Former CANDLEMASS Singer MATS LEVÉN Is Working On Solo Music With OPETH Drummer, THERION Bassist

Former CANDLEMASS singer Mats Levén has shared a short audio snippet of some of the new solo music he is working on. The song in question, which can be heard in the video below, features Martin “Axe” Axenrot (BLOODBATH, OPETH, WITCHERY) on drums and Nalley Påhlsson (TREAT, THERION) on bass. “And the rest is me, basically,” Mats says.

According to Levén, he didn’t want to work on his solo material while he in CANDLEMASS because he “didn’t wanna kind of interfere.”

CANDLEMASS announced earlier this week that it had parted ways with Levén and reteamed with Johan Längqvist.

Längqvist sang on CANDLEMASS‘s debut album, 1986’s “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”, before exiting the group and being replaced by Messiah Marcolin.

Mats, who was in CANDLEMASS for six years, began his professional musical life with SWEDISH EROTICA from Gothenburg, Sweden in 1989. In 1990, Mats got an offer from TREAT and moved to Stockholm where he still lives with his wife and two kids.

After recording albums with ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA and AB/CD, Mats as approached by Yngwie Malmsteen to join the guitarist’s band in 1997-98 and to lay down his vocal tracks on the “Facing The Animal” LP.

Over the past couple of decades, Levén has been involved with a number of different bands and projects, including SOUTHPAW, DOGFACE, ESSENCE OF SORROW, AT VANCE and KRUX.

In 2004, Mats supplied lead vocals for THERION‘s two albums “Sirius B” and “Lemuria”. This led to some 150 shows with the band over the course of the next four years. THERION‘s 2007 album “Gothic Kabbalah” saw Mats co-writing six of the tracks, including the epic “Son Of The Staves Of Time”. In 2010-2011, Mats toured with ADAGIO and FIREWIND before joining CANDLEMASS as the replacement for Robert Lowe.

Since 2016, Mats has been touring with rock theater sensation TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, whose 20th-anniversary trek is set to begin on November 14 and visit 65 cities across North America, for 100-plus performances, before concluding on December 30.