Candlemass' Leif Edling Comments On Messiah Split

A brand new audio interview (stream 1 & stream 2) with Candlemass bassist/songwriter Leif Edling has been posted online by Studio Brussel. Edling comments on former frontman Messiah Marcolin and some of the recording challenges the failing relationship caused. “…he was such a difficult person to deal with.”

The interview was broadcast on "Whiplash", the only metal show on national radio in Belgium. The program is hosted by Dries Van Damme, guitarist of the band After All.

Messiah recently offered this point of view, "It has come to my attention that someone pretending to be me has written a fake statement on the official Candlemass forum. I have not written the fake statement and I do not agree with the lies in it. The only official statement I have made was on Blabbermouth April 28, 2006. I then told you I have quit Candlemass and that it's 100 percent definite that I will not return. 'We could not agree on how to do the new album.' That statement was as true then as it is now. I will tell you one more thing though. I have never had a 'severe pre-recording psychosis.' That was a lie told by Leif Edling.”

Candlemass celebrated its 20th anniversary at a special concert held at Stockholm's Kolingsborg on March 31. The band performed with no less than seven (!) different vocalists at the show — including the band's former singers Johan Langquist and Tomas Vikström, Mikael Akerfeld of Opeth, and featuring new vocalist Rob Lowe. Check out video footage from the gig at YouTube.

Candlemass bassist/leader Leif Edling also recently spoke to Metal Maniacs magazine about the band's new album, "King of the Grey Islands", Messiah Marcolin's departure and the addition of Solitude Aeturnus vocalist Robert Lowe. A couple of excerpts follow:

On Messiah Marcolin:

"I do want to say that if he [Messiah] hadn't taken this public, I wouldn't have had to respond in public. I think it's a shame that Messiah feels the need to go out in public and on forums to further prove that he's in the wrong, though I'm not surprised by it…For the last album, he did a lot of interviews where he was apologizing, saying he was sorry for being a wanker to the others in the band…We had huge success with the last album and we sold a lot of copies. Everything was rosy, and we really had no fucking problems. And then Messiah starts in whining about this or that, and — we call him The Big Black Negative Hole, because he just sucks the life out of whoever's around him as far as the band goes. Sure, you have days when it's good, and we had good times with him, but you just know that very, very soon something will happen to turn it all to shit."

Edling continues to comment on the choice of a new vocalist, “We wanted someone unknown, but someone with the stage presence and vocal prowess Candlemass fans expect, and we as a band expect as well. We hadn't actually thought of going for someone already in a well-respected band, but we got an email from Heather, Robert's girlfriend, asking if we'd thought of Robert. I knew who he was, of course, but only had heard him sing Solitude Aeturnus songs. We sent him the demoed tracks for the album, and after we got his tapes back with his vocals over top, it was like, 'Fuckin' hell, this is brilliant!..Everything with this album (King of the Grey Islands) happened at the 11th hour. Still, we didn't panic or anything. We never really operate with a Plan B, which can be stressful at times, but that's how we work. We got Robert just barely in time for him to sing on the album, and I'll tell you, sometimes the stress was at ulcer level. We knew what had to be done, though, so we just made it happen as always.”

You can read the full interview in the October 2007 issue of Metal Maniacs, on sale August 21.

For more from Leif Edling on the subject, visit Vassil Varbanov’s column at Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock (in English)

Source: Metal Maniacs online