It hasn’t been an easy ride following the career of the legendary Paradise Lost. We’ve seen the band unleash brutal death metal, refine and redraw the boundaries of doom metal, dabble in electronica and return to heavier pastures over the years and it’s rarely been apparent where the band would go next. Whilst there were many willing to condemn the band’s foray into synth led gothic metal, I would argue that Paradise Lost have remained successful because they have adapted and survived, always staying true to their own instincts, and I loved both ‘one second’ and ‘host’ despite missing the more brutal approach of their earlier material. The band, arguably, have remained leaders even if few have been brave enough to always follow in their footsteps, but in recent years Paradise Lost have managed to up the stakes, crafting some of the very best music of their impressive career. Certainly albums like the self-titled effort and the stunning ‘faith divides us, death unites us’ can be regarded as latter day masterpieces and the band’s form has not deserted them for ‘a plague within’ is yet another example of the band redefining the parameters in which they work and coming up trumps.
Clearly fired up by his work in Bloodbath, the most noticeable change is Nick Holmes’ return to a deathly vocal style after nearly twenty years of comparatively clean singing. To hear his heavy rasp again is both chilling and exciting in equal measure and the contrast between death vocals a richer clean tone works wonders, giving the band a greater vocal depth than we’ve heard in some years. The album opens with ‘no hope in sight’, a perfect example of the new vocal approach with gruff verses juxtaposed with a suitably melodic chorus. The band seem fired up by Nick’s heavier vocal approach and hammer out riffs to match, with the opening song proving to be a neat mix of ‘Draconian times’ and ‘Icon’ era Paradise Lost. This is no throwback to days gone by, however, and Paradise Lost remain a relevant and powerful force in the doom genre they helped spawn thanks to their insistence on never simply repeating a successful trick over again to satisfy demand. Next up, ‘Terminal’ opens with a suitably ethereal solo before seguing into crushing metal powered by a ferocious double kick assault and Nick’s increasingly dissolute vocals. This is some of the heaviest music Paradise Lost have ever created and the band have lost none of their deft touch when it comes to delivering atmospheric leads and icy, death-infused doom metal. Opening with string work that recalls Clint Mnasell’s work for ‘requiem for a dream’ before the guitars come crashing down, ‘an eternity of lies’ combines elements of ‘one second’ with the earlier albums and you can’t help but feel that a track in this vein would have appeared a more natural bridge between ‘Draconian times’ and ‘one second’ with its clever juxtaposition of melody and might. The ferocious growls Nick conjures are truly astonishing and the band achieve a perfect mix of grand, elegant doom metal and graven death metal here that few bands could ever hope to match and it is around this point that you realise Paradise Lost have possibly never sounded better. The rich vein of creativity continues with ‘punishment through time’, an album highlight which could comfortably fit on the band’s near unassailable masterpiece ‘draconian times’ with its powerful riffs and assured vocals.
The album continues to impress with the brutal ‘beneath broken earth’ which opens upon a funereal riff and proceeds to deliver a punishing death/doom experience. This is Paradise Lost at their most icy and downbeat and it highlights the simple fact that no one can match Paradise Lost for sheer, claustrophobia-inducing weight. In contrast, whilst ‘sacrifice the flame’ initially appears to offset the decayed doom of the previous track with a string section, it succeeds only in adding to the dark sense of foreboding, the melody sketched out contrasting with the air of despair conjured by the guitars. A vicious example of Paradise Lost at their heaviest, ‘victims of the past’ is an absolutely stunning track which cleverly shifts from melodic depth to searing metal might on a knife edge, the band indulging all of their creative instincts as strings, propulsive percussion, deathly vocals and gruelling riffs are all thrown into the mix. As the name might imply ‘Flesh from the bone’ is a full-throttle work out, but even then listeners may remain unprepared for the sheer malevolent weight of the track which is unaffected death metal delivered with an icy misanthropy that hasn’t been heard since the band’s debut ‘lost paradise’. Carving out a nasty groove, ‘cry out’ combines that oh-so-familiar lead work with gruelling vocals and chunky riffs to deliver a satisfying punch, although it is arguably the most typically Paradise Lost of all the tracks here. The album ends with ‘return to the sun’, an impressively grandiose piece of music that mixes choral passages with death vocals and huge riffs that simply tear out of the speakers. It is only at the song’s conclusion that you realise that fifty minutes has passed and you have spent the entire time in thrall to one of the most coherent, powerful Paradise Lost albums yet released.
Is ‘the plague within’ the best Paradise Lost album in recent memory? Arguably it’s better even than that. There’s a palpable sense of excitement as each new track begins and at only ten (admittedly lengthy) tracks, Paradise Lost have cleverly avoided the danger of outstaying their welcome. It’s not the fact that Paradise Lost are at their heaviest in years, although they incontrovertibly are. Rather it is the malevolent glee with which they have returned to death metal pastures. With their recent albums having received almost unanimous praise, there has been no external pressure on Paradise Lost to head in a heavier direction and it can only be imagined that the experiences of Nick Holmes and Greg Mackintosh in Bloodbath and Vallenfyre respectively has infused the band with a newfound sense of purpose, and the intensity and passion leaps from the speakers on every track. The band have never disappointed, but here they sound more furiously focused than they have in years and the result is an album that is destined to become a metal classic. Whether ‘the plague within’ will replace the almost peerless ‘draconian times’ as the pinnacle of Paradise Lost’s achievements remains to be seen, but if this is not the best Paradise Lost album, it is a close second. With Nick Holmes delivering one of his most assured vocal performances and the band providing him with an immense and ambitious backdrop, ‘the plague within’ is a remarkable masterpiece that sees Paradise Lost once again take their place at the forefront of doom metal.
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