Is PARADISE LOST? No! The Plague Within Discussed In New Crossfire

June 3, 2015, 8 years ago

Mark Gromen and Jason Deaville

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Is PARADISE LOST? No! The Plague Within Discussed In New Crossfire

Long-running UK-based doomsters Paradise Lost have released their 14th studio album, The Plague Within, via Century Media Records.

Paradise Lost are once again refining the chemical equation to their sonic alchemy with the kind of creative invincibility few can afford. Theirs is a pain born of the human condition itself as our fragile minds struggle to cope in a world overrun by demons.

Produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Ulver, Cathedral) at London's Orgone Studios, the frostbitten riffs thunder beneath the bittersweet euphoria of Nick’s vocals, drifting between rich melodic soars and icy snarls. It’s an organic body of work that confronts the trials and tribulations of struggling alone in darkness, but also one that treads incredibly exciting and genuinely ‘new’ sonic ground in the process.

The cover artwork was created by the polish artist, illustrator and architect Zbigniew M. Bielak, best known in the musical realm for his record cover illustrations, which among others include meticulously handcrafted artworks of Watain, Ghost or Entombed A.D. albums.

In the latest bout of BraveWords' Crossfire, The Plague Within, is dissected by Mark Gromen and Jason Deaville below.

 

 

 

Mark Gromen - 8.5/10

 

People, myself included, have been whining about what could have been for the melancholy UK doomsters since the radical sonic departure following the success of Draconian Times. Well it took more than a decade, but gradually the Lost boys realized (if not the error of their ways) at least they were best at creating gritty, heavy metal dirges. Over the last three studio platters, PL have rekindled internal interest in their past, helped in large part by guitarist/chief songwriter Gregor Mackintosh forming the concurrent grind/death entity Vallenfyre (a flashback to the music of his youth). Especially here, the earliest Paradise Lost albums are the reference point, Nick Holmes agonizingly bellowing like the youngster heard on Gothic. The sound is big, rough around the edges and decidedly dirty. The glorious plod of a piano begun 'An Eternity Of Lies' being the outlier, which briefly sees him alternate between smooth and typically caustic tones. There's a little of the punkiness of classic 'Pity The Sadness' rearing its head in 'Punishment Through Time'. Follow-up, 'Beneath Broken Earth' practically oozes from the speakers, glacial movements embedded in molasses! The low moan of cello introduces the abruptly ending 'Sacrifice The Flame'. Quickly joined by violin, the mournful duo creating a harrowing backdrop not heard since originally like-minded contemporaries My Dying Bride. Powerful, emotive stuff! The synthesizers on 'Victim Of The Past' have one foot in modern PL, but Holmes bellicose voice (apart from the occasional haunting echo) bring it all kicking& screaming back to the grave. 'Cry Out' is somewhere between Motorhead and a lively Type O Negative number, as always, expanding the boundaries of Paradise Lost. Album closer 'Return to The Sun' kicks off with a choir singing exaggerated "Amen" on word refrain, before the band plugs in. A rousing return to form: something for which we can all give thanks.

 

 

 

Jason Deaville - 9.0/10

 

When a band that has existed for nearly 30 years can come along and rewrite the rules for an entire sub-genre with one song - destroying all preconceived notions of what true, debilitating anguish is - do not be alarmed when your body suddenly, involuntarily, succumbs to the melancholic providence of it all. Submit yourself to the paralyzing universal life force that bellows forth; a force that jolts the heavens to its very core - revealing the somber, starless axiom that lies beneath this lost paradise.
 
'Beneath Broken Earth' is the song. The Plague Within is the moribund vessel from which it was born. Like the spawn that slithered forth from Rosemary, Paradise Lost has birthed an album that explores the light found in darkness. Each song is an elongated shadow that casts its burden and misery across sun-drenched meadows. Just when all hope is lost - as is conveyed in every down-tuned, mournful note in the aforementioned song - there is a song that confronts the misery with a redemptive hand reaching through the all-encompassing gloom. Do not mistake this hand as one that offers total salvation, as The Plague Within offers no opportunity to repent. What it does offer, though, is the guise of hope. It's this veneer of optimism that keeps the listener coming back for more in repeated attempts to revel in the underlying malevolence. This is particularly true of Nick Holmes' vocal performance, which often recounts the early days, though with a far more aggressive approach not unlike his work in the most recent Bloodbath. When he isn't howling dirges of despair atop his cloven-footed lectern, Nick is serenading his congregation with a gentle, melodious, almost angel-like inflection.
 
From the Funeral-doom laden 'Beneath Broken Earth' and lead-off track 'No Hope In Sight', to the almost stoner-like riffing of 'Cry Out', The Plague Within challenges the listener with its constant traversal through treacherous peaks and valleys, leaving one breathless, soul-drained, begging for salvation at the precipice of paradise... salvation that will never come. 

 



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