Candlemass/Abstrakt Algebra "Dactylis Glomerata (2006 Reissue, Remastered, Slipcase, Sweden, GMR Music Group, GMRCD9004)"

Dactylis Glomerata is the sixth studio album by Swedish doom metal band Candlemass, released on 13 April 1998 through Music For Nations. This was their first album released since their split in 1994.

The album was originally destined to be the second release by Candlemass main songwriter Leif Edling's side-project Abstrakt Algebra but, under request from the record label Music for Nations, it was converted into a Candlemass album. There were many musicians involved in the long process of recording, including members of the Abstrakt Algebra's line-up, guitarist Michael Amott of Arch Enemy and Carcass fame and new singer Björn Flodkvist.

The music on the album lacks much of the epic doom sound of previous works and embraces a more experimental and progressive approach, with elements of stoner rock and space rock.

In 2006, it was reissued by GMR Music as a 2 CD edition. The second disc contains the previously unreleased album Abstrakt Algebra II, from which this album's tracks derived.

Candlemass disbanded in 1994, after the release of the EP Sjunger Sigge Furst. Main songwriter and bassist Leif Edling formed a new band called Abstrakt Algebra with singer Mats Levén, drummer Jejo Perkovic, guitarists Mike Wead and Simon Johansson. Abstrakt Algebra released their eponymous debut album of experimental and progressive metal in 1995. The album received some good reviews but was not a commercial success.

Edling composed music for a second more progressive Abstrakt Algebra album and started recording it with a different line-up, which included keyboard player Carl Westholm and guitarist Patrik Instedt replacing Wead and Johansson, at Sunlight Studio, Stockholm, Sweden in the Autumn of 1996. Soon problems emerged with the recording studio and the producer and Edling's finances dried up. Music for Nations, the British label which had issued the previous Candlemass albums, offered Edling to finance further recordings in a different studio if the album was released as a work by Candlemass. Edling, who was on the edge of bankruptcy and a mental breakdown, agreed to this condition and rearranged the songs to adapt them to the heavier doom metal sound of Candlemass. He also composed the new songs "I Still See the Black", "Molotov" and "Karthago" for the album.

His old bandmates declined Edlin's request for collaboration, so he recruited Swedish guitarist Michael Amott, renowned for his work with Carcass, Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy and a declared Candlemass fan, to beef up the guitar sound on the tracks. Meanwhile, Levén had joined Yngwie Malmsteen's band and Björn Flodkvist, who Edlin had met while working at Sveriges Radio P3 and coming from the Swedish alternative rock band Gone, was selected as singer.

A band composed by Edling, Amott, Flodkvist, Instedt, Perkovic and Westholm re-recorded during a weekend in May 1997 the basic tracks for the old Abstrakt Algebra songs and for the new compositions "I Still See the Black", "Karthago" and "Wiz" (originally called "Blue Wizard") with the help of session musicians at Swedish Broadcasting Corporation Studio 4 in Stockholm, Sweden. Those three days of recording were Amott's only involvement with Candlemass. Overdubs were added by several other musicians at two other studios of the same city. The final mix, performed by Edling and engineer Uffe Östling, joined the new recordings and more overdubs until after September 1997.

The album took about 18 months to be completed and was released on 13 April 1998 by Music for Nations. The Japanese edition featured the bonus tracks "Container" and "Thirst". The title comes from the plant Dactylis glomerata, the flower of which Edling is allergic to.

Dactylis Glomerata was reissued in 2006 in a 2 CD edition by the Swedish label GMR Music and by Peaceville Records in 2008. The second disc contains the Abstrakt Algebra sessions recorded by the band in 1996 and extensive liner notes by Edling.

Dactylis Glomerata received positive reviews, but was a commercial failure. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised the "trippy, not cheesy" production and Björn Flodkvist's vocals, considering the album "closer to stoner rock than self-serious doom". Rock Hard reviewer remarked how different the sound of Dactylis Glomerata is in comparison with the "classic" first four Candlemass albums, lacking "their anthemic, epic arrangements", "the theatrical element, which has always characterized the vocals of Messiah" (Marcolin), and featuring elements of space rock in several tracks like the "monumental 'Dustflow'".

Tracklist:

Disc 1 - Dactylis Glomerata

1. Candlemass - Wiz 04:05   
2. Candlemass - I Still See the Black 06:19   
3. Candlemass - Dustflow 09:24  
4. Candlemass - Cylinder 01:23
5. Candlemass - Karthago 06:38   
6. Candlemass - Abstrakt Sun 06:40  
7. Candlemass - Apathy 04:07
8. Candlemass - Lidocain God 03:31
9. Candlemass - Molotov 01:30
10. Candlemass - Container 03:22  
11. Candlemass - Thirst 04:50  

Time:   51:49  

Disc 2 - Abstrakt Algebra II

1. Abstrakt Algebra - 3:rd Child from the Sun 04:06  
2. Abstrakt Algebra - Dustflow 07:59  
3. Abstrakt Algebra - Abstrakt Sun 06:52  
4. Abstrakt Algebra - Thirst 05:03  
5. Abstrakt Algebra - Bug Queen 03:48  
6. Abstrakt Algebra - Blue Wizard 04:20  
7. Abstrakt Algebra - Lidocain God 04:15  
8. Abstrakt Algebra - Cylinder 01:34   
9. Abstrakt Algebra - Enigma 04:11  

Time:  42:08  

Two bonus tracks from the Japanese version of the album, and the second, unreleased Abstrakt Algebra album on the second disc, as well as liner notes by Leif Edling.

Recording information:

Recorded at the Swedish Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Studio 4.

Additional overdubs at Stamtilt Studios and Studio Montezuma, Stockholm, Sweden.

Uffe Östling – engineer, mixing

Björn Wallmark, Rex Gisslén – overdubs engineers

Jan Hellman – digital editing and overdubs

Sören Elonsson – remastering

Yngwie Malmsteen "Facing The Animal (Japan, Pony Canyon, PCCY-01154)"

Facing the Animal is the tenth studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released in 1997 through Pony Canyon (Japan) and Mercury Records (United States). The album reached No. 20 on the Finnish albums chart and No. 39 on the Swedish albums chart.

Although credited to Malmsteen, "Air on a Theme" is an arrangement of the second movement (Largo) of Antonio Vivaldi's "Piccolo Concerto in C Major (RV443)". Facing the Animal features one of drummer Cozy Powell's last performances before his death in April 1998.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Facing the Animal three stars out of five, saying that "much of the record is stronger than anything Malmsteen has recorded in years" but also calling it "predictable, from the rockers to the power ballads".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Yngwie Malmsteen

1. "Braveheart" 5:19
2. "Facing the Animal" 4:37
3. "Enemy" 4:53
4. "Sacrifice" 4:19
5. "Like an Angel – For April" 5:47
6. "My Resurrection" 4:48
7. "Another Time" 5:03
8. "Heathens from the North" 3:39
9. "Alone in Paradise" 4:33
10. "End of My Rope" 4:24
11. "Only the Strong" 6:05
12. "Poison in Your Veins" 4:23
13. "Air on a Theme" 1:43

Total length: 59:33

Japanese edition bonus track

1. "Casting Pearls Before the Swine" 3:57

Recording information:

Recorded at Studio 308 and Criteria Studios, Miami, FL.

Mixed at Criteria Studios, Miami, FL.

Mastered at Fuller Sound, Miami, FL.

Chris Tsangarides – engineering, mixing, production

Keith Rose – engineering assistance

Rod Fuller – mastering

Candlemass "Dactylis Glomerata (UK, CDMFN 237, Music For Nations)"

Dactylis Glomerata is the sixth studio album by Swedish doom metal band Candlemass, released in 1998. This was their first album released since their split in 1994.

The album was originally destined to be the second release by Candlemass main songwriter Leif Edling's side-project Abstrakt Algebra but, under request from the record label Music for Nations, it was converted in a Candlemass album. There were many musicians involved in the long process of recording, including members of the Abstrakt Algebra's line-up, guitarist Michael Amott of Arch Enemy and Carcass fame and new singer Björn Flodkvist.

The music on the album lacks much of the epic doom sound of previous works and embraces a more experimental and progressive approach, with elements of stoner rock and space rock.

In 2006, it was reissued by GMR Music as a 2 CD edition. The second disc contains the previously unreleased album Abstrakt Algebra II, from which this album's tracks derived.

Candlemass disbanded in 1994, after the release of the EP Sjunger Sigge Furst. Main songwriter and bassist Leif Edling formed a new band called Abstrakt Algebra with singer Mats Levén, drummer Jejo Perkovic, guitarists Mike Wead and Simon Johansson. Abstrakt Algebra released their eponymous debut album of experimental and progressive metal in 1995. The album received some good reviews but was not a commercial success.

Edling composed music for a second more progressive Abstrakt Algebra album and started recording it with a different line-up, which included keyboard player Carl Westholm and guitarist Patrik Instedt replacing Wead and Johansson, at Sunlight Studio, Stockholm, Sweden in the Autumn of 1996. Soon problems emerged with the recording studio and the producer and Edling's finances dried up. Music for Nations, the British label which had issued the previous Candlemass albums, offered Edling to finance further recordings in a different studio if the album was released as a work by Candlemass. Edling, who was on the edge of bankruptcy and a mental breakdown, agreed to this condition and rearranged the songs to adapt them to the heavier doom metal sound of Candlemass. He also composed the new songs "I Still See the Black", "Molotov" and "Karthago" for the album.

His old bandmates declined Edling's request for collaboration, so he recruited Swedish guitarist Michael Amott, renowned for his work with Carcass, Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy and a declared Candlemass fan, to beef up the guitar sound on the tracks. Meanwhile, Levén had joined Yngwie Malmsteen's band and Björn Flodkvist, who Edling had met while working at Sveriges Radio P3 and coming from the Swedish alternative rock band Gone, was selected as singer.

A band composed by Edling, Amott, Flodkvist, Instedt, Perkovic and Westholm re-recorded during a weekend in May 1997 the basic tracks for the old Abstrakt Algebra songs and for the new compositions "I Still See the Black", "Karthago" and "Wiz" (originally called "Blue Wizard") with the help of session musicians at Swedish Broadcasting Corporation Studio 4 in Stockholm, Sweden. Those three days of recording were Amott's only involvement with Candlemass. Overdubs were added by several other musicians at two other studios of the same city. The final mix, performed by Edling and engineer Uffe Östling, joined the new recordings and more overdubs until after September 1997.

The album took about 18 months to be completed and was released on 13 April 1998 by Music for Nations. The Japanese edition featured the bonus tracks "Container" and "Thirst". The title comes from the plant Dactylis glomerata, the flower of which Edling is allergic to.

Dactylis Glomerata was reissued in 2006 in a 2 CD edition by the Swedish label GMR Music and by Peaceville Records in 2008. The second disc contains the Abstrakt Algebra sessions recorded by the band in 1996 and extensive liner notes by Edling.

Dactylis Glomerata received positive reviews, but was a commercial failure. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised the "trippy, not cheesy" production and Björn Flodkvist's vocals, considering the album "closer to stoner rock than self-serious doom". Rock Hard reviewer remarked how different the sound of Dactylis Glomerata is in comparison with the "classic" first four Candlemass albums, lacking "their anthemic, epic arrangements", "the theatrical element, which has always characterized the vocals of Messiah" (Marcolin), and featuring elements of space rock in several tracks like the "monumental 'Dustflow'".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Leif Edling.

1. "Wiz" 4:06
2. "I Still See the Black" 6:19
3. "Dustflow" 9:24
4. "Cylinder" (instrumental) 1:23
5. "Karthago" 6:38
6. "Abstrakt Sun" 6:41
7. "Apathy" 4:07
8. "Lidocain God" 3:32
9. "Molotov" (instrumental) 1:31

Time:  43:37

Most of the material on Dactylis Glomerata was originally recorded for a second Abstrakt Algebra album. Music for Nations offered to pay to re-record and release the material, but only under the Candlemass name.

Dactylis glomerata is a common species of grass.

Recording information:

Recorded at the Swedish Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Studio 4.

Additional overdubs at Stamtilt Studios and Studio Montezuma, Stockholm, Sweden.

Uffe Östling – engineer, mixing

Björn Wallmark, Rex Gisslén – overdubs engineers

Jan Hellman – digital editing and overdubs

Sören Elonsson – remastering