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By JEFF MAKI
Paradise Lost, the U.K.'s kings of gothic metal, have now been around for nearly 20 years. The band's majestic sound has secured a strong fan-base in Europe, and now signed to Century Media Records, Paradise Lost looks to carry their success over to the United States with In Requiem.
I first got into Paradise Lost with their 1993 release Icon, which featured two songs that I had on repeat constantly: “Ember's Fire” and “True Belief.” This form of gothic metal was new to my ears; it was extremely heavy yet highly melodic and memorable. The next best album in their discography is 1995's Draconian Times. This opus was absolutely phenomenal, and while it reverted back to many traits of classic metal, it was well ahead of its time.
From this point on, Paradise Lost released several albums, evolving and experimenting. They kind of lost me during this period, especially when I heard Symbol of Life, released in 2002. The band had undergone a huge transformation, reinventing themselves into Metallica's long lost brother, complete with radio-friendly songs and an abandonment of many of the trademark gothic elements. In other words, they sounded like a completely different band.
Fast forward a bit and we have their new album, In Requiem. And while I feel it will be hailed by critics to a certain extent as a return to their earlier sound, it fails to capture the feel of those recordings. It is closer to Draconian Times or Icon than anything in recent years, but the material is nowhere near as strong. This would be a masterpiece for a new band, but for Paradise Lost I expected more, quite frankly. There are many good things. It's probably the heaviest offering from the band that we could possibly hear today, given their many style shifts. “The Enemy” finds vocalist Nick Holmes' Hetfield-like vocals leading a metallic charge backed by female choral vocals. It's a song that could have been on Draconian Times and the album's first single. “Prelude to Descent” is classic Paradise with a catchy chorus, heavy riffing, and they even speed things up toward the latter half, something I haven't heard the band do for a long time. The gothic feel is also back in full force in the guitar sound, backing keyboards/piano and female backing vocals. If anything, the album gains momentum after the earlier uninspiring songs such as “Never for the Damned” and “Ash and Debris.”
Often, when a band experiments the product is an unfocused album, as is the case with In Requiem on a minor level. At times, it feels like the band wasn't sure which way they wanted to go. It's like they were longing for a return to form but didn't quite go the extra mile. However, it is a welcome sound to hear the band laying down some heavy material once again, as nothing here is radio-friendly. In Requiem is surely not the strongest album from Paradise Lost, but it's a respectable offering from one of metal's long-running acts. |
