PARADISE LOST — One Second (review)

Album · 1997 · Gothic Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-01-03
UMUR

"One Second" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK goth/doom metal act Paradise Lost. The album was released through Music For Nations in July 1997 in Europe and through Jive Records in the US in August 1997. It´s the successor to "Draconian Times" from 1995 and features the same lineup who recorded the predecessor. 18 tracks were recorded during the sessions for "One Second". The "regular" European version features 12 tracks, while the limited edition digipack and the US version feature the bonus track "I Despair". The Japanese version of the album includes three additional tracks in "Cruel One", "How Soon is Now?" (The Smiths cover), and "Albino Flogged in Black" (Stillborn cover). The two original tracks "The Hour" and "Slave" were also recorded during the sessions, but not included on any of the original versions of the album. They later appeared on the second version of the "One Second" single.

Stylistically the material on "One Second" further develops the goth element of the band´s sound and tones down the doom metal elements of their past. Keyboards and electronic effects are now also a major part of the sound. Elements which were used a bit more sparingly on the last couple of albums (although the use were increasing from album to album). The core of the band´s sound is a heavy goth influenced metal style drenched in melancholy. Lead vocalist Nick Holmes has completely shed his vocal style of any growling vocals at this stage, and his singing has greatly improved compared to the last two releases, which also featured clean vocals. He sounds more comfortable now singing clean vocals, and his performance on the album is generally strong.

Paradise Lost changed a bit over the years from being a riff and lead theme oriented doom/death metal act to writing more vocal focused music, and on "One Second" that development is complete. It has its upsides and its downsides, because when the vocal melodies are strong and memorable it doesn´t mean that much, that the instrumental part of the music seldom feature killer riffs or soaring lead guitar themes, but when the vocal melodies don´t work that well, the instrumental part of the music simply isn´t interesting enough to maintain my attention. To my ears the first part of the album features the strongest and most memorable tracks (the opening five tracks are great quality material), while the quality begins to drop a bit around the middle of the album.

"One Second" features a clear and detailed sound production, which suits the music well. It´s a bit on the "clinical" side and probably could have prospered from a more organic tone, but that´s a matter of subjective taste, and listened to objectively the sound production is of high quality. So upon conclusion "One Second" is a quality release by Paradise Lost and I would mention it among the most important releases in their discography in terms of musical development. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.