GMR Music has announced plans to re-release the CANDLEMASS albums "Chapter VI" (1992) and "Dactylis Glomerata" (1998) as double remastered discs.

"Chapter VI" will include the "Sjunger Sigge Furst" EP as bonus tracks plus a live DVD disc and "Dactylis Glomerata" will contain an entire previously unreleased album. Each reissue will be sold for the price of a normal full-length CD. An early fall release is expected.

As previously reported, CANDLEMASS have uploaded several photos from their recent recording sessions at Stockholm's Polar Studios. Check them out at Candlemass.se.

CANDLEMASS frontman Messiah Marcolin contacted BLABBERMOUTH.NET on April 28, 2006 to reveal that he has parted ways with the group 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 exit.

In a subsequent posting on CANDLEMASS' web site (dated April 30), the band wrote, "Messiah's got a severe pre-recording psychosis at the moment, so folks, please calm down. The band is confident that he will sing on the [upcoming] album as planned." The as-yet-untitled CD — a concept album about the road to ruin in the modern society — will feature nine or ten tracks and is being self-produced.

CANDLEMASS recorded four new songs with the help of producer Andy Sneap (NEVERMORE, ARCH ENEMY, MACHINE HEAD) in late February at the Polar studios. 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.