Hold onto your doom bells, folks—CANDLEMASS fans just witnessed a reunion so rare it might as well have been Bigfoot headbanging. On September 13, the Swedish doom icons crashed the Rock Hard Festival Greece stage with their long-lost vocalist, the legendary MESSIAH MARCOLIN. Yeah, the guy who hasn’t sung with ’em since flip phones were cool. And guess what? It slapped.
Post-show, Marcolin—rocking his trademark monk-robes-meet-metal vibe—gushed to Rock Hard Greece honcho Sakis Fragos: “That was some fantastic show with CANDLEMASS at the Rock Hard Festival Greece. I wanna thank all the fans from all around the world who traveled from 40 different countries — big, big thanks from the heart. And also all the Greek fans, who traveled all across Greece to come there. It was, like — I don’t know — 4,500 people [going] crazy and everyone was singing and it was so much fun — singing, screaming, doom dancing, just the way it should be. So I’m very happy about it. And a big thank you.”
When asked how it felt to reunite after 20 years (aka roughly 147 in musician years), Marcolin shrugged: “It felt like it was yesterday [that we had last played together]. It was 20 years [earlier], but it felt like yesterday.” He then dropped some band history: “I was with CANDLEMASS from 1987 till 1991. Then I quit the band the first time. And then we did a reunion again in 2002, and I quit again in 2006. So in total I’ve been with them for eight years, but those, I think, I guess 12 years in between, it felt like time hadn’t passed. When we start playing, it’s just, like — I don’t know — it’s magic.” (Fun fact: Marcolin’s operatic pipes basically defined doom metal’s sound—imagine if Pavarotti joined Black Sabbath and you’re halfway there.)
He reminisced about their chaotic 1987 debut gig: “We start the show with ‘Crystal Ball’ and all of a sudden punk rockers and everyone starts jumping on the stage, getting crazy. There’s something special about when the five of us play together. So that’s very cool. It’s always been like that. It just works. I don’t know how to describe it. It just works. It works really well. Off stage is another thing.” (Spoiler: Band drama. So much band drama.)
Did Marcolin sweat the comeback? “No, I don’t get nervous. Of course, you get a little excited before the show, but I don’t get nervous. I’m more excited. I want to kill. [Laughs] I don’t want to kill, but I feel like I wanna kill.” He joked about aging: “Your body doesn’t act the same way as 20 years ago. I fell on my ass. What are you gonna do? The balance is not the same. All I can do is practice tai chi or something and try to get a better balance.”
Describing the reunion vibe, he cracked: “With me and CANDLEMASS, it’s like the family ADDAMS. If Uncle Fester goes away for 20 years and then he comes back and he’s all weird — that’s what it was like.” (Cue imaginary theme song: *snap snap*.)
Prep for the gig? Legendary. “People would say to me, ‘Oh, good luck in Athens, good luck.’ And I said, ‘No, there’s no luck. It’s hard work.’ I’d been practicing singing for almost every day for five months.” Dude basically trained like a metal Olympian. “I really got in shape for this one gig — five months, that’s a lot of work. But it was all worth it in the end because the fans got a great show. And it was really fun.”
And about it being a “one-off”? Marcolin side-eyed that idea: “I never said this is the only one show we’re gonna do — LEIF [EDLING] said that.” He then basically shouted into the void: “Promoters of the world, call CANDLEMASS‘s manager, Mr. OLÉ BANG! Book us! The fans deserve it! Also, we’re old—I’m the baby at 57. Let’s doom while we still remember the riffs.”
