PARADISE LOST — Icon (review)

PARADISE LOST — Icon album cover Album · 1993 · Gothic Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
Paradise Lost used to be one of those bands I just don't get. On Icon they show off a fairly straight down the line gothic metal sound showing mild influences of the death and doom metal which used to saturate their sound. At first it left me cold, particularly in the light of their groundbreaking first two albums, but the passage of time and the erosion of my expectations has worked wonders on it.

The main thing about Icon is that, whilst Shades of God showed flirtations with gothic metal as well as a drift into a more mainstream sound, Icon really accelerates that a lot. If you are expecting anything remotely like the band's early works, you're just going to find it confusing. Stay the course, though, and an engaging, accessible gothic metal release gradually reveals itself. There's actual keyboards on here - pretty, twinkling keyboards! Who could have expected such a thing after the deliciously grotesque riffs of Gothic or Lost Paradise?
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Warthur wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I've had a bit of a change of heart on this one, inspired in part by listening to Medusa and deciding that I should give the Paradise Lost albums between Gothic and that another go to see how their musical evolution went. Rating is now boosted substantially. Agree that this sort of gothic metal has become a tired formula, but I feel like in recent years the truly formulaic bands have fallen back a bit - and the albums like this that set the formula are left standing after the passage of time.
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
It´s possible. I guess they were one of the first "death metal" bands to flirt heavily with goth rock along with acts like Tiamat and Cemetary and that was pretty exciting back then. It´s a tried formula by now though and that might have an effect on how we perceive the album today.
Warthur wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I guess maybe it's a "had to be there" sort of thing - it captured something about the time when it came out, but in such a way that it doesn't work so well removed from its original context?
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
"Icon" used to be one of my favorite albums back when it was released, but listening to the album today I´d probably give it a 3.5 star rating. I still think it´s a quality release but it doesn´t touch me the way it used to anymore.

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