UMUR "Dactylis Glomerata" is the 6th full-length studio album by Swedish doom metal act Candlemass. The album was released through Music for Nations in April 1998. It´s the successor to "Chapter VI" from 1992 and can be labelled a comeback album as Candlemass disbanded in 1994. Much of the material featured on "Dactylis Glomerata" were originally written for bassist Leif Edling's side-project Abstrakt Algebra and were supposed to be included on that project´s second album. However Music for Nations refused to release the material under the Abstrakt Algebra monicker and thus Edling had to revive Candlemass. Only Edling remains from the lineup who recorded "Chapter VI", but some of the musicians who were involved in Abstrakt Algebra are also featured on "Dactylis Glomerata". It´s worth mentioning that Mike Amott (Carnage, Carcass, Arch Enemy) plays guitar on the album.

"Dactylis Glomerata" opens in the heavy end of the spectrum with the Black Sabbath influenced doom metal/stoner doom metal track "Wiz", but the album is not a one-dimensional affair and there are a lot of other types of heavy riffs and rhythms, and a strong psychadelic influence here too. I wasn´t surprised that tracks like "Abstrakt Sun" and "Lidocain God" were originally written for the Abstrakt Algebra project, but that a track like the slow building atmospheric/psychadelic "Dustflow" was also written for that project is a bit more surprising to me. It doesn´t really sound like a typical Candlemass track either though, and it´s just an example of the eclectic nature of the material on "Dactylis Glomerata". It´s not only eclectic, but also very, very different from what the band had produced before.

"Dactylis Glomerata" features an organic and powerful sound production, which suits the material perfectly and while it´s not the strongest nor the most memorable release in the Candlemass catalogue it´s still a decent quality release and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.

Warthur This is an interesting one because it wasn't originally conceived as a Candlemass album; much of the music on here was originally conceived for the second Abstrakt Algebra album (a very rough mix of which is available as a bonus disc on recent reissues of this album) and then was cannibalised to relaunch Candlemass.

Although the album goes off on some quite interesting detours here and there into weird jazz-tinged territories which at point remind me of Mr Bungle in a lounge jazz mood, the best parts of the album represent an intriguing working of keyboards into the Candlemass sound to create a strange space rock-doom hybrid, which reaches its peak on the absolute standout classic track from the album, the incredible Dustflow. A wonderful comeback.