#aaron aedy

Paradise Lost - Small Town Boy

“Unleashed upon man Their poisoning brains An empty grasp - a threat to all those sane. The daggers poised For shallow minds Unheard laughs... Disrupting all mankind This rotting misery The beggars are all gathered No others rule supreme... Rotting misery Clouded realities Brought before us Their pointless lives As all their faith is lost Morbid existence Of these poor souls Now must die to exist no more”

Embers Fire by Paradise Lost From "Icon" (1993)

Paradise Lost began to right the ship with their 2005 self-titled release, ending years of increasingly listless experimentation by attempting a sequel of sorts to the best-selling Draconian Times.  “Close Your Eyes” sounded like it could’ve been written a decade earlier, though it would’ve fit more naturally on One Second: Gregor Mackintosh’s main riff was more forceful than anything he’d written in the past decade, but Nick Holmes was still caught between growling and his more recent penchant for crooning.  Still, ex-Blaze drummer Jeff Singer gave the song momentum, and both Holmes and Mackintosh sounded more purposeful than they had in years.  And even if Paradise Lost was still in a holding pattern- they didn’t seem totally sure of themselves until they eventually retreated back to their original doomdeath style around 2012- “Close Your Eyes” was a definite step in the right direction.

With Icon, Paradise Lost didn’t so much move beyond their initial doomdeath sound as refine and enhance it.  But these refinements did more than just set the band apart from peers like Anathema and My Dying Bride, they firmly rooted Icon within the broader context of metal itself, establishing Paradise Lost as major contenders in the overall genre.  Nonetheless, even if Simon Efemy’s production beefed up Gregor Mackintosh’s guitars and placed Nick Holmes’ vocals higher and clearer in the mix, “Remembrance” remained fundamentally rooted in doomdeath.  For starters, it was far slower than what even Metallica was releasing in the early ‘90s- even as Holmes’ slightly cleaner bark was recalling prime Hetfield- and Mackintosh’s power chords were shrouded in Sabbathy gloom.  It was the clarity of the band’s presentation that enabled Icon to gain some traction in the larger metal community, and even if the band would only continue with this sound for one more album, it ultimately introduced this strain of metal to audiences all over the world and played a vital role in the genre’s development.