Review Summary: Nostalgicus Doomicus Metallicus
Nowadays there are two paths left for bands to survive these tiring times: lockdown sessions / streamed events... or come up with new material. This legendary epic doom metal band has chosen “Plan A” and put together a new album, the recording of their first ever streamed concert. And so,
Green Valley was born.
Everything was given for a good time: the line-up and an excellent setlist (half of the songs are from the beloved
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and
Nightfall albums).
Green Valley actually turned out as quite an enjoyable record, and based on the live footage, surely the band had fun while making it as well. The recording quality is excellent since they could set up everything as planned, and of course there was no audience present to interrupt due to Covid regulations, and the mixing is very-well balanced. It feels especially refreshing to hear my all-time favourite Candlemass songs without the tiring stadium-rock drum sound of the original recordings (noone misses that cheesy reverb and terribly compressed tone). This alone is priceless to hear those songs with more organic drumming.
However, there is one thing which simply cannot be overlooked: the vocals. All my respect goes to Johan Längqvist for still kicking with the band as long time session member, but honestly, sometimes his performance feels really out of place. For example he struggled a lot singing in songs like “Mirror Mirror” or “Bewitched”. Of course singing songs from the Messiah Marcolin-era is not an easy task, so perhaps they should have picked more appropriate songs for his vocal range. That wasn’t the case. In the end fans will probably be left with mixed emotions: the epic riffs and excellent sound quality are very pleasing, but it is a bit frustrating that the vocals can't match up to these tracks' legacy. (Also not to mention even in his own songs he sounded quite rusty...) And let’s be honest, many Candlemass songs are very vocal-driven, they don’t work well without the matching vocals, in my opinion.
If you’re expecting the complete resurrection of their old soundscape, then this might be a bit disappointing to you. However, it is undeniably a good feeling to hear their classic songs “live”, so some (mild) headbanging is guaranteed. Candlemass never ran out of riffs, after all.
