Description

Double album on black vinyls with gatefold cover

Five years after the triumphant Obsidian (#2 in Germany, #4 Switzerland, #5 Austria), British kings of doom n gloom are back. Blending Metallica-esque riffage, Type-O heaviness, and Nick Holmes vocals between Gahan, Eldritch and death growl, Paradise Lost and their 2025 album Ascension are a shining example that some bands get better with age! More than three decades into their career, and with over two million albums sold, Paradise Lost remain the undisputed kings of metals dark side. Formed in Halifax in 1988, the band quickly became noted as the pioneers of gothic metal through their early groundbreaking albums like 1991’s aptly-titled Gothic, a mixture of heaviness intertwined with shadowy melody and atmosphere. Never a group to remain creatively static, across their career they’ve explored a myriad of avenues of dark music, from sludgy doom-death roots, to conquering the metal mainstream with the enormous, lush sounds of 1995’s Draconian Times, to more experimental, electronic leanings, leaving an influence on a trail of artists as varied as Cradle Of Filth, HIM, Gatecreeper and Chelsea Wolfe. The Yorkshire quintets 17th album, Ascension, features 10 tracks traverse the multitude of sounds in the band’s arsenal, from full-bore heavy metal to sky-high melody, all the while keeping a minor-key melancholy that remains irresistible. People should expect us to get more miserable, jokes frontman Nick Holmes when asked what fans might anticipate from Paradise Lost in 2025. Explaining the album’s title and the lyrics, however, it’s clear that they remain masters of their art when it comes to delivering on such things. The album title is taken from the belief in rising to the better place, in fiction from Earth to heaven, and all the requirements that go with that, he elaborates. In real life, people are often striving to get to a better place from birth, trying to be a better person, regardless of the fact that the only reward is death. The lyrics deal with everything that life throws at us, he continues. It’s never predictable, and within that it can also be terrifying. How people deal with death, the crutches they turn to, and how the mental state is affected by life changing situations is always intriguing. Ascension stands proud in Paradise Lost’s canon. The misery never stops but, says Nick, that’s how they like it. Ironically, he laughs, “

Track list:
1. Serpent On The Cross
2. Tyrants Serenade
3. Salvation
4. Silence Like The Grave
5. Lay A Wreath Upon The World
6. Diluvium
7. Savage Days
8. Sirens
9. Deceivers
10. The Precipice