I had already seen CANDLEMASS with the new singer in the latest visit in Athens, Greece but taking into account that this would be the band's first live performance after 17 years I just had to be there. Once again I had to arrive really early in the venue since I had scheduled an interview with Leif with the kind help of their tour manager. After the interview I entered the venue with the first metalheads that wanted to take a spot in the front lines. Despite the fact that CANDLEMASS had many years to visit the US the fans did not make strong appearance in The Pearl Room. This made me think that these guys definitely deserve to wait more than 17 years to see again this band.

The first band that had the difficult task to warm the less than 50 metalheads was STONE FACE NATION from Chicago. Their setlist lasted 30 minutes during which they played their songs almost without pauses. Their sound had strong Stoner foundations with some MOTORHEAD influences. Although their performance was kind of compact they on-stage presence was rather stationary and apathetic possibly due to stage fright.

The next band that had to warm the cold atmosphere in the venue was RAIN that consisted of some really young musicians. Here I have to give some credit to the venue technicians that are really professionals and not only they are working fast but they respect every band by giving a flawless sound. With clear sings of stage fright the young band kicked off their setlist following a Melodic Black Metal path. This means extreme vocals, fast drumming and very good guitars. Although these guys had difficult time on-stage they played very well proving that they spent many hours in the studio. The compositions had some good ideas but to my ears sounded rather long in duration with too many elements that make difficult to follow. Of course they have all the time to work and improve because I believe they have potentials to do this.

URN was another local band that comprised two female members in the drums and the keyboards. Their show and music were very good and I have to say that I really enjoyed their setlist. They had a vintage Epic sound that for some reason brought to my mind bands like WARLORD or even CIRITH UNGOL. Due to the long time duration of their songs they had to shorten their setlist to meet the time schedule but I think they left everyone satisfied.

The last supporting act was DAYLIGHT DIES from North Carolina. I was not familiar to this band and I was kind of curious to see why CANDLEMASS have chosen them in their North American tour. It seemed that they had some die hard fans in the audience that were very excited during the preparation of the stage. Personally, I found their music boring for my taste although they had some pretty good fast and heavy moments. Their sound is described as Dark, Desperate and Melancholic Metal (check their myspace page if you don't believe me) and this means distinct early PARADISE LOST influences through a THEATER OF TRAGEDY perspective. Their frontman was rather feeble when it was time to speak to the audience and that was a real turn off for me. The rest of the metalheads had a pretty good time and gave the band an honest applaud.

Finally, the time had come for the godfathers of Doom Metal to fill the half empty venue with their on heavy riffs. The classic crosses were placed on stage (I still believe they were upside down) and right on time Leif and kicked their setlist with Well Of Souls after the classic March Funebre intro. The sound was good but the vocals were kind of weak at least to my ears. The band played Solitude before Rob Lowe said some things about the band's return upon US soil after 17 years. The audience responded annoyingly mild despite Rob's efforts to wake them. I could believe my eyes and ear with the American fans that seemed to prefer better the trendy Shitcore sound than some genuine Doom Metal. Some movement from the overall dead crowd was seen during the tracks Emperor Of The Void and Devil Seed from the band's latest album. During the excellent Dark Veils Of Death some of the amps went dead spoiling my quality heabanging time but the next track Crystal Ball paid my back. As I had noticed in CANDLEMASS' latest concert in Greece the band seems to have a really good time on-stage having constant smiles on their faces. The band performed flawlessly as always in a great mood but did only one encore (the crowd was not that demanding to be honest) with Black Dwarf and Samarithan.

I think that CANDLEMASS got the message that mainly Europe deserves to watch them live and that they will re-think about scheduling another North American tour. Of course, my judgment is based on a single show and I don't know what happened in the previous or what will happen in the future ones but I don't expect miracles. I will definitely wait to watch the band on the next Greek show as Leif promised!

CANDLEMASS setlist:

01. March Funebre
02. Well Of Souls
03. Mirror Mirror
04. Solitude
05. Emperor Of The Void
06. Devil Seed
07. Dark Are The Veils Of Death
08. Crystall Ball
09. At The Gallows End
10. Of Stars And Smoke
11. Sorcerers Pledge

12. Black Dwarf
13. Samarithan

(photos by the King Of The Grey Islands)

STONE FACE NATION

RAIN

URN

DAYLIGHT DIES

CANDLEMASS