Review Summary: Paradise Lost release their most impactful and ambitious album in nearly two decades.
Paradise Lost are not comfortable playing only one style of music. Every few albums result in some form of transition, usually gravitating towards gothic and doom metal. Being hailed for starting gothic metal during their early years never even seemed very significant to them. The takeaway is that Paradise Lost are giants in heavy metal, with a true penchant for progressing and reinventing themselves as a band throughout the thirty years of their existence. This brings us to
The Plague Within, a new transformation for Paradise Lost, as well as their most ambitious and diverse album since
Draconian Times in 1995.
Previous release
Tragic Idol from 2012 was a largely enjoyable and straightforward affair, mainly relying on catchy doom metal riffs. The albums leading up to it were seen by most as a welcome return to their roots.
The Plague Within takes a complete left turn, widely expanding their musical dynamics and songwriting choices, while continuing to harken back to their original sound. Most songs feature melancholic guitar leads, slow or fast heavy riffs, but for the most part, consist of crushing heaviness. Momentous lead single “No Hope In Sight” opens the album with a desolate arpeggiated guitar line. It transitions into heavy chugging and doomy guitar leads alternating with the strong, lumbering chorus. Holmes alternates his powerful singing voice with death growling, which is the first indication that this is a very different Paradise Lost once again. The return of harsh singing instantly fits with the gritty, thick production and apocalyptic guitar sound. The very apparent changes could not come at a better time, and sounds more inspired and fresh than most modern metal bands do in their infancy.
“An Eternity of Lies” and “Sacrifice The Flame” feature slow, brooding intros with diverse instrumentation and haunting atmospheres, foreboding what is to come. Keyboards, violins, acoustic guitar, and female vocals all embody themselves throughout the album, melding perfectly with the harsher and more hopeless soundscapes that make up its main style.
The Plague Within has tempo changes rarely explored by Paradise Lost, ranging from the slow, lumbering pace of “Beneath Broken Earth” and album closer “Return to the Sun” to the speed demons “Terminal” and “Flesh From Bone.” The faster numbers demand sticksman Adrian Erlandsson to give some of his most impressive drumming performances of his career. Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy’s guitar playing styles impressively suit their foray into more aggressive territory, particularly in the apocalyptic chorus of “Victim of the Past,” with some of the fastest guitar tapping and furious vocals of Nick Holmes’s singing career. Every song has a distinct identity, and each could have its own album written around its ideas.
The Plague Within ranks as being among the most diverse albums Paradise Lost has ever recorded; an impressive feat when you consider it's the latest of fourteen releases. It molds the best qualities of a seasoned group, bearing decades of songwriting experience and resulting in a mature, focused, and rigidly effective outcome. It would have been easy for the metal veterans to comfortably return to their roots after their fair share of experimentation. While their latest releases have all shown similarities to earlier albums, they’ve done much more than "plagiarize" their strongest material. This latest endeavor continues the trend of broadening their influences, thus expanding their compositional capabilities; it showcases Paradise Lost's penchant for constant evolution, leading them into the most mature and progressive stage of their career.
