PARADISE LOST: Obsidian (GOTHIC METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

A question to start with: Is Paradise Lost capable of giving birth to a bad album? Thirty-two years of career and sixteen offerings make us say that no, definitely, the English can't disappoint. Even when they have (slightly) deserted the metallic lands to go and dabble in pop and electro music but still blackened by a dark melancholy, they have managed to make their own work and not to sacrifice their immutable demand. In fact, "One Second" can even be considered as one of their best records.

All this to say that quality is always there and that the qualifiers end up missing when it comes to one of their new efforts. The fact that the British have never denied their past, contrary to Anathema with whom they laid the foundations of UK doom in the early 90s, makes them eminently sympathetic, sincere and passionate musicians who have metal, gothic or not, pegged to the body. If their signature remains identifiable among a thousand, it is not set in stone, it evolves discreetly.

Thus, while being inscribed in the funeral wake of "Tragic Idol" and "The Plague Within", "Medusa" let a faint luminosity emerge. Three years later, "Obsidian" seems to want to confirm this slight rise towards daylight, after all these years of digging the walls of a coal mine. 'Darker Thoughts', introduced with arpeggios and violin notes before Nick Holmes lays down his clear, sad voice, is a gateway to the blessed era of the "Draconian Times", although a few charismatic growls show that the Halifax quintet has not yet broken the Death Doom foundation that has been the base of all their albums for (at least) the last ten years.

First track, the first gem where the class and the stainless inspiration of the English sweep through. They announced an extremely diversified album and they didn't lie because the menu proposed proves to be rich of multiple nuances. But between the coldwave of 'Ghosts', the pure gothic metal that 'Forsaken' honours with its female backing vocals or the petrified Doom of 'Ravenghast', a customary darkness still prevails. Just like Nick Holmes' vocals on 'Fall From Grace', whose pale glimmers of hope always compete with the abyss.

In the end, rather than trying to analyze in which direction it tends, we can only underline - once again - the excellent holding of this opus. It's the perfect execution combined with an impeccable science of haunting melody that strikes one as one listens to these masterfully painted songs, as witnessed 'Serenity', where Greg Mackintosh demonstrates his art of heady riffs that act as a look-out through the mist, or 'Ending Days', an emotional pearl roaring with powerful dramatic tension and sprinkled with parsimonious orchestrations. As is their custom, the English don't feel the need to fill their record to the brim. Dense and stocky, nine pieces fill these 45 minutes, all guided by this admirable attention to detail.

To claim that "Obsidian" is a great vintage is a pleonasm. If it's no surprise, this sixteenth album succeeds in a form of synthesis, building a bridge between the gothic metal of the 90s and the darker aspects that Paradise Lost has been performing for a decade. - Official website

PARADISE LOST

OBSIDIAN

NUCLEAR BLAST

GOTHIC METAL