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7.5
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It was Mark Shelton of the Manilla Roads, it is told, to suggest a change of singer to Candlemass, after listening to the first demos written and sung by the young bassist Leif Edling in the French offices of the Black Dragon. At the time, the Manilla Road and Liege Lord label was preparing to publish a work of the Doom Metal opera: “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”.
It was then that Candlemass came to mind Jonah Quizzi and their portentous singer Johan Langquist, nearby, a few years earlier, to release a full-length thanks to the participation, in 1982, in the Swedish Rock-Sm premium television competition which was however won by Europe, who obtained the coveted record contract by delivering to history. So Langquist was recruited by Leif Edling to record the rumors of the first album of Candlemass and indicated, by his will, 'only' as a special guest because of his choice not to become part of the training on a stable plan to devote himself to a career as a singer and author who – until now – has never taken off.
Today, after four decades of home experiments, sporadic participations in records of musician friends, a handful of shows celebrating with the Candlemass over the years and more recently the return to training in the band that has made it famous, we are finally in the presence of the first solo album of the Swedish singer, published digitally last October through a series of individuals, who passed completely unnoticed and now available in physical format thanks Records.
“Johan Langquist – The Castle” is, first of all, a declaration of love for hard rock and Heavy Metal of the early eighties, far from the granite and powerful doom that we are used to associating with his voice. The seven songs of this work live on countless references to God and, in some places, to the most atmospheric black Sabbaths of Glenn Hughes and Tony Martin, especially in the wide guitar of guitar 'Clean' pregnant with Reverbero, up to vigorous melodic hard rocks that evoke the simpline class of the Rainbow (especially those with Graham Bonnet behind the behind the microphone).
Langquist is sixty -one years old, and has a voice in great shape for his age. This time, more than the power, we appreciate a different theatricality, which becomes less epic and magniloquent but more dramatic and emotional, capable of bringing to another level even the most predictable moments, which in the album, must be said, are more than one, but always brought on stage with class and profession.
The disc, basically, starts again from where the Jonah Quizzes stopped in 82 with their powerful, melodic but at the same time atmospheric Heavy Metal, even if the music takes on different appearance and elegance. The merit is certainly more than forty years of experience of Langquist and the navigated musicians, all foreign to the world of metal, apparently, except for the bassist Fredrik Isaksson, currently in force in the Dark Funeral and in the past participating in the excellent second youth of the grave of the early 2000s and in “Lepaca Kliffoth” of the Conterranei Therion.
“Eye of Death”, is a great departure, perhaps the only episode that could find space in the scaletta of a Candlemass album (together, perhaps, to the subsequent and powerful “freedom”), with a granite and cadenced riff that recalls the dark and gloomy atmospheres in which Langquist is now trained to juggle, but the register changes with the harmonious variations of “Cast of My Dreams “where the Swedish nature of the musicians echoes, embellished with those melodic modulations and changes of agreements that we have loved so much in the first albums of Yngwie Malmsteen (another authoritative influence perceivable not only in the solotes of guitarists, but also in certain falling and gloomy atmospheres and in the joints between keyboards and rhythmic guitar riffs).
With “Where Are The Heroes”, however, we are finally in front of the first ninety piece of the entire lot. The chorus with the flavor of the instant classic, the eighty atmospheres with a magical and dreamy length and the enviable singing execution, give the song an important aura, with an appeal almost as a ranking that does not give up a heavy riffing, worthy of the reputation of its interpreter.
If with “Raw Energy” we change step towards a more classic and predictable Heavy, always with a keyboard carpet to give it charm and atmosphere, almost to the Grand Magus, with “Revolution” we return to the tragic tension, full of an anthemic energy that, for its cantability, seems designed for any live moments. “Freedom”, as mentioned, returns to the most epic tones, but the icing on the cake is “Bird of Sadness”, an evocative ballad that focuses on the voice of Langquist, closing an album that moves in family territories but also manages to show some personal inspiration, due to the influences and experience of a musician who has delivered himself at the time to the Underground, then contributing, contributing. undeniably to outline a way of interpreting and understanding the Doom and epic metal in general.
The well -balanced production and well balanced sounds, then, respect the 'classic' spirit of the work, with the most atmospheric moments that do not 'eat' the rockiness of the guitars, indeed enhance it and vice versa.
If many compositional choices are derivative, the execution of Langquist and its musicians keeps everything on a high level, and if some central traces suffer from a slight drop in intensity (“Raw Energy” and “Revolution”, so to speak), the Open, “Where Are The Heroes” think about it and the long final trace to bring home the excellent result that will certainly vibrate the heads of the Candlemass fans. And of the rainbow, Alcatrazz and black Sabbath's hard and heavy classic more atmospheric and less known by the general public – certainly not on these pages – of the eighties.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
