The problem with listening to Paradise Lost is you cannot listen to anything else, their atmosphere engulfs you and the only way out is to listen to more of Paradise Lost to which my friend replied, they're more addictive than alcohol. Indeed, what we have here is the helm of human expressionism of loss, sorry and despair, there are various ways of expressing these, some people paint, some build, some write, some write music. Paradise Lost does everything of those in tandem, making them the true pioneers alongside the other celebrated British bands. Digging into the album, even before you take out the cover of the disc, the album cover stares at you in 3D, this is a very delicate picture, everything the album has to offer is right there, notice the shaken/distorted face representing a view so broken so without hope, a damsel resting herself for solace but there's nothing she can feel but just a stone face of shut emotions. Icon is a mere representation of everything that the band promises you through the artwork.
A unique thing about Icon is the unique rhythm section across all the album, every song stands for itself and is distinguishable in it's own right. The album opener Embers Fire, drowns you into the hollow this band carries around, the riffs are thick enough, very well written, arranged and carefully put together, although the band follows a routine para/riff, chorus, para/riff pattern, the music that they wrap up the lyrics with is extraordinary. A good number of fans truly understand the driving forces Nick Holmes and Greg Mackintosh are, a change in Nick's vocals kept few fans off this release but I completely love how conflicting the music and the vocals are, it's like giving the listener two messages, a sense of dreary mellow with burning angst, it gels fantastically for me. Greg MacKintosh a guitarist extraordinaire, he's very suttle with his frets, his sense of timing is absolutely blissful, very carefully woven lead parts that entwine Nick Holmes vocals and a unique rhythm section. The best example is the track Joys of Forgiveness, before dissecting it, portion of the lyrics -
Violence caressing, impending distress
As my body lay sleeping, eternally bleeding, and...
Shallow despair, broken years years you cannot repair
Summoned here, and all must see the hypocrisy
Peed back the face, the sorry mind, a vacant space
Born deprived, the moods expired in reality.
This is poetry, imagine putting together a layer of gloomy blanket of riffs over these which match up to every word written in thought and meaning, MacKintosh just done that, he's a craftsman, like a carpenter, he's a very fresh riff writer, Icon was released in 1993, both the production and the music on this are still fresh to this day in 2013. The drums are strictly in their territorial range alongside bass, nothing special or nothing bad but these are done just right, how many albums have we heard where the instruments and musicians do exactly what they are supposed to do and nothing else? These come by very rarely. The strength of the band is the line up and like I said the atmosphere that they create with every song and with every progressing second is their true strength which is an absolute rarity. In days where one riff extends to 13 minutes, Paradise Lost had already reached the pinnacle of the genre with a calculatively creative output that will stand the test of time.
Sample:
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Official promo video:
Official promo video:
Official promo video:
