(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
One Second (Music For Nations, 1997) found Paradise Lost mutated into
a commercial group that plays gloomy synth-pop, like a cross between
Depeche Mode and
Sisters Of Mercy
(Sane, Say Just Words).
So Much Is Lost is the leading single of Host (EMI, 1999),
and album that doesn't even have a face to save.
The commercial sell-out that started with Draconian Times is only
a belated proof that the Paradise Lost had no musical talent.
Influenced by British synth-pop, Paradise Lost ended up recording
albums that had almost nothing metal nor gothic such as
Believe in Nothing (2001), produced by John Fryer,
with the poppy Fader,
and
Symbol of Life (2002).
They tried to regain their gothic-metal roots on
Paradise Lost (2005), but the album
is a perverse and monotonous repeat of their worst
cliches to the point of self-parody.
It is almost ironic that the only decent doom number, Over the Madness,
is relegated to the end.
Paradise Lost returned decisively to their doom-metal roots on
In Requiem (2007),
with the bombastic Never for the Damned and sumptuous gothic elegance,
Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us (2009), with
new drummer Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates) and more varied riffs by
Greg Mackintosh but weak material,
Tragic Idol (2012), with Solitary One and little else,
The Plague Within (2015), with Holmes shifting between clean and growling vocals and with a broader range of styles, from the massive
Beneath Broken Earth to the sentimental Return to the Sun,
from classic hard-rock to death-metal,
and Medusa (2017), that featured new drummer Waltteri Vayrynen and mostly growling vocals, with catchy songs like
The Longest Winter and Blood & Chaos,
as well as their longest song yet, Fearless Sky (8:30), the doom-y peak.
Obsidian (2020) opens with a song worthy of their early albums,
Darker Thoughts, but the meanders between cliches and dance temptations
(Ghosts, a` la Sisters of Mercy).
These were all albums that stuck mostly to the doom-metal format that
Paradise Lost had contributed to invent.
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