Paradise Lost
As I Die

THE REVIEW

They released the Paradise Lost EP in April 1993, just a few months after the icy and spectral "Shades Of God" — a Death-Doom masterpiece that established them, along with Anathema and My Dying Bride, as champions of this music scene born in England in the early nineties.

One of the most terrifying covers ever seen: the artwork has never been a strong point of the band led by vocalist Nick Holmes. But they more than make up for it with the music: three tracks written by the band, adding a cover from a band that greatly influenced the creation of their sound. About twenty minutes representing a turning point in the career of Paradise Lost; they indeed abandon much of the extremism that characterized them in the beginning, adding that Gothic-Dark sound that would lead them a few years later to release two other dark and profound gems: "Icon" and "Draconian Times."

It's the essential magnificence of "As I Die" that opens the work: a few seconds of a six-string arpeggio: a calm only apparent, which is interrupted by the entrance of Nick's growling voice. A semi-growl always comprehensible that recalls James Hetfield of Metallica with hoarseness! At this point, the electricity of the instruments takes over the track: tension and melody chase each other until the end. I recommend watching the unsettling black and white video clip (after all, the lyrics tell how one will come to die).

Right after come the more than six chilling minutes of "Death Walks Behind You" by Atomic Rooster: a lengthy, dark, and evocative Hard Rock. A journey back in time reaching as far back as the early seventies; of unsettling and cold beauty. "Eternal," recorded live during the tour of the "Gothic" album, gives us back the early Paradise Lost: the more raw and violent ones. A few minutes of nocturnal and sadistic pain...RAPE OF VIRTUE...

Ad Maiora.