«Epicus Doomicus Metallicus» is the first album by Candlemass and it was released on 10 June 1986 by the French label Black Dragon Records. It was recorded in February 1986 at Thunderload Studios in Stockholm, with Ragne Wahlquist of Heavy Load producing.
“`Country: Sweden
Genre: Epic Doom Metal
For fans of: Black Sabbath, Manilla Road
The title is supposedly Latin and it means exactly «Epic Doom Metal» — the genre took its name from this album. Where their contemporaries played as fast as they could, Candlemass went the opposite way: slow, heavy riffs under imposing, almost operatic vocals. The tracks are long and they build slowly, with the tempo dragging and the atmosphere getting heavier as time passes.
All of the music is written by bassist Leif Edling. On vocals is Johan Längqvist, who at the time was a guest musician and had not heard the band’s music before. «Solitude» opens the album monolithically, the nine-minute «Demon’s Gate» builds a slow, nightmarish setting, while «A Sorcerer’s Pledge» closes with female vocals and keyboards. Längqvist sings deep and theatrically, almost like a narrator, and he gives the record its heavy, epic character.
Next to them stand «Crystal Ball», «Black Stone Wielder» and «Under the Oak». The album did not sell well in its time and the band was left without a label that same year, only to return stronger with «Nightfall» in 1987.
Over the years «Epicus Doomicus Metallicus» has been established as a cornerstone of doom metal. Fans of the genre see it as one of the most influential debuts, an album that with its title and its sound defined an entire scene. For many it is the debut that showed how serious and how heavy doom can sound.
