Paradise Lost: A personal rotating existence

Paradise Lost is a band I have had a love hate relationship with. “Lost Paradise” and “Gothic” were great releases from this Halifax originated band. The gothic, death, doom crossover sound was fantastic, but that all changed with “Shades of God”. I was at the old Sound Plus record store (another old forgotten Houston dealer in heaviness) when I saw it was released. As I asked the store owner for a quick listen of the new disc, some random other patron pointed out that the new one “sucked”. He said it sounded more like punk than metal. Being a huge fan of punk, I thought that would be a plus. So I gave it a listen in the store. While previewing the first track, “Mortals Watch the Day”, I thought to myself that it in no way sounded like punk. However, it did sound decent. After the first song, I held off the rest until after the purchase. When I got home for a more detailed listen (back then not many cars had CD players in them), the disappointment was overwhelming. The feeling of being cheated was manipulating its way all through my mind. After the first song, each following one was worse than the previous. So that disc was hidden away and not played again for many years.

My next chance for Paradise fandom happened when they came through town (the old Backstage venue) with Kreator and Morbid Angel. That was a hell of a line up. Although the gothic Englishmen were touring for the album “Shades of God”, I assumed they would play a fair amount of material off their first two releases. Well I was in for a surprise; ninety percent of the set was from their current album. I cannot remember the details, but only one or two from “Gothic” were thrown in. My narrow minded opinion was also shared with the crowd. Playing with those other two speed demon bands, the crowd wanted something more aggressive. What I remember so vividly about the show was an exchange between Nick Holmes (vocalist) and someone in the crowd.

Someone yelled, “play something faster.”

Holmes’ response, “you want to hear something fast?”

“Yes!”

“Well you got the wrong band.”

To the crowd’s discouragement, they broke into “As I Die” or something along those lines. Personally I thought that was the highlight of their set. Although I was really not into the music that was being played, their total fuck you attitude of “we play what we want and if you don’t like it, piss off” was grand. Respect was definitely had for them, but a fan I was no more.

Years went by and I completely stopped following them. Around 2004 I picked up the Nuclear Blast “Monsters of Metal” double compilation DVD. Paradise Lost was on it, so I was somewhat interested to hear their current sound. A live rendition of “Say Just Words” was played.



Completely gone were the raspy death-like grunts and replaced with a clean baritone singing voice. Was I listening to Bauhaus or Paradise Lost? Don’t get me wrong, I do like Bauhaus but not Paradise playing in that manner. The music did not even sound like metal, well at least the type of metal I was accustomed to. My thoughts were not positive. So once again I felt let down.

Flash forward to 2009, again they were on my mind. I was listening to “Lost Paradise” and that previous thought popped up as before of what direction their sound had taken. Their current release was “Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us”. So I searched the internet and found the official video for “The Rise of Denial”, the recently released single. To my surprise it was pretty damn good. Definitely was not a return to the original material, but moderately heavy. Holmes’ vocals finally exhibited of hint of his raspy past. I picked up the new album and thoroughly enjoyed it. This event motivated me to go and check out the back catalog, to see what creative direction all their other albums took. A much more mainstream sound for sure, but it latched on to my expanding music taste.

What I find so ironic is that 20 years ago there is no way this type of music would be listened to by me. During those times if it was not some mutilated underground music, I would have nothing to do with it. Now looking back on “Shades of God”, the album I bought at Sound Plus and hated, it is a pretty good release. It really is interesting how one’s musical tastes can change over the years. For that main reason I never get rid of any of the bought albums that are disliked. On numerous occasions I have journeyed back to bands I hated years ago, and then became a fan of years later. Paradise Lost is no different. Basically I went full circle with them, from fan, to hate and back to fan.

The motivation for the writing of this post came from watching the band’s “Evolve” DVD. I was online scanning through Netflix’s music section; consisting of a bunch of junk I would never watch. Surprisingly Paradise Lost’s name popped up on the screen. Quickly I added it to my queue and waited for the disc to come in the mail. Honestly I did not read the description thoroughly. I was under the impression it was the 2007 historical band documentary (in actuality that film is called “Over the Madness”). I figured the documentary would at least have some footage from their early death era.

A day later it arrived in the mail and to my dismay the documentary it was not. Basically it consisted of a compilation of footage from the band’s tenure with the Music For Nations label. Included were two previously released concerts, some home videos and nine promo videos. Nothing from the first two albums was attached, but I still gave it a watch. I do admit it was a pleasurable viewing experience. A bit of metal, gothic rock and melody amalgamated into one 3 hour DVD. I was so pleased that hesitation was blocking my judgment to return it to Netflix.

So there you have it, my rambling on about my journey into the Paradise Lost. In the extreme metal community the consensus is still in the favor that the band sold out. That is ok with me, I do not observe trends. I admire the band in all their different stages.