CANDLEMASS’s LEIF EDLING On Tony Iommi: ‘He’s The Godfather Of The Riff!’

Candlemass Original Singer

As we announced here in December, the new Candlemass album will have the special feature of Tony “The Dark Lord” Iommi on the track “Astorolus – The Great Octopus.” Leif Edling talked about this e many other things to Loudwire. See excerpts of the interview:

“I’ve been a huge Sabbath fan from about when “Paranoid” came out, and most stuff I do and write is because of Tony Iommi. He’s the godfather of the riff!! Will forever be! The riff is what it all comes down to if you ask me. Without a good riff you’re stuck in the average department. Tony Iommi is the king of the Riff and the world knows it.

“That he would even consider playing on one of my songs is a dream come true. I feel very blessed, and I tell you…to keep my mouth shut for a couple of months about it has been horrible. I just wanted to scream from the rooftops! Candlemass were about to tour with Sabbath in 1990 sometime so he might remember it from there. I don’t know why it didn’t happen. Perhaps he also knows that I’m always been giving my respects to Sabbath, and maybe even heard that I’ve got a pretty extensive Sabbath collection. Vinyl, posters, memorabilia…don’t know…but I’m insanely happy he wanted to play on “Astorolus!!”

“We sent the management the song and got the thumbs up. Sometimes you have to aim high. You never know…

If Tony Iommi has ever heard his Black Sabbath’s Medley:

“Have no idea…It’s not exactly the best Black Sabbath versions ever recorded. But it worked live. Probably should have stayed like that…

On Johan Längquist:

“Johan didn’t want to join at first. He had his own band Jonah Hex at the time that did pretty good in the club scene of northern Stockholm. I think he just did our previous drummer Matz Ekström a favor singing on Epicus. In 1992, when Messiah left, Johan tried out, but I think we were looking for a more high-pitched singer. This third and final attempt was luckily more successful. Maybe the time was right`? One more spin around the block, close the circle…back to the roots…I’m very happy he wanted to take part of Candlemass 32 years later. It will be a good year(s) coming.”