Review by Ludo for Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)

Nothing more to add to the previous positive reviews. This is the only Candlemass album I own (on vinyl), I bought it some months after it came out in spring 1988 at the glorious "Disco D'Oro" record shop in Bologna (Italy): I still remember that because in my village there was no chance to get Heavy Metal records at the time, so I waited for my first trip in a bigger town! And the only reason I bought Nightfall (it has been my first Heavy Metal vinyl ever, I only owned Iron Maiden, Metallica and Judas Priest cassettes at the time) was after reading its review in an Italian Heavy Metal magazine which ended with the phrase: "You all buy this album, it's legend" !
I had not a clue what to expect when back home but when I first listened to Gothic Stone/The Well of Souls I immediately understood I was about to enter a different dimension to what I was used before that day... and that I was about to love it for decades! I had never heard of Doom Metal before, I hardly knew some Black Sabbath songs and that was it. Today I know a bit more about music, but I have to say this album has still the same impact on me, Messiah's voice is absolutely perfect for that sound in every track. Nightfall still stays among my first ten albums of all time, and once more I have to agree (and thank) with that old review, unrepeatable!