The Bottom Line: If you like well played metal and/or gothic bands like Christian Death and Sisters of Mercy and you haven't looked into this, you're missing out.
movielover123's Full Review: Gothic by Paradise Lost
I remember it as though it were only yesterday. Poor, sad little me. My adorable punk rock boy with whom I had spent many hours drinking, laughing, talking, and - well you know - to the sounds of Agnostic Front, Bad Brains, Husker Du, The Clash, and so on was taken by the sounds of grind core bands like Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror. Oh such noise to my delicate ears!
What's a girl to do? He really was very sweet and all I had been dreaming of since spying Nicholas Cage in Valley Girl. Of course, things evolved and, next thing I know, he's into all things death metal as well. The growly vocals, the scary lyrics, the assaulting double bass drum sound - it was too much for me. I wanted to listen to the sweet hippie sounds of Mountain and my true love was enchanted with bands like Disembowelment.
I began to despise the otherwise likeable British radio personality John Peel, who shamelessly promoted this noise, and all things Florida, home of a seemingly endless stream of bands in this genre. What to do? What to do? I was, after all, in love with a man who had been obsessively collecting music since his first The Who album in third grade. There was no escaping it, I had to find something redeeming in this musical style or loose my mind.
Along came bands such as Godflesh and Pitch Shifter who took the best of industrial and hardcore punk and meshed it with this new style of music I was steadily growing to enjoy more and more. Although I didn't care for the politics or the f*cked up attitudes, I grew to enjoy what Norway had to offer in the way of Black Metal - bands such as Emperor and Mayhem who sounded like raw old punk bands to me though much scarier! Of course, those right wing Black Metal bands would deny any alliance with punk, but I maintain that I am not too far off in my comparison here, musically at least.
Emerging from under the death metal umbrella, the style I really began to love and respect were the gothic metal bands such as Holland's The Gathering and this, England's Paradise Lost who were on the great Peaceville label. Peaceville, a punk label originally, moved into the nineties quite nicely releasing some of the more interesting bands such as My Dying Bride and Deviated Instinct. My then punk rock/death metal boy/now punk rock/death metal/experimental noise husband was collecting everything on Peaceville as well as everything on the other big British label of the time, Earache (who's output I did not enjoy nearly as much).
Paradise Lost, simply put, are one of the great bands of the time with the interesting mix of the best elements from eerie gothic to death and even more technical metal. The underlying guitar sound is heavy, maybe even somewhat dirge-y, though it moves along at a quicker pace than, say, doom metal. A higher pitched and intricate gothic guitar sound blazes over the top and flows beautifully with both the growly vocals of lead singer Nick Holmes and the beautiful female background vocals of Sarah Marrion. The lead guitar solos are technical and proficiently played by Gregor Mackintosh with a nod to classic metal bands such as Iron Maiden.
The bass, rich and heavy, accompanies the rhythmic pounding of the drums perfectly. The drum sound in death metal is truly an amazing sound to be heard with its complex patterns and double bass and drummer Matthew Archer doesn't disappoint on this recording, holding his own with other bands of the genre.
The vocals, low and growly (but still a far cry from the muffled, rumbling snarls of some of the bands in death metal), admittedly are not one of my favorite singing styles, however the music and eerie female vocals compliment Nick's voice so much that I couldn't imagine him singing in any other way to such great effect. Sarah's voice is reminiscent of the haunted singing that plagued German sailors at sea in the legend of the Lorelei, singing that would lure in sailors and cause them to crash their ships into a rock. The lyrics are simple, yet dark and poetic with song titles such as Dead Emotion, Shattered, and Rapture and, in all honesty, not easily understood without the use of the lyric sheet.
Paradise Lost's sound is rounded out by orchestral arrangements, conservative use of the organ, a gothic sounding synthesizer, and samples of cold church bells ringing in the distance. The result is a richly layered, complex sound that will leave an impression on you long after the music has ended.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.