•
Rating: In 1992, Paradise Lost bid farewell to their Doom period with a gem like "Shades Of God." At this point, Nick Holmes' band decided it was time for a change.
Everything was ready within a year, and in 1993, Music For Nations released ICON.
From the very first listen, it's clear that the choice was to set aside obsessiveness in favor of a good dose of melody. Doom is now just part of the atmosphere and no longer the backbone of the tracks. Holmes' voice has moved away from growling while still being very raw and aggressive (though sometimes not technically flawless).
The opener EMBERS FIRE is illustrative of the band's new direction. A simple but effective riff, an unforgettable chorus, and a solo to be passed down to posterity as one of the band's absolute masterpieces.
Throughout the grooves of the record, the group does not forget its origins with JOYS OF THE EMPTINESS, pure slow and gloomy Doom Metal.
The album continues with other hits long considered classics of the band such as DYING FREEDOM, WIDOW, and WEEPING WORDS. Up to the tenth track TRUE BELIEF, the true masterpiece of the album and one of Paradise Lost's anthems (second only to As I Die). A track of great intensity, emotional, with a refrain for the ages. After a few tracks in line with the dark atmosphere, the first chapter of the second period of a band too important to be ignored concludes, the progenitor of a Metal style today too often mimicked by pseudo-gothic bands of questionable integrity.
After the success of the subsequent Draconian Times, the band itself would no longer have the strength or desire to continue down this path, but if today Paradise Lost are remembered for having almost single-handedly invented a genre, it is precisely thanks to their courage to constantly renew themselves.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Embers Fire (04:44)
Towers of London
when they had built you
did you watch over the men who fell
Towers of London
when they had built you
Victoria's gem found in somebody's hell
Pavements of gold leading to the underground
Grenadier Guardsmen walking pretty ladies around
fog is the sweat of the never never navvies who pound
spikes in the rails to their very own heaven
Bridges of muscles spanning so long and high
merchants from Stepney walking pretty ladies by
rain is the tears of the never never navvies who cry
for the bridge that doesn't go
in the direction of Dublin
And I've seen it in a painting
and I've seen it in engraving
and I've seen it in their faces
clear as children's chalk lines on the paving
Towers of London
la la Londinium.
02 Remembrance (03:26)
I am the one, to which you'll go
You are the one, from which I'll run...
Fading to grey, the wanton pray
You'll find shelter, I'll find none
I'll leave you pointless life undone
Breathing your days, my anguish stays
Fate of my face, I've seen your face
I turn and run, you'll have no place
Time is the father, in my corrupt mind
Pain, echoes, in the silent sky...
Remember life now?
03 Forging Sympathy (04:43)
A mass of breathing souls
For times are desolate
Passing judgement on my sentence
As I perceive my dying day
Gime me a promise.
The word I will never hear
Sympathies forging, stalling in me
I'm closing all the doors
While my frown remians
Until I reach my golden haven
I'll let the sadness pass my way
Preaching the words of angels, to a darker side of man
My halo's fading with all the sin I deal
Have I been banished, 'a fogery'
Sear, the tender feeling as my solar glow dies
And I'm waiting for my sweet hell
You'll wait for 'your' hell, I wish you hell...
In time the hate corrodes
Our brains are desolate
And this prison which we serve in
Will be a witness to our pains
Preaching the words of angels, to a darker side of man
04 Joys of the Emptiness (03:29)
Breathing here, and the air is clear
Changes of which I could foresee
Violence caressing, impending distress
As my body lay sleeping, enternally bleeding, and...
Shallow despair, broken years years you cannot repair
Summonded here, and all must see the hypocrisy
Peed back the face, the sorry mind, a vacant space
Born deprived, the moods expired in reality
A fantasy, based on harmony
A victim released accordingly
Scatter the ashes, remains of life's passages,
Mocking and meaningless, toys of the empty, and...
Mighty and proud, reaching up to touch the shroud
Tangled here, and far beyond from atrocity
Frozen and cold, bleak the memories of old
Times capsize the born desires for technology
06 Widow (03:04)
You're breaking a chain
Lying until you can erase the past
Born with a look of deceit
Praying that all the bitter guilt's defeated
Born...
Stand on your own, killed from behind
Fools are blind, unwilling to accept, decline...
You'll turn a blind eye...
Bought by a sickening man
The weakened gather as fast as they can
'Whore' is what people roar
From fear of rejection,
You'll come back for more
Strong, don't see that love has ceased
In the end, only death release..
Stand on your own, Killed from behind
Fools are blind, you're on a lonely road...
09 Poison (02:59)
Come taste a century of hatred
Free from the sanity of them
Is there something, that you see in all of them
Non-believer, a time will come, but when ?
All you worship in life, destroyed by human hands,
Spare the trouble you feel, save a breath for your next
Spit on the laws that I made for you
Betray the treasures within hearts
Is there something in death that you think
reflects your life?
Come taste the loss that I feel, challenge paradise
All you worship in life destroyed by human hands,
Save the trouble you feel, a treasure with no price
It's disturbing, the joy I feel, but I feel it more
10 True Belief (04:30)
Wretched will, host of pleasure surreal
Closed the room where the last is buried
Rise or fall at your master's request
You're unable to accept redemption
I don't know about a true belief here
With the 'lost' it's the same as always
All I want is the same, a true belief
You can't wait to become a memory
With the 'weak' it's the same as always
Stand confused lack of comprehension,
Re-aroused by a thought of madness
And I know that the truth is always right
But it's time to search for lies
You're the only I try to save
But the blood spills from your veins
Call counting time till the end
Death's wicked smile never fails
The curse is cast, you've lost the past
Forevermore, a candle burns here no more
I don't know about a century life
When the love of generations die
I can see no good in taking your own life
When any moment death calls...
All I want is the same, A true belief
11 Shallow Seasons (04:55)
The sullen man before me turns a head and demonstrates
The power of a weak mind can't conceal or captivate
It's lost in a bleak scope of fragmented ways
Eternal non-events occur throughout its poor days
You're lost forever unable to see yourself
The thoughts arising, there's
no disguising where you've been...
Reveal to me, your mind's identify
You'll pay, pay for the feelings that you feed me
Don't hold on to what you call a life...
Anger compels a force of weakness or fear
I'll promise no forgiveness for the rest of my years
A negative release, subliminal urge
Unwish declining, grey thoughts reviving all the way...
Your fallen prey, a loser pays
You'll pay for the feelings that you feed me
Don't hold on to what you call a life...
12 Christendom (04:30)
Innocent, beneath this sorry veil see 'you have'
Plenitude, the sweetness of a new born child
Its lost deserted reverence
For my life and the stars creation
For my life it's the same rejection
Lost in life, I'll blame it all on you
Loss of hope, falling situation
Readapt, death is life's temptation
Dying slow, I'll blame it all on you
Resurrect, the harsh tones of our self contempt recall
Fail to breathe, in sight no normal state of mind
In time the hour will fail to chimc
They bettray, uphold the law, accuse the future
Loading comments slowly
