Paradise Lost - Faith divides us-death unites us

\r\nMy relationship with Paradise Lost’s music has always been like any other human relationship, with its ups and downs. During the last few years my relationship seems reestablished. Besides like any relationship it went through hard times, occasionally experimented on different situations and after turning a full circle it eventually returned to where it came from, to where always belonged. In the darkness.
\r\nAs the cd plays and the well-known melodies rent the silent air my mind is suddenly filled with pictures of the past. Is as if you’re answering the phone and surprisingly you hear an old friend’s voice reassuring you that despite the passing of years, nothing has changed that much. The tunes are subconsciously forming into five shadowy apparitions, creatures of another time not only musically but also outwardly. These five pale British, the undisputed founders of what we now call Gothic metal are standing tall, gazing scornfully upon the results of their music influences in many of their copiers. They renounce with their appearance the excessive carnival-like look that the so called “dark gothic metal” movement commands. Real darkness is inside of us all anyway. Paradise Lost have nothing more to prove to anyone, only thing they do here is defending their reclaimed propriety. The compositions are once more stunning. They are breathing a sense suffocating sorrow that pierces you like a flaming arrow but that’s not much of a surprise at least to me, things were always like this when it comes to Paradise Lost, weren’t they?
\r\n“Faith divides us-death unites us” is definitely heavy, dark and way too inspired. It might not be filled with “hit-singles” as on their previous works but this doesn’t make it less interesting. The guitars are waking up dormant icy shadows with their powerful sound, the bass guitar roars like a distant thunder on a blackened sky. The bone chilling threnody coming out of Nick Holmes’s tormented throat is paralyzing while the enormous drumbeat escorts your marching to your doom. Nothing is new here, there is no groundbreaking attitude. So be it. There are no options for experimentations. Not anymore. They did it in the past and they utterly failed. There is no resemblance neither with the founders of Gothic metal nor with the prog-minded individuals of “Host”. These Paradise Lost are just five noblemen fallen from grace, claiming what’s rightfully theirs.
\r\n
\r\nDimitris Karantounias\r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n

\r\n \r\n

\r\n