Leif Edling

bass guitar

b. 1963

Founded CandlemassCandlemass today

Leif Edling (born 6 August 1963) is a Swedish musician, best known as the bassist, main songwriter and one of the founding members of the doom metal band Candlemass. He is the only constant member of the band since its inception to the present day. Nevertheless, since the band's second reunion in 2002, Edling has been backed up again by founding rhythm guitarist Mats Björkman, who had been absent from 1997 to 2002.

Early life

Edling started his musical career in the band Trilogy, then under the name of Toxic, as a singer together with Ian Haugland (later the drummer of Europe) in 1979. He then played in a band named Witchcraft but left in 1981 and formed Nemesis in 1982. Before the Candlemass official releases, Edling also handled vocal duties in addition to playing bass. After the departure of Messiah Marcolin, Candlemass became his solo project, until the band reformed in 2002. In 1994, when Candlemass fell apart, Leif had started the band Abstrakt Algebra with Mats Levén on vocals and Mike Wead on guitar. The band met with limited success and disbanded after one album. In 2002, he founded another doom metal band, named Krux, also with Mats Levén on vocals, and in 2013 founded Avatarium with Marcus Jidell on guitar and Jidell's wife, Jennie-Ann Smith on vocals. From 2014 to 2019, Edling was unable to tour with both Candlemass and Avatarium due to unspecified health problems, believed to be chronic fatigue syndrome. A variety of replacement members were used, including Grave/Entombed bassist Jörgen Sandström.