Paradise Lost
One Second

The album I am about to discuss was not just a "normal" album for the band in question, Paradise Lost, but rather the album that created a rift between the fans and was a fundamental turning point in their career. After the enormous success garnered with the masterpiece Draconian Times, Paradise Lost changed their sound again and released "One Second" in the summer of 1997.

The album immediately stirred up a lot of controversies. The band's fans split into two factions. The more orthodox followers accused them of commercialization, while the more open-minded appreciated the continuous change in the band's sound. In fact, the issue with this album is that it marks the chapter that moves away from Metal by the Halifax group, Metal that reappears in a few tracks here and there, but nothing more. The sound becomes softer and the aggressiveness drastically decreases compared to the previous album. The guitars give up some of their space in favor of electronic and synth-pop influences.
This is essentially the great innovation of this "One Second." For the first time, Paradise Lost turn to electronics and dark influences, a choice that will be maintained and perhaps even overly evolved in the subsequent albums. However, the result is a very Dark Metal/Rock far from deplorable. What remains evident is the band's ability to write very catchy pieces, but not predictable or banal.

The winning card of this album is the massive use of melodic choruses (brilliantly delivered by singer Nick Holmes, who refrains from using his voice in a more aggressive manner) and easy listening. An example is the initial title track, a touching electronic ballad that keeps alive the traditional melancholic vein of the group. The tracks are varied, engaging, and in some cases even exalted, as seen in "Say Just Words," a driving Metal piece with an anthemic chorus, or the unsettling "Blood Of Another." The album, however, has its weak points, which perhaps lie in being too sweetened and melodic in some passages, passages that, while beautiful at first listen, over time show some evident flaws.

An essentially unfortunate album, which greatly suffers the comparison with the previous Draconian Times (a decidedly superior album) and at the time stirred too many divisions, too much controversy to be judged with an objective eye, but nonetheless marked an important step in the Gothic scene thanks to the quality of a handful of songs that still have an influence on current groups in the scene.