YMMV / Candlemass

• Audience-Alienating Era: The Candlemass fanbase is maybe not as divided with regards to different singers (and the albums recorded with their participation) as the one for Black Sabbath... But there's widespread derision heaped upon the two albums done with Björn Flodkvist (not helped by the fact that none of the members from earlier lineups, except of course Leif Edling, were on these albums either), and maybe even "Chapter VI", which is often panned as being a departure from the band's trademark doom sound. The Flodkvist-era albums really have a different sound as well, "Dactylis Glomerata" being closer to Stoner Metal - with lots of spacey synths on top - than the Epic Doom most people have come to expect from Candlemass, and "From the 13th Sun" a blatant worship of (very) early Black Sabbath. There was also the added complication of Leif Edling semi-disowning the two late 90s albums in interviews and refusing to play songs from them after the reunion with Messiah, even though his other band Krux did play "Abstrakt Sun" from "Dactylis Glomerata"... for the few times they did perform live, anyway. Thomas Vikström was invited to play on the anniversary gig in 2007, and performed three songs from "Chapter VI" (then, the band did sometimes perform "The Dying Illusion" with Mats Levén at the mic), but Flodkvist was not, and that era remains ignored.
• Awesome Ego: While Messiah Marcolin's ego later got him fired, his initial chutzpah saved the band. After Epicus, the band fell apart and basically wasn't even active, and Edling had completely given up on it when he received an unsolicited phone call one night by someone who informed him that he was his new singer and proceeded to sing "Solitude" a cappella, and while Marcolin's dominant and controlling personality later wore out its welcome, it was exactly what they needed at the time to get back on their feet.
• Base-Breaking Character: Mats Levén. He was either just as good, if not better than Rob Lowe with the added benefit of being a far more consistent live performer and having a far better working relationship with Edling, or he was a great vocalist who was in the wrong band and was hired less because he was the best man for the job and more because Edling wanted someone who was professional and easy to work with.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Messiah suddenly shouting "The mother of life is a whore!" at the end of the chorus in "Spellbreaker".
• Epic Riff: A large proportion of their work.
• First Installment Wins: Their first two albums overshadow most of their other material.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The music video of "Bewitched" due to how cheesy it is, the chorus in particular too.
    "YOU ARE BEWIIIITCHED!"
• Narm: A lot of the stuff from their video for "Bewitched", such as people awkwardly stopping before Messiah starts to control them by pointing at them and saying "You are bewitched".
• Retroactive Recognition: Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin of Mayhem, then lead singer of Morbid, was a background extra in the "Bewitched" video.
• Signature Song: "Solitude".
• So Bad, It's Good: Again, the video for "Bewitched", especially Messiah Marcolin's acting.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: The fate of basically every vocalist they've had who wasn't Längquist or Marcolin. Lowe avoided this somewhat and was generally viewed as a solid vocalist in his own right (being from Solitude Aeturnus probably helped), but was still generally viewed as inferior and was derided for his often poor live performances, while Levén has been divisive; Vikstrom and Flodkvist, meanwhile, sadly fell firmly into "not Langquist or Marcolin, don't care" territory.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "Galatea" and "Oil" of the album From the 13th Sun are almost identical in composition: quiet intros and verses, then the heavy guitar parts kicking in with the singer repeating the catch lines ("My peace of mind" and "I wait for the oil" respectively) until the song fades out. Probably the similarity is why "Galatea" is on the album and "Oil" was relegated to the ranks of bonus tracks not widely circulated until the reissue almost ten years later.
  • "Tot" (1999's From the 13th Sun) and "Hammer of Doom" (2009's Death Magic Doom) are also very similar, though both seem to be inspired by Black Sabbath's eponymous song. It could be argued that on most Candlemass albums at least since 1998, the second song is a slow and heavy plodder.
• Tough Act to Follow: Their later material is nowhere near as well-regarded as Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and/or Nightfall.

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