasn’t just Cradle of Filth, and that also had a solid metal punch to it.
The Door To Doom did this really well for me.
There’s a really nice balance of fidelity and raw power, and this leads to a strangely uplifting overall experience. House of Doom is one of my favourites here.
To be honest, I don’t find much ‘doom’ in the album overall, but there are some great swings from melancholic vocal sections, to epic, string rattling explosions of great metal music.
With my own vinyl copy, I did find at times the vocals seemed a little masked, but I am going to attribute this to my particular set up.
Overall, there’s not much I can detract from Candlemass here, except that maybe towards the end of the album, my attention seems to wane a little. I’m not sure why this is; perhaps I am simply just not used to the slower pace of Doom Metal.
Either way, it’s one album that I will always play loud.
8/10
