The Doomsday Kingdom
Deep down in the catacombs of Paris, between piled-up bones, damp air and our own mortality, CANDLEMASS mastermind Leif Edling unexpectedly found new and sinister inspiration. THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM was born!
For several years, the Swede fought with health problems and was plagued by stress-related fatigue syndrome after decades in the music business in which he sustainably shaped the genre of Doom metal with CANDLEMASS and walked modern paths with AVATARIUM. But while he was barely able to get up from his couch anymore, stress-ridden and tired, he used this paralyzing emptiness to pick up his old acoustic guitar and compose the very first melodies of his new brainchild THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM.
Soon, the Doomfather’s kingdom started to see the light of day and he found new comrades-in-arms with WOLF-singer Niklas Stålvind, Andreas „Habo“ Johansson and his AVATARIUM-colleague Marcus Jidell. Their journey led them through fields of classical doom metal, but what made their sound so special was the pinch of New Way Of British Heavy Metal that they added to their leaden style. In combination with Stålvind’s haunting vocals, THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM created an all-absorbing vortex.
“THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM was supposed to be a solo record as first, but everything turned out to be so much more, bigger and better than “just a solo album”. The songs took their own form and shape during the process and in the individual performances totally blew me away!” explains Leif Edling.
Fans could already catch a first impression of this mixture on the band’s EP Never Machine, that was released in November 2016 into the darkness of autumn – however the songs ‘The Sceptre’ and ‘Never Machine’ which had already been available as demos, differ quite a lot from their album version and all tracks on this debut album deliver a more polished, but heavier and more detailed sound than the previous release. The world-famous Jens Bogren (KREATOR, SOILWORK, OPETH) took care of the album’s mastering, while the band’s own Marcus Jidell did the production wizardry and turned out to be Leif’s perfect helping hand while he was still recovering:
“Marcus on guitar is like having Leslie West, Tony Iommi and Randy Rhoads in the band at the same time! The guy is also a very talented producer. I was in a pretty bad condition during most of the production of the DOOMSDAY KINGDOM album, and Marcus took the boat to shore so to speak. When I was in bed at home, he worked on the guitars and the instruments and kept in contact with Niklas and Habo, Marcus did a great invaluable job with the record!”, Leif admits and explains the singer choice: “I had always been very impressed with Niklas from WOLF and his vocal abilities, so I took a chance and contacted him via e-mail. It turned out Niklas was not only up for the task, he had also recently recovered from severe burnout and we had much in common! I think Niklas brings a very fresh approach to the songs on the album. It’s like he was meant to sing the stuff!”
To illustrate their musical vision, they chose the ‘Capitolium Death Monument’ that was designed by Erik Rovanperä, who had already set up the covers of the latest CANDLEMASS releases and AVATARIUM’s All I Want:
“Erik Rovanperä is an old friend of mine who’s gone from working in a tattoo place and painting skateboards, to become one of Sweden’s most talented and upcoming artists.
With the DOOMSDAY KINGDOM album I knew early on that I wanted to work close with him to create some really cool artwork. We bounced ideas for a while and after a few months he came up with the “Capitolium Death Monument” cover! Love at first sight! Erik certainly has a keen finger on the pulse when it comes to album covers – especially mine, haha!”
