Candlemass is one band we, or at least I, can safely call pure doom metal. No jerking around, they play and have always played pure guitar based doom metal. Not only have they consistently released strong albums, but they are also an immense influence on the manifold of doom bands that came into existence after them. Their major influence is early Black Sabbath, and this very much shows on this, their latest release FROM THE 13th SUN (1999). Their second vocalist, Bjorn Flödkvist, who also sings on this album is no Messiah Marcolin, but has his own style and delivers well with his rather thin voice. His voice somehow seems to suit the main theme of latter day Candlemass : science fiction, full with synthesiser effects (check out the song titles : Droid, ARX-NG 891, Galatea). This album, in my opinion is a return to form for the mighty Candlemass, with their inner sadness slowly creeping back into newer science fiction themes. New in line is Matt Stahl on guitars, while original bassist Leif Edling is still in. The drumming is excellent on this album, delivered by Jejo Perkovic (their drummer since the Dactylis album).

The album kicks off with "Droid", which is a good, simple opener. It isn't very heavy, but flows well with its nice, sludgy riff. Bjorn's vocals aren't entirely impressive except on the chorus, but they get better as the album moves along. Lyrically, the song is a good introduction to what's coming up in the album, which seems to be some sort of concept which I cannot figure out! Next up is the strangely titled Tot. This song may well have been called "Black Sabbath" part 2, as the structure is very, very similar to the Sabbath classic. From the atmospheric rain effects in the beginning to the main riff like the Sabbath song, this one starts off slow and doomy and gets fast during the last 2 minutes or so! A great song, however, and Bjorn's singing is better on this one - He manages to sound convincingly sad and mysterious. Ah, things get heavy with Elephant Star, what a heavy riff! I love Matt's guitar tone here, and even though Bjorn's vocals are adequate, Id love to hear the Messiah sing on this! It sounds a lot like older Candlemass (a good thing!), with a tight rhythm section. The lyrics are well written, and it ends with a nice atmospheric part, Jejo with some good cymbal work.

Blumma Apt (er??) kicks in next, and we can now really hear Leif Edling's classic bass playing. This song sounds a lot like it belongs in the first Black Sabbath album and even Bjorn's vocal structures are like that of Ozzy's in the early 70s. The bass playing and drumming shine on this one, and later on it gets quite doomy. Next up is my favourite song, "ARX NG 891" (huh?) which starts off with some space effects which remind me of the old Sierra game Space Quest! ;-) The riff is awesome and sounds a lot like the main vocal melody on Sabbath's Electric Funeral. The vocal performance is very good here, and Bjorn manages to go quite deep in parts. The lyrics, riff, vocals, lead and atmosphere are all perfect, and Jejo hits us with some great drum rolls. The song ends with space effects as well as some nice synthesiser work. An instrumental and the only really weak song on the album is up next, Zog. Firstly, its way too long to contain only 2 riffs (clocking over 5 minutes), and gets boring quite quickly. Secondly, its a little disappointing as after 3 minutes or so there is a promising bass solo and I expected the song to pick up with leaps and bounds but nothing really happens. Ho hum.

There's a bit of a comeback with "Galatea", which yet again starts with a nice atmospheric bit, except uses some acoustic guitar too this time around. The vocals are f**king good, Bjorn sounding almost drugged and definitely sorrowful. The song does well to move from the atmosphere parts to total doom (great riff, too!). Nothing special, but at least it isn't boring! The epic of the album and the last proper song is a total blinder! Its called Cyclo F and it clocks over 9 minutes. The good thing is that Candlemass can keep things interesting, and I tend not to play computer games with it on! ;-) The riff is heavy, sludgy and dominates most of the song. The highlight here is Jejo's 1-minute drum solo it is outstanding! Everything is perfect, the song is very bass heavy The lyrics, however, are rather silly and don't match the theme of the rest of FROM THE 13th SUN. A great song nevertheless. The album ends with an unnecessary effects-laden outro called Mythos Definitely would've ended better with haunting Cyclo F.

All in all though, Candlemass has proved once again that there is no one better than them at this style of music, and this truly is a comeback album. It has its weak moments, but overall very enjoyable at a length of 48 minutes. Yes, there are a few too many Sabbath similarities but there always have been (not as much as f**king Cathedral though!)!! I wouldn't exactly call this sorrowful as the early Candlemass, but it tries its best, and that is just good enough for now! I have heard that the band has regrouped with the mighty Messiah Marcolin, so lets drink to that, eh?!