Awesome, I hear ya bro -
Candlemass "Tales of Creation" was one of my first ultra-heavy doom cds, I still give it a spin every 6 months or so. Awesome concept album. Messiah Marcolin's vocals are a rarity in this style of music, seldom do doom vocalists have the range and vibrato of Marcolin's delivery. He belts it out, and I love every second of it.
That said, Candlemass, like
Type-O Negative (seriously give World Coming Down a chance), and Dio-era Black Sabbath are pretty hit-and-miss. While I love "Tales of Creation", I couldnt care less for "ancient dreams".
Speaking of Dio-era Sabbath: dont dismiss it out of hand, trust me on this one!
I'm not talking about "Heaven and Hell", that album kinda sucks. No, if you want the best of the unholy Dio and Sabbath coupling you need to check out the outstanding tracks on
Mob Rules. Was cranking "
Country Girl" "
sign of the southern cross" and "
Over and Over" in the truck today, some great guitar and in my opinion some of Dio's best vocals. Ever.
You wouldnt think a song called "country girl" would be so crushingly heavy, but it's definitely right up there w/ some of the better known Sabbath classics.
As for the "drug-themed" thing, I get where youre coming from and I was exactly like at one time. While I've always been drawn to occult themes, "getting high" and "partying" type of music has never really been my thing. Then, I discovered (or rather Dteowner introduced me to) Electric Wizard, and I realized that there is a sub-genre of doom that while dope-addled, isnt necessarily hippy-like or "good-time" songs about partying and shit. It's about misery, slavery, abandon, death: you know, fun shit like that