The artist: Candlemass are a leading band in doom metal. Although they're not the pioneers of doom metal considering Black Sabbath had strong doom metal influences for their music, there's no doubt that Candlemass have made an impact on doom metal and should be noted as one of the key bands of the genre, even if there's several different subgenres of doom metal such as sludge metal, funeral doom, drone and even a crossover with death metal. Candlemass fall under epic doom metal and that shouldn't be doubted at all considering the name of their debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Candlemass have gone through some changes with their line-ups but the most recognisable ones are the original band members for the debut album, Messiah Marcolin era and the current Robert Lowe era. Those two along with Johan Längqvist are great vocalists and provide the right voices for their respective albums. Along with great vocalists, there's also fantastic riffs throughout their career and that's what makes doom metal great, especially Black Sabbath with Tony Iommi on guitar.
The album: The self-titled album is Candlemass' comeback album after reforming the band with Messiah on vocals. The reunion was definitely worth doing for this album, even though Messiah would leave the band a year after. Even so, he provided one more great album with Candlemass and this is easily the most consistent Messiah Candlemass album to date. Nightfall and Tales of Creation may not have an easy sitting with the interludes thrown in but the most self-titled album has is The Man Who Fell from the Sky which is a great instrumental and doesn't feel like it was randomly thrown in. This album provides nine doom crushing tunes and all of them reminded the listeners what made Candlemass a great addition in doom metal.
The song: Spellbreaker breaks out with a crunching riff just like any other Candlemass song but there's always some character between all the riffs they play and this song is no exception. The song may start off rather slow but it soon speeds up, even though doom metal is typically slow. During the second section of the song, what needs to be noted is Messiah's excellent singing. He may have some pointless wailing in these parts of the song but it shows us all his singing capabilities and why he was the best vocalist for Candlemass. The solo in the middle section is one of the finest Candlemass have provided to the vocalists. It starts off slow but speeds up while the rest of the band keep its pace as it is.
The lyrical content is based on Jesus Christ and God and while Christianity may not be a topic to talk about in heavy metal, Candlemass put stories based on the bible in a darker tone to give them a whole new meaning. This doesn't necessarily mean they're christian metal and if you can talk about a religious story in a different spin, the results can turn out nicely as shown here. In conclusion, Spellbreaker shows great capabilities of the band for its drumming, doomy riffs, dark stories, tempo changes and of course, Messiah's excellent vocal range.
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