Essential Doom

Helping to expand upon the crawling downtempo sound initially laid down by Black Sabbath, Swedish doom metal pioneers Candlemass take listeners on a history of the genre with their best-of compilation Essential Doom. Focusing mainly on the Messiah Marcolin-fronted years, the collection is more oriented toward new fans than true believers, offering up some of the best tracks from the band's strongest lineup as a way to bring new blood into the fold. As far as classic doom goes, Candlemass are definitely one of the more epic bands to help shape the genre, and Essential Doom is a great album for anyone looking to dig deeper into the genre's roots.