| Doomology | ||
|---|---|---|
 Cover for the 5CD edition | ||
| Compilation album by Candlemass | ||
| Released | December 22 2010 | |
| Recorded | 1987 - 2008 | |
| Genre(s) | Doom Metal, Epic Doom Metal | |
| Label | Nuclear Blast (5CD) High Roller Records (7LP) | |
| Candlemass chronology | ||
| Don't Fear The Reaper (2010) |
Doomology (2010) |
Psalms For The Dead (2012) |
Doomology is a career-spanning box set by Epic Doom Metal legends Candlemass, released in 2010 on 5CD via Nuclear Blast and later the next year as a 7LP box set via High Roller Records. Composed for the band's 25th anniversary, Doomology features the band's very first live performance and a show from the Ancient Dreams Tour, this box set features demos from Candlemass and King of The Grey Islands along with a disc of unreleased rarities, including seven unreleased rehearsal tracks with original singer Johan Längquist.
Background
In the summer of 2010, to coincide with the band's 25th anniversary, it would be announced that Nuclear Blast would be releasing a career-spanning box set of the band's material from 1987 - 2008. The 5CD edition would initially be sold at the Candlemass 25 Years of Doom concert in Stockholm on 22 December 2010. Later it'd be offered via Nuclear Blast's mailorder and ultimately limited to 1000 copies. The CD edition of Doomology comes with 5 cardboard gatefold CDs with no booklet, liner notes hand written on the CD covers and on the inside of the box.
In 2011, High Roller Records would issue a vinyl edition (7 LPs) of the album on 12 September 2011 with a bonus performance from 1990. This edition would be limited to 1000 copies (700 black, 300 silver) and also contain a poster from a 1990 show in Fryshuset (Stockholm), a 12 page booklet with photos, and a skull slipmat.
Tracklist
Disc 1/Vinyl Sides A & B: Live Jönköping - 5th of September 1987 (First Gig Ever)
- 1. Intro (2:15)
- 2. Crystal Ball (5:01)
- 3. Under The Oak (6:53)
- 4. Bewitched (6:20)
- 5. Demons Gate (9:27)
- 6. The Well of Souls (7:28)
- 7. A Sorcerers Pledge (10:55)
- 8. Solitude (6:47)
Disc 2/Vinyl Sides C - F: Live Buckley Tivoli - 17th of November 1988
- 1. Mirror Mirror (5:38)
- 2. Bewitched (4:22)
- 3. Solitude (6:10)
- 4. The Bells of Acheron (5:33)
- 5. At The Gallows End (5:53)
- 6. Demons Gate (8:50)
- 7. Bearer of Pain (6:51)
- 8. Samarithan (5:45)
- 9. A Cry From The Crypt (6:21)
- 10. Dark Are The Veils of Death (4:17)
- 11. The Well of Souls (7:41)
- 12. A Sorcerers Pledge (10:30)
Disc 3/Vinyl Sides G - I: White Album Demos 2003 - 2004
- 1. Black Dwarf (Demo Sep 04) (5:55)
- 2. Spellbreaker (Demo Sep 04) (7:21)
- 3. Seven Silver Keys (Rough Mixes Dec 04) (4:50)
- 4. Assassin Of The Light (Rough Mixes Dec 04) (6:22)
- 5. Copernicus (Rough Mixes Dec 04) (7:14)
- 6. Witches (Demo Aug 03) (6:35)
- 7. Born In A Tank (Demo Aug 03) (5:29)
- 8. Black Dwarf (Demo Mats Levén May 04) (5:47)
- 9. Spellbreaker (Demo Mats Levén May 04) (7:06)
- 10. Witches (Tony Martin Oct 04) (5:20)
- 11. Witches (Doogie White Oct 04) (5:46)
LP Bonus (Side J): Live 1990
- 1. Intro
- 2. The Well Of Souls
- 3. Dark Are The Veils of Death
- 4. Dark Reflections
- 5. The Bells of Acheron
- 6. Mirror Mirror
Disc 4/Vinyl Sides K & L: King of The Grey Islands Demos 2006
- 1. Emperor Of The Void (4:20)
- 2. Devil Seed (5:43)
- 3. Of Stars and Smoke (6:14)
- 4. Demonia 6 (6:17)
- 5. Destroyer (6:12)
- 6. Man Of Shadows (6:19)
- 7. Embracing The Styx (11:46)
- 8. Edgar Grey (7:13)
Disc 5/Vinyl Sides M & N: Miscellaneous Demos 1992 - 2008
- 1. Ebony Throne (Johan Längquist 1992) (4:22)
- 2. The Dying Illusion (Johan Längquist 1992) (5:26)
- 3. Temple Of The Lord (Johan Längquist 1992) (7:11)
- 4. The End Of Pain (Johan Längquist 1992) (4:20)
- 5. Black Dwarf (Vocal Auditions Johan Langquist 2007) (5:41)
- 6. At The Gallows End (Vocal Auditions Johan Langquist 2007) (5:24)
- 7. Solitude (Vocal Auditions Johan Langquist 2007) (6:02)
- 8. Lucifer Dance (Ibiza Remix) (3:33)
- 9. Handklaver Och Klarinett (Late Night Sigge Fürst Session '92) (2:55)
- 10. Vårt Sista Avsked (Eurovision Song Contest Reject) (2:59)
Liner Notes
Introduction
25 years of doom! Sounds like an incredible achievement for a band of youngsters from the suburbs of Stockholm. So how to celebrate something like this? Well...people often ask me what we have in the drawers. Do we have lots of gigs recorded and do I have heaps of demos lying around in my flat? Yes, we do have a bunch of recordings from the early days. Not many..but some. And most with crappy quality. Went through every cassette and CD here, but there are no leftovers from the Nightfall/Ancient/Tales albums. Sorry! And I did find some great stuff, so in this box you'll find demos recorded between 1992-2008 plus 2 really cool early live shows. The very first gig we did in Sweden 1987! + a show from the Ancient Dreams tour '88. You will also get the legendary Johan Langquist Chapter VI sessions, how about that! Some of the demos from the white reunion album and King of the grey islands will perhaps rise an eyebrow too! So enjoy...5 discs stuffed with goodies! If you are a fan of Candlemass, this is for YOU!
-Leif Edling
Disc 1
I remember we went down to Jönköping in an old huge blue bus with a cracked windshield. Took the wrong way of course and the four hour drive suddenly took nearly twice as long. Messiah put blood and make-up on and had his mind set to scare people in the audience. This was before we realized it was better to entertain the crowd instead! But there certainly was blood...a guy stagedived and cracked his head open! He was up 2 seconds later and continued to headbang as nothing had happened! A true fan, hehe! This is the very first gig we played as Candlemass. It's not perfect...but actually not bad...and we did get better!
-Leif Edling
Disc 2
This is a gig we did on one of the earlier C-mass tours in England. We often played places like Buchley, Newcastle, Milton Keynes, Birmingham etc etc... Travelled around in a minibus and stayed in small B & B's along the road. Even the local YMCA's got visits from the swedish doomlords sometimes. But we had fun! Lots of it...not so much food or luxury perhaps, but we did our thing and certain provided beverages helped out to have a good time while on tour. Albums like "Nightfall" and "Ancient Dreams" sold well and we pulled crowds to the gigs.
-Leif Edling
Disc 3
- Black Dwarf/Spellbreaker
First demo for the white reunion album. Messiah teared heaven and hell up because he thought the songs sounded bad in mono. Relax man...it's only a demo!
- Seven Silver Keys/Assassin Of The Light/Copernicus
Nuclear Blast loved "Witches" and "Black Dwarf"! And after these rough mixes it took only weeks before we were signed. Yes...we went into the recording studio (Polar) without a contract. We were very confident!
- Witches/Born In A Tank
First studio session w Messiah since "Tales..." and it was a bloody nightmare! After 8 hours of mayhem in the studio with M putting vocals on "Witches" I knew we were in for a hellride with the mad monk.
- Black Dwarf/Spellbreaker
Demos with Mats Levén. Here are the first prototypes. You can follow the progress from here to the proper demo for "Black Dwarf" (song no 1 on this disc), and on the album you have the finished result.
- Witches
Excellent version of "Witches" here with Mr. Tony Martin behind the microphone. Great voice, great guy!
- Witches
Same goes here. Doogie put his voice on and it's a nice version. But a couple of weeks later M came back into the band.
-Leif Edling
Disc 4
I had songs for K.O.T.G.I ready in the spring of 2006. Messiah couldn't sing due to a very bad throat infection he inflicted on himself after too much partying on tour with Destruction some month earlier. Events that later led to his departure from the band in april '06. We recorded the album in May in Polar as a fourpiece. To help us out my friend Mats Levén sang the new material so we could play it to the label and have some guidance ourselves. Here are those K.O.T.G.I. demos. All except for "Clearsight". For some stupid reason it was impossible to find.
-Leif Edling
Disc 5
- The famous and almost lost "Johan sessions" from '92 and Chapter VI. Messiah had left in turmoil (as usual) and we auditioned Johan L. I like his voice, but we were after something more metal. A bit later we bumped into Tomas Vikström... Same again in 2007, Johan always delivers, but Robert was exactly what we were looking for.
- On this disc we also have Chris Laneys mad euro-techno version of Lucifer Rising. He must have been both bored and drunk when he did this...hahahaha!
- Pretty much like I must have been during this very bizarre take of "Handklover o Klarinett" from 1993. Weird... No one remembers this session (pizza and lots of beers perhaps?)...And who was the engineer???
- As a final bonus...my contribution to the 1993 eurovision song contest. Tomas Vikström on vocals and Gisslén on keyboards. Never made it into the competition of course, hehe...But I guess...in a box like this you have to give it all away.
-Leif Edling, Nov 2010
Personnel
- Leif Edling - Bass (All Tracks), Liner Notes
- Lars Johansson - Lead Guitar (All Tracks)
- Mats Björkman - Rhythm Guitar (All Tracks)
- Jan Lindh - Drums (All Tracks)
- Messiah Marcolin - Vocals (Disc 1, 2, 3 Tracks 1-7, Vinyl Bonus Tracks)
- Mats Levén - Vocals (Disc 3 Tracks 8 - 9, Disc 4)
- Tony Martin - Vocals (Disc 3 Track 10)
- Doogie White - Vocals (Disc 3 Track 11)
- Johan Längquist - Vocals (Disc 5 Tracks 1 - 7)
- Robert Lowe - Vocals (Disc 5 Track 8)
- Chris Laney - Remixing (Disc 5 Track 8)
- Thomas Vikström - Vocals (Disc 5 Tracks 9 - 10)
- Rex Gisslén - Keyboards (Disc 5 Track 10)
- André Tueroff - Layout, Design
- Andreas Bauman - Mastering
- Patrick W. Engel - Remastering (Vinyl Bonus Tracks)