Metal Overview: Paradise Lost (Part 3)

 Happy Halloween fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Well, we made it. 2020 is mostly done, and despite the plague still hanging around, All Hallows Eve cannot be stopped. So far, I’ve looked at Gothic legends Paradise Lost in two eras. First was their origins in the 90s at the beginning of the month, and then we examined their 2000s run in the middle of this month. Upon reaching the end, it seems fitting that we take a look at their 2010s material......and the reason for why I decided to dedicate October to these guys. With out further delay, here is my final look at the career of Paradise Lost. Let’s begin!

Tragic Idol (2012)

Despite the hiccup with the drummer lineup change by the end of the 2000s, Paradise Lost hit it out of the park with Faith Divides Us-Death Unites Us. Fast forward to November the 16th in 2011, and the band began recording their 13th album at The Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, where Tragic Idol would ultimately be released in April of 2012. If you lived in Japan, it was on the 18th of that month, the 20th in Germany, the 23rd in North America, and finally on the 24th for the rest of Europe. This was actually one of the first albums that helped me get into Paradise Lost in that year, and I still like it to this day! The slight usage of Death/Doom seemed to be gone on this release, yet the band still retained that heaviness while pushing the Gothic elements to the forefront. This was definitely a album to start the decade off for this band!

Best Track? Bit of a difficult one, as I think virtually everything on Tragic Idol is fantastic. If I had to pick my favorite track, it would have to be the cover of the classic Spear Of Destiny hit, Never Take Me Alive. Originally a bonus on the limited edition of the album and the Japanese version, it would make it’s way to the rest of the world due to being included on the Tragic Illusion 25 (The Rarities) compilation album that would come out just a year later, and it’s a good thing that it did. This track is another example of a band not following the letter of a song, but most definitely follows the spirit of the thing. Taking a gothic approach, the band more than easily tells a tell of a desperate man trying to survive, only for the world to hit back hard. It’s a good tune, and one that should never meet the skip button.

Never Take Me Alive

Worst Track? Honestly, I can’t think of one! Tragic Idol is that good of an album. Removing the scant few Death/Doom elements from Faith Divides Us-Death Unites Us brings the record back to the band’s pure gothic phase, and that’s what I like the most from these guys. Nothing more to say than that

Tragic Idol. As a start to the 2010s it’s fantastic, and shows that the band can still hang even in more modern times. It distilled the past 3 albums, and in the process became quite the spirit to quaff. However, as the band made their presence known in 2012.......a return to the past was not that far away. Next album!

The Plague Within (2015)

With Tragic Idol acting as a foothold to start off the 2010s, Paradise Lost didn’t sit on their butts.
In 2013, the band released the previously mentioned Tragic Illusion 25 (The Rarities) compilation, and on the 27th of October that year they announced writing for the 14th studio album will begin after their 25th-anniversary tour and the recording to the album will start in June of 2014. On the 29th of December in 2014, the album’s title was officially announced, and on the 26th of January in 2015, the release date of June the 2nd of that year was put out. And that’s when The Plague Within was unleashed upon the word!

The Plague Within was something of a surprise to many, including myself at the time. Whereas Tragic Idol was firmly a Gothic Metal record, The Plague Within saw Paradise Lost return to their Death & Doom Metal roots, which is somewhere they haven’t been in ages. It definitely was surprising, but at the same time is the source of this album’s only fault. Regardless, I’ve grown to appreciate The Plague Within in much more recent memory, and given that the whole world is covered with the plague right now, it’s an eerily appropriate release to listen to.
 
Best Track? No Hope In Sight was not only the best single to start off with, but the best way to start the album off properly. This song is actually a bit more gothic when compared with most of the material on The Plague Within, but still has a Doom Metal-like pace & Nick Holmes’s Death/Doom growl in some places. These individual elements come together to create a fantastic track, and acts at the right kind of doorman for this album. Don’t skip it!

No Hope In Sight

A good second place song would have to go to the wholly gothic Fear Of Silence. Available only on the Deluxe Edition bonus disk, it’s actually a shame that it wasn’t on the main disk proper. If anything, this song feels like a lost track from the Tragic Idol period of the band: there’s no Death/Doom growling or a slow & sludgy pace, and instead with have something that’s a little more up tempo with clearer vocal work. Not only that, but there’s a hint of orchestral stuff on here also. Again, great song that should have been on the main album!

Fear Of Silence

Worst Track? As cool as it was to hear a return to their earliest work, The Plague Within’s only big flaw is that it isn’t any different than their earliest material. Though there’s far better recording & production on this album, and the sound is fantastic on here, the band didn’t really do anything new with this record. It’s typical Paradise Lost style Death/Doom, and that’s about it. They do use a little more gothic atmosphere on The Plague Within, but other than that it doesn’t differentiate itself from their earliest material in any big way.

The Plague Within. Definitely not bad by any means, but doesn’t do anything different when compared to the band’s earliest work. If you were a fan of Paradise Lost’s early 90s period, then you owe it to yourself to listen to this record if you haven’t already. Next album!

Medusa (2017)

With the surprising return of old-school Paradise Lost 2 years prior, many fans wondering if this was the route that the band was going to take for the rest of the decade. Well, they were going to find out on the 1st of September, 2017, when the seductive Medusa was released. The album was a little different than The Plague Within: whereas that album was a more modern take on their old school Death/Doom formula, Medusa was a full-blown Doom Metal album. Guitarist Greg Mackintosh said the album is "slower, sludgier and more doom-filled than ever before", and also considered it to be "eight riff-laden monster tracks of sheer Northern misery". Singer Nick Holmes said he described the album as “...definitely our heaviest album; the heaviest we’ve done. The idea was to keep it simple but dark and heavy, and I think we’ve achieved that”. As for the album’s name, he had this to say:

“...when Gregor writes songs, he gives them working titles, so he called one song Medusa. There’s no real meaning to it. It’s not something I would use in a song and wouldn’t use as a title either. I liked the thought though. When we were kids, Medusa was the scariest character we knew. As I looked into it, I found a lot of different metaphorical meanings that she represents. There was one sentence I read which was ‘Attempts to avoid looking into her eyes represent avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality that the universe is meaningless’, which made a lot of sense to me. To me, this is what Medusa stood for. There are many different interpretations, but this was mine.”

As for me, I enjoyed Medusa far more than The Plague Within. Though I’ve grown to appreciate the previously mentioned record in recent memory, I still enjoy Medusa more. Despite being a Doom Metal album from top to bottom, I appreciate that the Death Metal aspects were smoothed out, and the Gothic elements, intentionally or not, were brought back a little. I do have one big gripe in this regard (More on that a little further down), but at the same time the album firmly had my gaze transfixed upon it.

Best Track? Bit of a tie between the first single The Longest Winter, and the title track right afterwards. Though still rooted in Doom Metal, these songs have the most gothic instrumentation, atmosphere, and even pacing to a certain extent. Even Holmes’s vocal styling comes across more like his singing from the mid 90s & mid/late 2000s, despite the slight Death/Doom vocal work used in The Longest Winter, but even then it somehow works towards it’s favor. Definitely the best of what the album has to offer!

The Longest Winter

Medusa

Worst Track? As nice as Medusa is, it unfortunately is something of a one trick pony. Paradise Lost, intentionally or not, made a Doom Metal album.....and that’s kinda it. It doesn’t do anything different from any other release in the genre at the time, and in the process makes it rather same-y. On top of that, Nick Holmes is still using his vocal style from The Plague Within on everything except for the two songs I spoke of above here (For the most part). If you weren’t a fan of the vocal work from that record, then that’ll be a road block for you enjoying this release.

Medusa. Doesn’t do anything different outside the Doom Metal formula, but at the same time is very consistent. I don’t think it’s an essential Paradise Lost album, but at the same time it’s not as bad as some of it’s critics claim it is. Definitely a curiosity at the very least. Next album!

Obsidian (2020)

And here is why Paradise Lost were chosen to represent October this year. This is why the band were chosen to cover this month, and that reason’s name.....is Obsidian.

Released on the 15th of May in 2020, Paradise Lost came back to the Gothic fold after just over 8 years since their last Gothic Metal record. With some new blood on the drums in the form of drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (Who’s prior bands included The Wargasm & Tramal), this return to the land of Goth was highly welcomed. Nick Holmes described the album as:

“one of the most eclectic albums we have done in some time, we have miserable songs, sad songs, slow songs and faster songs. Did I mention miserable?”

To me, this is the band’s best work since Tragic Idol. The gothic aspect that got them so much fame in the first place is back in force, while the Death/Doom aspects that were so prevalent on the last two release were relegated to more of a supporting role. I actually like this quite a bit, as the partial usage of Nick Holmes’s Death/Doom growling in some songs was done rather well, as was the instrumentation in that style. In my opinion, 2020 was the only year that Obsidian could have come out on: a dark, bleak, and serious year is the perfect cradle for an equally dark, bleak, and serious album. Normally I don’t like these kinds of records regardless of who makes them, but Obsidian is an oddly life affirming album. Life isn’t all grey skies & storms, but it’s not all sunshine & rainbows, and sometimes a record like this helps in that regard.

Best Track? Such a genuinely difficult question to ask, as Obsidian has a perfect selection of songs like Tragic Idol does. There is a tiny bit of weakness with some of the tracks in the middle, but even then it doesn’t ruin anything that this album does. Not only that, but using the Death/Doom elements in a secondary position as opposed to a primary role like on The Plague Within was a welcome change, as the band is best when they’re in their Gothic Metal element in my view. My favorite track, however, would have go to Hope Dies Young. The second to last track on the normal release and fourth to last on the deluxe edition, this is a highly cynical song but is also the most gothic on an album that’s brimming with the stuff. In many respect, it comes across like a tune from the Icon/Draconian Times, but with far better production behind it. As serious as it is, something about it’s message is morbidly fitting for 2020.

Hope Dies Young

Worst Track? Kinda like Korn’s The Nothing from last year or King Diamond’s The Puppet Master from 2003, Obsidian is a rather bleak album. Like the previously mentioned bands, Paradise Lost are not warm & fuzzy by any means, but as with those earlier spoken albums, Obsidian is definitely cut from a darker shade of cloth. In Paradise Lost’s defense, they flat out admit that this release was going to be a more bleaker record in comparison to the prior 3, so complaining about it seems silly. I’m not, as I find the more serious tone & feel to be rather appropriate given what kind of year 2020 has been.

Obsidian. A soul crushing release from Paradise Lost, but also bizarrely life reaffirming at the same time. If you missed their Gothic Metal material, then this will easily fill that hole in your heart. Most definitely recommended!

And that concludes my look at Paradise Lost, and by extension the month of October. It warms my heart that the band has lasted 3 decades, and they still stay true to their past while tinkering with it at the same time. That alone has me as a permanent fan, and that may be why some of you like the band also. Well, tomorrow is the beginning of November, and in a short amount of time is election day.....I pray that evil is vanquished. See you soon!




***
If you’d like to try these albums, then click on the links below:

Tragic Idol

The Plague Within

Medusa

Obsidian

Also, if you haven’t read parts 1 & 2 of this series, then check out the links below:

Metal Overview: Paradise Lost (Part 1)

Metal Overview: Paradise Lost (Part 2)