Swedish doom metal legends CANDLEMASS are in the studio working on a four-song “jubilee EP” called “Black Star”. The EP will contain two new songs plus two covers and will be released in the spring of 2025, when the band celebrates “40 years of heavy doom deliverance”.

CANDLEMASS‘s Jan Lind just finished his drum tracks at Sound Trade studios in Solna, just outside Stockholm, and this week Lars Johansson is doing his guitar overdubs for the puzzle that will become “Black Star”, tentatively due in May 2025 via Napalm Records.

CANDLEMASS‘s latest album, “Sweet Evil Sun”, came out in November 2022 via Napalm Records. In the works for 18 months, “Sweet Evil Sun” saw CANDLEMASS bringing back all the grandness of the band’s early years, exploring themes of ambition and strife, hope and failure. The LP was recorded at NOX studio in Stockholm.

As the godfathers of epic doom metal, CANDLEMASS defined the genre with releases such as “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” (1986) and “Nightfall” (1987). Through their evil riffs, crushing rhythmic attack and dramatic vocals, they changed the landscape of metal worldwide. Led by founder and bassist Leif Edling, CANDLEMASS reunited with Johan Längqvist in 2018, 32 years after the singer performed on “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”.

“Sweet Evil Sun” was the follow-up to CANDLEMASS‘s twelfth studio album, “The Door To Doom”, which was released in February 2019 via Napalm Records. “The Door To Doom” was CANDLEMASS‘s first full-length album since “Psalms For The Dead”, which featured singer Robert Lowe, who left the band just days before its release. He was replaced by Mats Levén, who fronted the band until Längqvist rejoined in late 2018.

Längqvist originally exited CANDLEMASS after “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” and was replaced by Messiah Marcolin.

CANDLEMASS earned a Grammy nomination for “Astorolus – The Great Octopus”, a cut from “The Door To Doom”, which featured a guest appearance by BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi.