Candlemass Chronicles #4 King of the Grey Islands - out now!

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:51 pm

Established in 2008, the purpose of the Candlemass Chronicles is to create an in depth biography of the band, in the form of magazines. Each issue focuses on one album from the Candlemass catalogue and goes into great detail about the recording process and that particular period of the band's history.

Now we are releasing issue #4 and this time we have chosen to delve into more recent times and cover the 'King of the Grey Islands' album. This era was a turning point and a rebirth for Candlemass, that is still going in this incarnation today. Among many other things we go into great detail about the behind the scenes events that eventually lead to the installment of current lead singer Robert Lowe.

The 36 pages feature interviews with the following people:

* Vocalist Robert Lowe
* Rhythm guitar player Mats ”Mappe” Björkman
* Lead guitar player Lars Johansson
* Drummer Janne Lindh
* Mixer Peter Tägtgren
* Mastering engineer Sören von Malmborg
* Album cover artist Tomas Arfert

Price: 6 US dollars.

Postage: 2 dollars (within the US) or 5 dollars (rest of the world). Postage for two or three copies is 3 dollars (within the US) or 10 dollars (rest of the world).

Payment by paypal to: candlemasschronicles@yahoo.com

(People in Sweden can get it directly from me to save a few kronor on postage if you want to. Get in touch through PM or something. Everybody outside Sweden order through the above e-mail.)

Still available is a limited supply of each of our older issues.

Issue #1: ”From the 13th Sun”. 24 pages featuring interviews with bass player Leif Edling, guitar player Mats Ståhl, vocalist Björn Flodkvist, drummer Jejo Perkovic, keyboard player Carl Westholm and sound engineer Björn Wallmark.

Issue #2: ”Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”. 36 pages featuring interviews with rhythm guitar player Mats ”Mappe” Björkman, session singer Johan Langquist, original drummer Matz Ekström, session lead guitar player Klas Bergwall, original guitar player Kristian Weberyd and recording engineer Ragne Wahlquist.

Issue #3: ”Chapter VI”. 36 pages featuring interviews with vocalist Thomas Vikström, lead guitar player Lars Johansson, rhythm guitar player Mats ”Mappe” Björkman, drummer Janne Lindh, recording engineer Rex Gisslén as well as managers Dave Constable and Lena Graf.

The older issues are 5 dollars each if ordered together with issue #4. Otherwise 6 dollars each.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:52 pm

msp · Post by **msp** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:58 pm

Nice! I enjoyed the previous issues so i will look to pick this up for sure

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Mon May 02, 2011 7:33 pm

Issue #1 is now sold out and thus not possible to order at this point.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:49 am

I am doing some work on issue #5 now and it got me thinking about how poorly issue #4 sold.

Journalist is my profession and I'd like to think I know my job at least pretty well so this biography project should at least be of some standard. To my recollection I never heard anyone complain that Candlemass Chronicles was a bad product, but I'll be damned if we could sell much more than 100 copies worldwide. In fact, #4 has sold below 100.

I know there are people around here who bought one or more back issues but passed on the fourth. I absolutely don't want to call anybody out, but I'd like to know why #4 might have become the worst seller and what to expect from future issues.

Did you pass on #4 because

1) You were disappointed in one or more past issues (yeah I can take criticism, I deal with it every day)?
2) You were not interested in the album at hand? Is it important to you what album is being covered in an issue? Is it just KOTGI that's of no interest or present day Candlemass in general?
3) Other reason?

Thanks

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:14 am

mordred wrote: 2) You were not interested in the album at hand? Is it important to you what album is being covered in an issue? Is it just KOTGI that's of no interest or present day Candlemass in general?

I personally bought only the Epicus issue because it was the only Candlemass album I was really interested in. Haven't seen/read any of the other issues but the layout and the material on that one was great and very professional, enjoyed it very much on the whole.

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:28 am

I think the reason why #4 is the worst selling issue is based on the album that it covers. I think most (not all) people that listen to Candlemass are generally interested in old Metal and therefore more genuinely interested in the older albums. I got a hold of the "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" issue (sorry, I didn't buy it directly as it was thrown in with a trade) and I personally thought it was well done and very professional. It wasn't lacking in anything from my standpoint and this brings me back to the material that the issue covers. Unless you have taken a drastic decline in quality with the later issues, I can't see there being any other reason.

Out of curiosity, what album is #5 covering?

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:15 pm

I think I bought all 4 I forget now, need to get organized and look. I liked all the issues and will buy the next one too.

msp · Post by **msp** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:21 pm

Crap! I forgot to buy this. Is it still available?

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:28 am

I passed on #4 because of the album it covers. Lowe is good singer, but Candlemass w/o Messiah is simply of no interest to me.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:31 am

stormspell wrote:I passed on #4 because of the album it covers. Lowe is good singer, but Candlemass w/o Messiah is simply of no interest to me.

We have covered no album with Messiah as of yet so none of the past issues could have been of any interest to you then?

This whole "the right album must be covered" thing is kind of puzzling to me because it is so far away from how I feel myself. If a project like this was done on Manilla Road for instance I would definitely grab the Circus Maximus and Courts of Chaos issues even though I regard them as shit albums. Hell, those issues would probably be among the most interesting to read.

If this whole biography had been published at once, like in a book with a chapter for each album era, would you not have been interested? Or would you only have read parts of it?

The goal for this whole thing is an in depth bopgraphy of the entire Candlemass history with no stone left unturned and no ends loose. If nobody wants such a thing I don't know if it will be worth the effort.

Avenger wrote:what album is #5 covering?

I won't say because it has changed before (#3 and #4 were originally meant to have been in reversed order) but we have two more issues in the pipeline. One old album and one more recent.

msp wrote:Crap! I forgot to buy this. Is it still available?

Oh yeah, we're swimming in unsold copies.

The_Elite · Post by **The_Elite** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:47 pm

Totally forgot to pick this issue up. The main problem has nothing to do with what the issue contains, rather just poor distribution- I literally have no idea where to pick this up other than yourself- things like zines are items I pick up when shopping for records online, so if I don't see it, I don't buy it.

I will send an email about picking up this issue and will take a few more in the UK just so it is available to people here and in Europe.

The_Elite · Post by **The_Elite** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:14 pm

Sent a mail to get 10 copies...

Basically what I am trying to say in a drunken manner is the journalism is excellent, the easy availability is poor- very few people who would probably want to buy it look at or even know of the corroseum, wheras if they saw it on a distro list they would pick it up while shopping for records etc.

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:24 pm

If you check your records you will notice I've ordered #2 directly from you. I also need to pick #3 as Chapter VI is a decent album. It is not a priority though and I'll do it when an issue of interest is released to save on shipping.

#1 and #4 are of no interest to me because I don't like those two albums. I'm not a completist and if I don't like an album - I don't buy it, it is that simple for me. Same applies to collateral materials.

If the biography has been released as a whole I probably would have read everything, but as it is, I just stick to the parts I care about.

Look, if you have split it to maximize profit, assuming everyone will be buying all issues - it won't work, it never does. You will have to deal with selective customers like me, it is inevitable.

Also, many people like to read everything at once, so there would be people waiting for all issues to be released before picking them up. Moaning about bad sales before the project is finished is pointless and will only alienate fans.

And of course abandoning it in the middle is the worst outcome. Either stick to the current format hoping the sales will increase when you get to the "good" albums, or release it as a whole once all is done - you will piss faithful fans which already forked cash for early issues, but your goal will be achieved.

In either case, I'm looking forward to all Messiah installments. Those would be essential reading for me. Cheers.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:09 am

I am not moaning.

It was not split into volumes to maximize profits, there is no such thing as profit in this, I'm losing money big time especially on the travelling for interviews which are all done face to face. It is published this way so anything will be published at all. Doing an issue for each and every album and thus assemble a full biogrtaphy is a dream and perhaps a long term goal, but it's far from certain we'll get there and if we do it will take seven to eight more years.

When the second issue was out I said all I dared promise was two more issues. Now we're there and what I dare promise today is that there will certainly be a fifth issue and with most probability also a sixth.

As for distribution and availability in online stores I would love if it would have been easily available like that but it's just not happening. I Hate Records stocked between 3 and 5 copies of each issue. Shadow Kingdom stocked the first three. I think it sold pretty well for them, at least it's all sold out, but they passed on the fourth. That has been it.

A few other distros have been interested to trade for half a handful of copies... but since we are not running a distro we can't exchange mags for a pile of copies of some label's most recent release, we're trying to get back the cash we forked out for printing and we're not looking to branch out into the cd selling business.

Anyway, I wanted to know the reason for the drastic decline in interest and it seems to probably be due to what album it covers (in the light of that it is surprising to say Chapter VI issue held up rather well considering it's generally not a popular album). We'll see what happens when we put a monk on the cover.