Customer Reviews

Chapter VI

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This could be considered the last "true" Candlemass album, in that it retains the Cmass trademark compositional style much more than the two heavily experimental albums which followed some years later (Dactylis... & ...13th Sun).
After hitting his stride with "Nightfall" and pretty much keeping that same, honed-to-perfection doom style with it's sequels "Ancient Dreams" and "Tales of Creation", CHAPTER VI presented a Leif Edling not unwilling to begin his experimentation with the doom sound. Gone was Messiah Marcolin, the hefty opera-man at the mike, and I can't say that I was too distraught over this loss. While a decent singer, his operatic bellowing never impressed me to the point of convincing me that he was the ultimate vocalist for the band. No, that title goes to Johan Lanquist on Epicus, forever and ever.
His replacement Thomas Vikstrom certainly fits in comfortably, and I personally have no complaints about his performance. He's belting out the words without the overwrought vibrato and can at least manage to hide his accent, which was a strike against his predecessor in my book.
Most of the songs are all taken directly from the Leif Edling book of doom: "Where The Runes Still Speak" being another Epic Doom Metal classic, though possibly a little overlong; "Julie Laughs No More" uses the Little Red Riding Hood story as a metaphor for a good girl whose life goes astray into desperate situations; "Aftermath" is probably the best song of the bunch, perfect in length and possessing one of the coolest dark and doomy outros of Leif's career.
There are, for the first time, some songs which really don't meet the standards we've become used to, but every tune has at least one riff that'll make your blood chill.
The biggest alterations to the usual routine are the adding of keyboards as a *primary* instrument (they even get a solo in "Runes") and the stunningly sub-par production. I've never been too fond of keyboards as a main instrument in Metal, but they are used effectively here, and most of the music is so good that they could've used an accordion on it and it wouldn't have damaged the album..
What IS damaging is the production. All of the guitars are in the center of the mix, similar to Sabbath's "Live Evil". Not good. You don't notice it much unless you've got headphones on, then it's absolutely claustrophobic. The vocals and most of the instruments are all bunched up in the middle. One can only imagine how the music would have benefited from separating them as usual. And the drums seem much lower in the mix, as well. Even the cover suffers from the boring scrawling artwork--if artwork it can be called: it looks like a hyperactive child was let loose on a chalkboard. The artwork inside the booklet isn't too bad. Maybe all of this was part of Leif's experimentation.
CHAPTER VI is still capable of yielding some classic DOOM in the Edling style, but be prepared for the occasional tangent. Put simply, this is his launching pad for Abstrakt Algebra.

I purchased the original Chapter VI cd years ago. I already owned and enjoyed Candlemass' "Epicus Doomicus Metalicus" and "Tales of Creation", and I appreciated the progressive direction that Chapter VI took. While I liked Messiah Marcolin's operatic vocals on previous albums, I also liked Thomas Vikstrom's metal vocals on this album. While I was impressed with the songs themselves and the musicianship on Chapter VI, the poor sound quality and mix on the original release made the album difficult to listen to.

I am really impressed with the remastered version of this album. I could be mistaken, but it actually sounds like this album was remixed in addition to being remastered. The drum tracks and guitar tracks sound like they are properly separated from each other, so they don't sound muddled like they did in the original release. Even when I listen to this album with headphones on now, the tracks sound crisp. My only complaint would be that the keyboard track on "Dying Illusion" still sounds a bit muffled. If you are already familiar with the original Chapter VI release and enjoy the songs but hate the sound, give the remastered version a chance: the remaster is a much better listening experience.

If you are relatively new to Candlemass, I would give this album a chance. It is different from Candlemass' other albums because it is more upbeat, uses more keyboards, and features a different vocalist from the other Candlemass albums. I would rate this album neither higher nor lower than classics such as "Epicus Doomicus Metalicus" or "Tales of Creation". I am glad that they did something different on this album, and it a musical masterpiece to me. This album is more progressive and metal than Candlemass' previous and subsequent albums. However, it still captures the gloom and mysticism that define Candlemass.

Favorite songs: "The Dying Illusion", "Where the Runes Still Speak", "The Ebony Throne", "Aftermath"
Good songs: "Temple of the Dead", "The End of Pain"
Good music but cheesy lyrics: "Julie Laughs No More", "Black Eyes"

Chapter VI by Candlemass came to me as kind of a shock, at first. After several discs of Messiah's vocals I wasn't prepared for this change. New singer Tomas Vikstrom is definately not Messiah, but he is still good none the less. I had to listen to this disc several times before it grew on me and now I beleive it to be very much a Candlemass album. The material is slightly lighter than the usual doom, but not so far as to say Abstrakt is. This is among Candlemasses best - listen to it over and over - it will get better and better. Don't expect Messiah or Lowe, keep an open mind and enjoy these songs they are every bit as good as the rest of Candlemasses catalog.

With the minor exception of Epicus Doomicus. Messiah Marcolm and the heavy riffs made Candlemass one of my favorite doom metal bands next to Black Sabbath. This release unfortunately did nothing for me. Once into the first couple of songs there was hope and promise, but I then became bored when it all started sounding the same. Although Tomas Vikstroms voice was fine, the music seemed to loose it's heavy doom like sound. Unlike the first four releases there was nothing I could point my finger to and say WOW what a great song. This CD is not terrible, just different. If you have everything else by them, by all means, try it! If you are new to Candlemass try: Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Tales of Creation and Nightfall instead.

So many people said this just wasn't their best stuff, including some of the bandmembers told me they were disappointed in it and were embarassed that they had even released it.

NO, it's a completely different albums from the others, but it is very much WORTH the purchase. It's great, lots of memorable tracks like Julie, Dying Illusion, Where the Runes Still Speak and a few others. It's definitely Candlemass words, although Messiah's not singing, it's still an amazing addition to my Candlemass collection that gets just as much play as the others.

Released in 1992 this is my favorite album by the band, extremely underrated much to the fact that the much beloved Messiah Marcolin isn't handling the vocals. But replacement Tomas Vikström does a great job, he's got a more traditional metal way of singing than the operatic Messiah. The whole album is more traditional metal than the bands previous releases, it's not as slow and doomy as usual. But it's still the Candlemass trademark sound and the songwriting on this disc is exceptional. IMO this is the most consistent Candlemass disc ever. I ain't even gonna mention any songs because they're all top notch and if you like Candlemass or HEAVY metal this album won't disappoint!