Kingdom of the Grey Islands is the ninth album of the Swedish masters of doom metal. One of the most characteristic elements of the Candlemass sound were the vocals of Messiah Marcolin. Were?? Well yes, before the vocals of the album King of the Grey Islands were recorded, Marcolin left the band. One could ask oneself, is there life after Messiah Marcolin for Candlemass? The answer is yes: the name of their new front man is Robert Lowe. His style of singing isn’t the same as Marcolin’s but more like Mats Levén. It takes a little while, but once you get used to his voice you will notice he has a melancholic timbre with a huge quantity of power, that fits in very well with the doom metal of Candlemass.

On King of the Grey Islands Candlemass makes the music they are very good at, great doom metal songs. It reminds me of the famous ‘Ancient Dream’ (1988) and ‘Live’ (1990) albums; ‘King of the Grey Islands’ is Candlemass at its best.

Lots of powerful heavy doom riffs (the early Black Sabbath type riffs), superb solos, great singing, outstanding production and sound and above all a lot of spirit. I realize I’m using only superlatives, but actually they’re all true. Whether the songs are up-tempo (‘Emperor Of The Void’) or melodic doom (‘Of Stars And Smoke’) or absolutely classical doom metal (‘Devil Seed’, ‘Clearsight’) they’re all great songs. King of the Grey Islands doesn’t have any flaws. The album is a concept album, with a story about depression and suicide in modern society. They call it the road to ruin for ‘the kings of the Grey Islands’ that can’t stand everyday life and want to do something about it.

Candlemass serves their fans with this cd full of strong black doom metal songs, most likely the album they all were waiting for. King of the Grey Islands is a must for the cd collection of all doom metal fans, and of fans of early Black Sabbath.