Johan Langquist, singer of the Doom Metal pioneers Candlemass, has created his own solo-entity in the form of Johan Langquist The Castle. The same-titled debut album will be released in physical formats by I Hate Records on June 27, 2025. It was initially released digitally without a label in 2024, and the recording line-up is: Johan Langquist (vocals), Erik Henriksson (guitars, keyboards), Fredrik Isaksson (bass), Stafen Englin (drums), Emelie Lindquist (soprano, backing vocals).
When did the idea of a solo album come to Johan’s mind? “I’ve been writing songs more or less all of my life and making my very own album has been on my bucket list for a long, long time,” Langquist said. He met Erik Henriksson about two years ago at an event and showed him one of his songs. Langquist elaborates, “He liked it and also turned out to be a very good guitar player. We started to put his guitars to my songs and decided to be a team. Erik came up with some cool riffs, and finally we had about ten songs. We picked seven for the max length of a vinyl record and Erik started to work with the mix. It became better and better, and we asked Mike Lind at Masterplant (he did the mastering) to just listen and give his opinion. He thought we were pretty close and gave us some tips. I finished everything else and we started to put out the songs on the digital platforms”. The rest of the recording line-up was completed during different stages. As Johan notes, “Stafen Englin has done drumtech for Candlemass for some years now. Fredrik Isaksson heard about it and told me he was interested in Leif Edling’s birthday party, and Emelie Lindquist was already involved in the beginning, being Erik’s girlfriend and blessed with a great voice”.
In May 2025, Candlemass also released the Black Star EP, but Johan Langquist’s music story goes nearly 5 decades ago, when he formed Jonah Quizz in 1979. They recorded two demo tapes, one in 1980 and another in 1982, but they never got an album deal. Johan remembers how difficult it was for hard rock and heavy metal bands to get a record deal in the early ’80s in Sweden. “It was really hard to get a record deal with the big companies,” he says. “We were actually about to sign for Electra once, but the very same week they told us they’d received info about cutbacks within the company. The Swedish part was going to be moved away and they had to cancel it all. There were also a lot of broke funny guys calling themselves managers ready to help, and you had to be aware.”
A total of 9 songs were recorded by Jonah Quizz for those two demo tapes in 1980 and 1982, all of them in the Swedish language. The line-up was Johan Langquist (vocals), Anders Bergman (guitars), Tony Bohman (guitars), Kenth Edvardsson (bass), and Anders Lindgren (drums). While the band’s influences had a variety of different styles, leading to the uniqueness of Jonah Quizz, Langquist’s inspiration came from Rainbow, Judas Priest and albums like Sad Wings of Destiny, while over the years bands like Black Sabbath and Queensrÿche also became very important for him. As for singers, it all comes down to four names: Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Martin, Geoff Tate. All these are the main inspiration for Johan Langquist The Castle, too.
When you ask musicians what they remember from recordings decades ago, you probably won’t listen to something completely different from what you would expect and that’s what Johan also added about Jonah Quizz. “I remember that I fainted and fell into a box of soda during a scream in the song ‘Attack’. You can actually hear the sound of falling bottles in the background. Also, the nice but odd guy recording us didn’t eat anything but chocolate during the days we were in the studio.” While Jonah Quizz played some local gigs, they had a chance of a breakthrough when they took part in the televised competition Rock-SM in Sweden in 1982, the year that Europe won, leading to their same-titled debut album, released a year later. As for Jonah Quizz, the record deal never came, and those early songs they wrote and recorded were finally released by Stormspell Records in 2009 in CD format under the title Anthology 1980-1982, and by Cult Metal Classics in 2020 under the title Ultimate Anthology, including two later additional demo recordings (“Hunter” and “On Broken Wings (Curse of a Vampire)”).
“When Jonah Quizz broke up,” Johan continues, “Me and the guitar player, Anders Bergman, continued writing songs together and he started to learn about midi and stuff using the first sequencers available in the ’80s. We started a band called Paravision and did a couple of local gigs. We won something called Rock Open in Stockholm. It was cool but not exactly my kind of music. Then, one day, Anders decided to move to Australia so I bought what I needed to continue writing on my own.”
In 1984, Nemesis from Sweden released The Day of Retribution, a 5-song mini-album. Formed in 1982 in Stockholm by Leif Edling, who wrote the songs, sung and played bass, they soon changed name to Candlemass. Candlemass sent some songs to the French record label Black Dragon and the label asked for some more songs to listen to. In December 1985, they recorded a demo with the songs “Demon’s Gate” and “Black Stone Wielder” and they sent it to Black Dragon. Sometime then, Mark Shelton of Manilla Road, a band signed to the label, visited the offices of Black Dragon, and label owners Michel and Agnes Desgranges put him to listen to the Candlemass demo for his opinion, since they weren’t sure about it. Shelton already knew Nemesis and he didn’t really like Edling’s voice (well, neither Leif Edling really like his voice!), but he loved the music, and believed that this new material was amazing and suggested that they should sign the band. The songs were ready but Candlemass needed a new voice.
“Matz Ekström, the drummer, knew about Jonah Quizz and me,” Johan remembers. “He was living not far away from where I lived and asked me if I was interested in making an album with Candlemass. I was flattered, because it was a huge thing to do a record back in the ’80s. My problem was that I only lived for my own music at that time, and it was important for me to be honest. We talked about it, but they wanted me to do the album anyway.” When Johan Langquist entered the studio and started singing those larger-than-life songs from Candlemass’ debut album, everyone in the studio was shocked. The songs sounded much better! “The first time I heard the songs, I couldn’t get it right away and the songs were so long”, Johan notes. “Stories embedded in heavy pieces of music, both beautiful and dark. It was a genre all new to me and obviously to others as well, but I immediately understood that it would be fun to do the vocals. Leif has written a lot of great songs over the years and I really respect him for that”, the singer adds. However, he didn’t want to join the band back then, and once asked if, over the years, he changed his mind, Johan replies, “No, I was honest to them and myself.”
When Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was released in June 1986, the credits were written as: Candlemass is Leif Edling – bass guitar, Mats Bjoerkman – rhythm guitar, Matz Ekstroem – drums, with special thanks to Johan Langquist – vocals, Klas Bergwall – solo guitar, as guest performers and not band members. The album was recorded at Heavy Load‘s Thunderload Studios, produced by Candlemass, engineered and co-produced by Ragne “Valhalla Warrior” Wahlquist. All songs, lyrics and arrangements by Leif Edling. That album became a milestone for Doom Metal, and often it is considered not just the best Candlemass album, but also the greatest album of Doom Metal. “I realized it had become a milestone about a decade later by reading a magazine,” Langquist said. “There was a big worldwide band saying that Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was their greatest source of inspiration and I thought, ‘Wow’.”
1986 also marked the ending of Jonah Quizz, but that didn’t stop Johan Langquist. “I’ve been writing songs more or less throughout my entire life, by myself or with others. I’ve been a part of a couple of albums with friends,” Johan said. Meanwhile, with new singer Messiah Marcolin (formerly of Mercy), and the new members Lars Johansson (lead guitar) and Jan Lindh (drums) next to Leif Edling (bass) and Mappe Björkman (rhythm guitar), Candlemass also became a live band releasing 3 more iconic studio albums until the end of the ’90s, Nightfall (1987), Ancient Dreams (1988) and Tales of Creation (1989). In 1991, Messiah Marcolin parted ways with the band and was replaced by Thomas Vikström, who recorded the album Chapter VI (1992). However, before the album was recorded, Langquist was also there. “I did a couple of demos for Candlemass. As far as I remember, I was only there to help them with some vocals on the demos while they were looking for a new singer.” Meanwhile, during the ’90s life seemed simpler for Johan. “I moved to a house with my family and I built a smaller house on the plot just for music. I continued writing music during my limited spare time, being a parent of four lovely kids.”
Forward to 2007. On March 31st of 2007, there was a special event in Stockholm, a 20-year Anniversary Party, where Johan Langquist stepped on stage with Candlemass for the first time, performing songs from Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. “I had not been on a big stage for a long time, so I was very nervous, but I liked it”, the singer notes. Until then, Leif Edling had recorded the albums Dactylis Glomerata (1998) and From the 13th Sun (1999) under the Candlemass moniker, but with a completely different line-up, and then Messiah Marcolin and the band’s classic line-up was reformed for live shows that led to a new album in 2005, simply named, Candlemass. Just a year later, Messiah once again parted ways with Candlemass and didn’t even join the band at the 20-year Anniversary Party where the vocals were split between Johan Langquist, Thomas Vikström, Robert Lowe (of Solitude Aeturnus), and special guests on one song each, JB Christoffersson (Grand Magus), Mats Levén (Krux… and many more), and Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath). That was also Robert Lowe’s introduction since he became Candlemass’ new singer. In the same year, there are demo recordings of Langquist performing Candlemass songs such as “Black Dwarf” and “At the Gallows End”. Was it an audition? In Johan’s words, “I don’t remember if it was an audition. I was in a studio writing music and Tank, the sound engineer, received two Candlemass songs without vocals and I sang them. I actually don’t remember the reason.”
It was the same year that guitarist Uno Sjöström formed Impulsia. In 2009, they released their only album named Expressions, a beautiful AOR, melodic rock release including a few amazing musicians, and Johan Langquist on vocals, but also piano and keyboards. “I met Uno Sjöström in the same studio,” Johan remembers. “He wanted to write songs with me and make an album called Expressions under the name Impulsia. During this ‘project’, Pandora, Robin Beck, Marcel Jacob and Marcus Jidell, also joined. We did a couple of gigs over a year or so with different musicians.”
While Impulsia is over, during the recordings Langquist met Marcus Jidell, who produced the album and also played guitar and keyboards. “Marcus later on got involved in Candlemass and we have become very good friends,” Johan said. “He’s a great guitar player too, so musical.” Bassist Marcel Jacob, who has recorded albums with Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum and Talisman among others, was also involved in this project but Johan didn’t meet him in the studio. “I only met Marcel Jacob once, we did a small gig together in Stockholm.” Johan adds, “He was an amazing bass player, a musical genius.” Marcel Jacob died in the summer of the same year Expressions was released. It was a suicide.
While Robert Lowe was still Candlemass’ singer, the band announced that Johan Langquist would join them on stage for a few special shows, performing Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in its entirety. In a few of them, like the show in Athens, Greece in October 2011, Langquist completely stole the show from Robert Lowe, and it seemed that Langquist would be a perfect fit at the time. “Me and the guys in Candlemass have always been good friends. I think that’s the reason why they’ve called me up for some shows during the years in between. It was always a lot of fun,” Johan said about those special shows. Meanwhile, Robert Lowe parted ways with Candlemass in 2012 after recording with them the studio albums, King of the Grey Islands (2007), Death Magic Doom (2009) and Psalms for the Dead (2012), and Mats Levén was the band’s singer during 2015-2018.
Johan Langquist finally joined Candlemass permanently in 2018. How did that finally happen? “Candlemass was actually almost about to close down when Mappe called me up and asked me if I wanted to join them as a full member”, says the singer. “It was perfect timing for me, and we went to the studio the very next day, I listened to 2-3 songs and said, yes. We actually started the recording right away.” The Door to Doom album was released in 2019. “Me, Leif and Marcus (Jidell, the producer) are working very well together in the studio, having fun, trying different ideas and finding what it takes pretty fast”, Johan adds about the recordings that were very easy.
More live shows followed and another studio album under the title Sweet Evil Sun was released in 2022. That album was released during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pandemic was very bad for all artists”, says Johan and continues, “No shows means no money. I had to work full-time again, and we did two live-streamed shows.”
While Candlemass are already scheduling live shows, with the Johan Langquist The Castle album out on digital platforms and ready to have a physical release, Johan says about his new solo band, “Hopefully we can do some gigs in the future. We will try to find some time this fall to rehearse together. It’s not easy being members of different bands. For me, the most important thing at the moment is to finish more songs… We did the album in my home studio and Erik recorded the final guitars and did the mixing at home.”
The Johan Langquist The Castle album is impressive. It evokes the magic feeling of classic ’70s and ’80s Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Doom Metal. The album brings to mind elements from Dio and Tony Martin’s era Black Sabbath, early Rainbow and Dio, while you can’t deny a Candlemass connection even if it is something different. As for the album’s themes, Johan says, “The lyrics are about the fragile time we live in, death, anxiety, the amazing powers we hold, a story back in time of real men, the importance of having plans and dreams.”
Johan Langquist The Castle tracklist:
1. Eye of Death
2. Castle Of My Dreams
3. Where Are The Heroes
4. Raw Energy
5. Revolution
6. Freedom
7. Bird of Sadness
