CANDLEMASS Guitarist Says Another Full-Length Album Depends On LEIF EDLING's Health

Metal Wani editor in chief Owais "Vitek" Nabi recently conducted an interview with guitarist Lars Johansson of Swedish doom metal legends CANDLEMASS. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On whether there is a chance that CANDLEMASS will record a new full-length album to follow this year's "Death Thy Lover" EP, even though they claimed 2012's "Psalms For The Dead" would be the band's final LP: "Actually, if there, in the future, will be a full-length CANDLEMASS album, it all depends on how Leif [Edling, CANDLEMASS bassist and main songwriter] turns out to be in his sickness [Editor's note: Leif is suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome]. It's because you have to be inspired, you have to have fun. And for him, it's, like, he's really putting his soul into the music when he's writing it, and he writes the lyrics as well, and he has to have the right feel for it. And since he's not been well for a while, you don't want to push it. Because I know that he's sitting in his chamber at home, making songs for all kinds of different [projects] he's doing, so he's probably putting a song aside here and there for different things. And when it turns out to be matured, he will tell us that, 'Okay, guys, this is how it is.' Or he feels like, 'I'm not well enough to go through this whole development, from writing to producing to all that,' because there's a big expectation. If you wanna put out a full-length album with CANDLEMASS after this EP, then it has to be perfect in all aspects. So therefore we're just taking it cool year by year. If it works out, it works out. Hopefully he'll get well enough to start playing live with us soon. That is what we all long for." On whether new CANDLEMASS singer Mats Levén felt any pressure laying down vocals on "Death Thy Lover" after replacing American vocalist Robert Lowe in 2012: "Actually, that has been always the thing. I mean, for example, in the early days, when Thomas [Vikström] was [stepping] in for Messiah [Marcolin] the first time, it was a big pressure for him. But he did his thing, and the songs were a little different on 'Chapter VI' [1992], for example, and then time flew away, and made the 'white' [self-titled] album with Messiah [in 2005], and that one was a great album; I think he sings like a god on that album. But things didn't work out well, so we made 'King Of The Grey Islands' [2007], which actually was supposed to be Messiah on that one, but he had other ideas in the middle of recording. So, actually, we made a competition. We played four songs in the studio and had, like, sixty vocalists that wanted to come [and audition]. And then, all of a sudden, there was this American guy from Texas, Rob Lowe from SOLITUDE AETURNUS. 'I know that guy! We've been playing with [his band] in the '80s.' Okay, we checked it out. And there he was. And he did a great job in the studio. Unfortunately, not so much live." "Death Thy Lover" will be released on June 3 via Napalm. The four-track effort was recorded during September/October and will be made available as a four-page digipack, one-LP gatefold edition and one-LP gatefold webstore edition and old-school "skull-and-cross" slipmat. The cover artwork for the EP was created by Erik Rovanperä. The official lyric video for the "Death Thy Lover" title track can be seen below. "Death Thy Lover" track listing: 01. Death Thy Lover 02. Sleeping Giant 03. Sinister N Sweet 04. The Goose