Review by Sonny for Nemesis - The Day of Retribution (1984)

Nemesis would eventually evolve into the band that would become Candlemass, featuring Leif Edling as well as original Candlemass drummer Mats Ekström and guitarist Christian Weberyd. Four of the five tracks, all except closer Goodbye which is an Angel Witch cover, were written by Edling and he handles vocals as well as his usual duties on bass. I think it's safe to say that this ep shows why Leif didn't perform vocals for Candlemass, his range being far too limited to handle the epic nature of Candlemass' songs and in truth he struggles even here. While this is as much heavy metal as traditional doom, there is certainly enough on show to see where Edling was going with his songwriting and is a recognisable early step on his road to almost single-handedly establishing the epic doom genre. There are some terrific Sabbathian riffs, check out the one on opener Black Messiah - it's a real killer and the whole track is amazing, eventually being reworked as Incarnation of Evil on the 1988's Ancient Dreams album with Messiah on vocals. I would really liked to have heard Messiah have a crack at the vocals on this rawer, less well-produced version though, because even with Edling struggling it's still a brilliant song and sounds a bit more immediate than the Incarnation of Evil version.

In God We Trust finds Edling in speed metal mode with a track that could have been penned by Venom, except for the doomy middle section maybe. Theme of the Guardians has simple, but effective main riff that sounds like a staple of the then nascent trad doom genre and one that has been reworked and reinvented a hundred times since. The King Is Dead is arguably the most noticably a Leif Edling-written track, probably sounding the most like Candlemass with a great riff and sterling leadwork throughout from both Weberyd and Anders Wallin (who's contribution here seems to be the sum total of his recorded output). The Angel Witch cover is interesting I think in that it illustrates how Edling's songwriting was influenced by Kevin Heybourne.

In conclusion I found this to be an interesting release, particularly with it's importance in the early history of one of doom metal's most influential figures and even despite it's shortcomings, ie the poor production and weak vocals, it still contains some great tracks and should interest any adherent of early doom metal. As a footnote the 1990 release features a couple of 1984 Candlemass demos, Black Stone Wielder and Demon's Gate which show how quickly Edling and Candlemass were developing from the Nemesis tracks.