CANDLEMASS vocalist Messiah Marcolin contacted BLABBERMOUTH.NET today (April 28) to reveal that he has left the Swedish doomsters and that it's 100 percent definite that he will not return. "We could not agree on how to do the new album," he said, but would not further elaborate on his sudden departure.

Marcolin spent the early months of 2006 recovering from an infection of the vocal cords and was ordered by his doctor to wait until this summer before resuming singing.

CANDLEMASS recorded four new songs with producer Andy Sneap (NEVERMORE, ARCH ENEMY, MACHINE HEAD) in late February at the new Polar studios in Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, the group's bassist/songwriter Leif Edling said of the material, "The songs are pretty much in the same vein as the stuff on the [self-titled 2005] reunion album, maybe a bit darker."

CANDLEMASS won a Swedish "Grammy" award in February in the "Best Hard Rock" category, beating out the likes of HAMMERFALL, HARDCORE SUPERSTAR, MESHUGGAH and OPETH. The Swedish doom legends were honored for the "Candlemass" opus, which is available on Nuclear Blast Records. Five back-catalog items from the band — "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", "Ancient Dreams", "Doomed for Live", "Nightfall", and "Essential Doom" — were issued in the U.S. via Candlelight in February.