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Paradise Lost - Medusa

Published September 5 2017


*
=Staff's pick

Fearless Sky
Gods Of Ancient
From The Gallows
The Longest Winter
Medusa
No Passage For The Dead
Blood And Chaos*
Until The Grave

Genre Gothic Doom Metal
Nick Holmes
Vocals
Tracks 8
Greg Mackintosh
Guitar
Running time 43 Min.
Aaron Aedy
Guitar
Label Nuclear Blast
Steve Edmondson
Bass
Release September 1, 2017
Waltteri Väyrynen
Drums
Country England
-
Keyboards
Producer Jaime Gomez Arellano
Similar bands -

I live under the impression that people above all prefer this band's gothic metal period with Icon and especially Draconian Times from 1993 and 1995 respectively. Personally I really have a soft spot for the self titled effort [2005] and Tragic Idol [2012] as well and probably it's because those albums are sonically related to their most famous ones and located in the vein where the guys in Paradise Lost do best.

So, when they now have chosen to come out with something pretty similar to the albums Gothic [1991] and Shades Of God [1992] I can't say that I compliment them on their choice. There are some good moments in every song on the record, absolutely, but the up-tempo track Blood And Chaos is the only one that I would call a really good song. (See YouTube clip below.) I recall being present when an invited audience got to listen to 4-5 songs a couple of months ago and pretty much everyone rated this song as far superior and Nick Holmes saying something like "Perhaps we should make more up-tempo tracks then.". - No shit, man!

The album is very much more a doom metal album than a gothic metal album and Holmes is going back and forward between harsh and clean vocals with emphasis on the first style and makes it kind of darker than what it is. I hear Greg Mackintosh's well-known guitar playing in there, but it's not as prominent as I think it should be. As a matter of fact 3 of the bandmembers have told me that they have to change style every now and then or they would get bored and probably split up, but in this case creativity and ideas haven't made them choose the right path, I think.

This record, 30 times, start to finish. I assure you, it gets a bit better. Yet, people who like the gothic side of this band won't for the most part not match this kind of commitment and persistence and will most likely lose their interest long before they are getting close to that large number of spins. If you on the other hand love what they did on their second and third record, you will probably like what you hear on Medusa too. Just check it out once or twice and already at that stage you will probably decide if this one is what you want to hear from Paradise Lost in 2017.

See also review of: Symphony For The Lost , The Plague Within , Tragic Illusion 25 (The Rarities) , Tragic Idol , In Requiem
See also: interview with Aaron Aedy
See also: interview with Nick/Greg

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

6

8

8

5

3

 
Summary



4 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.paradiselost.co.uk
www.facebook.com/paradiselostofficial