Paradise Lost

Datum: Sonntag, 17.08.2015

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” ARISTOTLE

Rare is it for a band to have had such a long lasting effect on the musical landscape they exist within. Since their formation in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Paradise Lost have thrived in perpetual darkness: a place where rays of light seldom threaten to break the black clouds, where nightmares last an eternity.

While the course of their sonic evolution has spawned countless others sworn to the dark, all pale in comparison to the original Gothic metal pioneers. It would be fair to say without Paradise Lost, many of today’s doom-gloom bands would never have existed – 2nd album ‘Gothic’ still being considered ground zero for gothic metal.

With their 5th album ‘Draconian Times’ international breakthrough beckoned as the band continued to forge their own path and explore more electronic and symphonic-led musings, building one of the most loyal fan-bases the world has to offer in the process and spawning chart positions across Europe. Celebrating their 25th anniversary with a special performance at UK magazine Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods ceremony, the band were given the Inspiration award for their contributions to heavy music.

Now returning with opus number fourteen ‘The Plague Within’, Paradise Lost are once again refining the chemical equation to their sonic alchemy with the kind of creative invincibility few can afford. It’s a collection of songs that will surprise even the most seasoned of fans in its ambition: a monochrome miasma of morbidly uplifting anthems and heart-aching melancholia. Theirs is a pain born of the human condition itself as our fragile minds struggle to cope in a world overrun by demons.