Band Members:
Vocals: Nick Holmes
Rhythm Guitar: Aaron Aedy
Lead Guitar: Gregor Mackintosh
Bass Guitar: Stephen Edmonson
Drums & Percussion: Lee Morris

Discography:

Paradise Lost was formed in Halifax, England in 1988. They were signed by Peaceville records after recording two demos, Drown in Darkness and Frozen Illusions. In February, 1990 they released their first album Lost Paradise. This album was more primitive in sound, but distinct for death metal.

Gothic, their second album, was released in March of 1991. This album was heavily based on the beginnings of doom/death and further separated them from standard death metal in the underground. This album managed to have excellent guitar work, mainly in the lead playing combined with heavy downtuned guitar, haunting female vocals and use of orchestrated instruments, yet still retained a subaverage sound in production.

Paradise Lost left Peaceville Records in 1992 and signed a three year deal with Music for Nations in Europe, Metal Blade records in the U.S. Simon Efemy was their new producer and in June, Shades of God was released. This album will probably be known as the best doom metal album ever because of the progression the band made in just a year and the countless influences on other bands of today playing doom and death metal. Musically this album featured brutal riffs and amazing guitar solos all fitted perfectly to make memorable songs. Their songwriting was better than ever on this one and their ability to create an atmosphere of bitter sorrow and anger proved they were a band to be recognized. Production was improved greatly and sounded just right for the style they were playing.

After very successful touring in Europe, the band went back to the U.K. into Longhome Studios and made an Ep titled As I Die (released in October 92). This single brought ever increasing fan support and recognition. It was hailed as "single of the week" by Metallica on MTV Europe. {where has Metallica's taste gone now - fuckin sellouts}

Paradise Lost released their fourth album, Icon in June of 1993. This album lost some of the doom/death pattern of the past album but was clearly an even more improved effort and was seen as a masterpiece in an undecided category of gothic metal (possibly their best album so far). Nick Holmes put in an excellent vocal performance which was improved by his aggressive melodic style in some ways similar to James Hetfield. The musicianship was totally superior and original for semi-underground music now, and it would be fair to say that this album is possibly one of the very best heavy metal albums of the 90's if not for all time.

Later that year, the band made their first ever appearance in North America. They were on tour in support of Morbid Angel and Kreator to gain further status, but as their pessimistic approach went on the band suffered greatly from lack of interest of American fans, and conflicts with members of Morbid Angel. The band lost a great deal of money simply because they were not prepared enough for carrying on a massive tour in an environment they were not familiar with, since they were competing with two major death metal oriented bands, something Paradise Lost moved away from.

In the summer of 1994, Paradise Lost released their Seals the Sense Ep after a support tour with Sepultura. Later that summer, they performed their biggest concert ever, in Nuberg, Germany in front of 70000 people at a show called Rock in the Ring. The end of the summer brought forth a video release named 'Harmony Breaks' which was a live concert shot in Germany in 1993 with band footage and video 'Embers Fire'. The end of 94 saw the replacement of drummer Matt Archer for Lee Morris which has been their only lineup change so far.

Paradise Lost's fifth album, Draconian Times was produced and recorded at Great Linford Manor and Ridge Farm Studios in 1995. Simon Efemy was again the chosen producer. This time the band took a more commercial direction at writing heavy metal songs, but stayed consistent with their original style on the Icon album. Heavy guitar rhythm with dark melody and bass was an indicator of real music played with perfection. The excellent dark atmosphere Paradise created here was outstanding and the intelligent lyrics portrayed by Nick Holmes and his sense of despair from his vocals made Draconian Times one of the very best albums of 95. Draconian Times has sold more than one million albums worldwide, which is considered to be amazing for a doom metal band.

Paradise Lost continued on touring in 1996 promoting the Draconian Times album in Europe with massive success including the Dynamo festival in Holland. Later that year the band decided to take some time off away from each other before making their next album. Early 1997, guitarist Gregor Mackintosh and Nick Holmes came up with keyboard oriented songs. As the band got together once again in the studio in Sweden this time with a new producer named Sank known for electronic and even techno music, One Second was the new album released in July of 97, a 12 song collection of very modern gothic metal music with a balance of guitar driven, keyboard and sampled effects. The longest time they have taken to create a full album is this one Paradise Lost have stated proudly. Although not technical doom metal or heavy metal to say the least, there is a real strong presence in these new songs that reach deeper than a lot of bands in the 90's trying to strive for this approach in music mainly the new modern pop rock style of today. Not to say that One Second is a pop rock album, even though some people would like to say it is, it is much more involved than the mindless shit out there today, instead it is a very dark melancholy display of emotion which is hard to be accepted by fans of true heavy metal music because of the radical change of style which really doesn't seem to be the case for Paradise Lost. Maybe they are the exception so far as they are certainly bordering on commerciaism but Paradise Lost must be commended for slipping through alright and going against the odds here. Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, even U2 names brought up to highlight Paradise Lost's recent sound, well this sounds like Paradise Lost and no one else people.

So it seems Paradise Lost have quietly toured throughout the world, not N.America yet in 97 and 98 and have faced much criticism from metal magazines and at the same time have caused no opinions from some people and of course a lot of praise and compliments. Recently towards the end of 98 Paradise Lost were last heard of escaping their tour bus in Germany when it exploded. They are still alive and plan on releasing a new album in 1999. As Greg Mackintosh said in an interview, "we will never write a happy song".

Other Paradise Lost Pages

Paradise Lost @ Autopsy's Metal Pages
Paradise Lost @ Bsteneru's Page
Paradise Lost: Shadowlands
If you would like your link added please let us know.

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Page contents researched and contributed by Jim Hamilton. Page created by Tim Johnston.