CANDLEMASS singer Johan Längqvist missed the Swedish band's September 12 set at London Metalfest, held at the Electric Ballroom, after being hospitalised in Stockholm.
The band announced his absence on the day of the show. "After returning home to Stockholm from a successful show in Belgium last weekend, he faced a medical emergency on Thursday morning, and was rushed to the hospital," the statement read. "A comprehensive range of tests has been conducted, but at this time, doctors are still working to determine the cause of his illness, and require further testing, meaning he must remain in hospital care. We all wish Johan a speedy recovery and hope to have more clarity soon."
Rather than cancel, they restaffed the microphone — and said as much in advance. "As we don't wanna cancel the show tonight, we have a special guest vocalist performing 'Epicus [Doomicus Metallicus]' and 'Nightfall' songs — as well as a visit from a couple of celeb surprise guests, who'll be performing with us."
The guest vocalist was Felipe Plaza Kutzbach, the Chilean singer of PROCESSION and a member of DESTRÖYER 666 and SCALD, who now lives in Sweden. He carried the main body of the set: "The Well Of Souls", "Demon's Gate", "At The Gallows End", "Samarithan", "Crystal Ball", "Bewitched" and "A Sorcerer's Pledge".
The promised surprises arrived for the encore. Aaron Stainthorpe of MY DYING BRIDE and Tony Dolan of VENOM INC. joined for the final two songs — Dolan on "Under The Oak", then "Solitude" closing the night with Stainthorpe, Dolan and Kutzbach all on stage at once.
Längqvist's claim on those songs is the oldest in the band. He sang on 1986's "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", the record that effectively invented epic doom metal, then left and was replaced by Messiah Marcolin. He did not return for 32 years; CANDLEMASS brought him back in 2018, dismissing Mats Levén to do it.
The singer's chair has rarely stayed still. After Marcolin's second and presumably final exit in 2006, Robert Lowe of SOLITUDE AETURNUS sang on "King Of The Grey Islands" (2007), "Death Magic Doom" (2009) and "Psalms For The Dead" (2012); Levén held the role from 2012 to 2018. In September 2025 Marcolin himself came back for one night at Rock Hard Festival Greece in Athens, his first performance with the band in nearly two decades.
Bassist Leif Edling has been the constant through all of it, and through the run of records — "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" and 1987's "Nightfall" chief among them — that set the terms for epic doom worldwide. CANDLEMASS's most recent release is the "Black Star" EP, out in May 2025 via Napalm Records, and Edling said in July that roughly half of the follow-up to "Sweet Evil Sun" is written. Längqvist's own project JOHAN LANGQUIST THE CASTLE issued its self-titled debut on CD and vinyl in June 2025 through I Hate Records, a year after it first appeared digitally with no label behind it.
Fan-filmed video of both encore appearances is below.