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Paradise Lost: Symbol of life

05/11/10 || Altmer

The Gay Album. That is what we should title this record if we gave it a nickname. You know what this album is full of? Synths and keyboards, almost disco style drums, über-catchy choruses sung by something close to James Hetfield and power-chorded guitars. It’s a very far cry from their earlier material, in fact so much that some people wrote an open letter to the band asking them to stop pissing on their metal legacy with their synth rock nonsense. Now, I am one of those people who doesn’t mind bands changing their style, so I was wondering: what is all the fuss about? Why are people abjectly throwing this disc into a bucket where all the “St. Anger” and “Cold Lake” type albums reside?

Upon spinning this, I can’t really find out why this repulses people so much. It may definitely not be the most original stuff in the world, nor is it the second coming of Cthulhu, but I don’t see why people hate this. For a first, the songs are much stronger than they wrote in their early days and catchy as fuck. After a few spins you can sing pretty much every chorus and the riffs/keyboard combo works like a charm, the guitars thundering along as a tingling key plays an important melody. Is it new? Fuck no, but they do it better than most others and hence deserve some accolades. As always with this band – it’s not so much what they play, as how they do it that really draws me to ‘em. This band has a way of making the simple seem extraordinary.

There’s a few funny influences here, though: Alice in Chains vibes permeate “Primal”, “Channel for the Pain” features faster-sung vocals, almost nu-metal style close to rapping (but not hideous), and as always Holmes’ vocals are the epitome of James Hetfield worship (although on “Primal” the Layne Staley accent is also very noticeable). “Perfect Mask” features a beat that is close to modern Sepultura/Soulfly (you could say it’s repulsive, but again they pull it off better than most people). Another reference point that you could choose is Rammstein, but without the lyrical excess. What speaks for the band is that they include all these little nods without managing to screw up the song completely. They stick to fairly basic patterns but change it just slightly enough so the songs don’t all sound the same. It works like a charm.

So the material is decently varied enough, poppy, yet still has a rhythmic heavy underpinning reminiscent of metal. It may be the gayest thing the band has ever released, but if the songs are this good, then I, for one, will keep listening. I don’t mind a bit of catchiness in my metal and I like the fact that the band dared to go in this direction (while simultaneously not selling thousands of copies). They just clearly weren’t interested in the doom/death sound at this point and it shows, the vigour of the songs is well worth savouring.

Recommendation: Trench coats, prostitutes and a light show. Or something. Fuck if I know, I like it so they don’t need to do that much actually.

7,5

Information
Released: 2002
Label: Koch Records
Website: www.paradiselost.co.uk
Band
Nick Holmes: vocals
Greg Mackintosh: guitars
Aaron Aedy: guitars
Steve Edmondson: bass
Lee Morris: drums

Tracklist
01. Isolate
02. Erased
03. Two Worlds
04. Pray Nightfall
05. Primal
06. Perfect Mask
07. Mystify
08. No Celebration
09. Self-Obsessed
10. Symbol of Life
11. Channel for the Pain
12. Xavier (Dead Can Dance cover)
13. Small Town Boy (Bronski Beat cover)

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