What do you do after 32 years and 15 albums in the business? Produce possibly the best album of your career, that’s what. Formed in Halifax in 1988, Paradise Lost started as a death doom outfit with debut album Lost Paradise and over the next 30 years have delivered a range of albums that have included the iconic Gothic and Draconian Times. Unafraid to follow their own path, their style changed several times before intentionally returning to their earlier crushing death doom sound on their most recent releases, The Plague Within and Medusa. We are now presented with Obsidian, their sixteenth offering. A deep, dark and emotion filled album that retains the heaviness of the previous two albums, the heaviness supplied by the weight and feeling of the songs rather than the sheer intensity of the playing.
The first thing to say about Obsidian is that it is an album that you will want to play repeatedly. From the fragile opens of Darker Thoughts, with its gentle acoustic intro that expands into a riff heavy emotionally rich exploration of the fragility of life and choosing the wrong path through to the massive Ravenghast, the grave mournful smouldering epic that closes Obsidian in a magnificent flourishing explosion of intensity, this is an album that continues to intrigue and delight in equal measure. The harrowing Fall From Grace has been referred to as the link which connects Obsidian with Medusa and it’s a reasonable observation. Filled with the trademark gothic tinges that is their trademark style, the first single opens with a memorable Greg Mackintosh riff and Nick Holmes harrowing growl. A song about losing control, Fall From Grace blends death growls and haunting cleans with a funereal feel, the sheer atmosphere creating the punishing heaviness we desire.
Elsewhere, the stomp of second single Ghosts echoes those Gothic days, the shimmering guitar work capturing the desperate attempts to seek refuge and pseudo comfort in religion. The melancholy remains on Forsaken and the and the exploration of making one’s peace in the final hours of life on Ending Days. The clever use of keyboards and strings merely enhances these atmospheric drenched songs. There remains plenty for fans of the band’s heavier side, with the likes of The Devil Embraced and the suffocating intensity of Serenity, a crushingly powerful track, which reflects the horror of battles in medieval times. Supporting Nick Holmes assertion that Obsidian is an eclectic piece of work, there is the contrast of the alt-rock edged Hope Dies Young, which reflects on the shattering of lifelong dreams.
Superbly crafted and perfectly produced by the band with the assistance of Jamie ‘Gomez’ Arellano, Obsidian is flawless. The captured emotion and atmospheric delivery is simultaneously gentle yet laced with an organically raw aggression. Whilst the band, like thousands around them have lost a summer of promotion, Paradise Lost have managed to produce one of the best releases of a shitty year. This deserves to be deeply savoured and fully enjoyed. 10/10
Shrapnel: Palace For The Insane (Candlelight Records)
Nailing the opening track on an album can be a challenging business. Get it wrong and it may be game over before you are into the first chorus. Norwich thrash monsters Shrapnel have stormed it with Might Of Cygnus, track number one on third long-player, Palace For The Insane. A raging aggressive thrasher which merges old school sensibilities with a definite fresh feel, this is also the longest track on the album. It works on so many levels. Brutally explosive, hooks that tear the flesh (metaphorically of course!), and with a solid backbone to support the massive riffs and shredding leads.
Having raced through their first decade together, there’s little doubt that this shining light in the UK thrash scene are developing nicely into one of the bands around today. 11 years since the No Saviours EP surfaces, Shrapnel’s song writing is mature and dynamic, with ample variation that mixes things up whilst retaining every ounce of the trademark extreme aggression that is an essential part of their make-up. Vultures Circle is fiery but with some neat interplay between guitarists Nathan Sadd and Chris Martin. Cannibal is a mixture of Megadeth and Metallica (with a sneaky steal from The Frayed Ends Of Sanity included), a medium paced thrasher which increases in tempo as it progresses.
Shrapnel’s music has always contained a raw edge, something necessary for this genre. Begin Again displays a demonstrable change in style, retaining the underlying thrash elements whilst expanding into a balanced, dare I say progressive style which is one of the highlights on the album. Contrast the tempered approach on Begin Again with the pure frenzied assault on Bury Me Alive, a full-frontal assault that is a metal incendiary device, such is its power. The insane riffs continue on Infernal Choir and The Mace, two inflammatory tracks that ignite the fires from the opening riffs. A reminder if one was needed that Shrapnel still revere the old school.
The mixture of songs is a welcome blend on an album that could quite easily have been a bit routine. “We wanted to step out of our comfort zone a little this time round”, says lead guitarist Nathan Sadd. “We knew we could pound out 10 relentless thrash songs fairly easily, but we wanted the challenge of writing a really memorable, diverse record. We wanted to write songs. I think we achieved that. The album definitely contains the most memorable and hooky stuff we’ve ever written, while still being thrashy and brutal.” That’s a certainty. Shrapnel’s latest record has pushed them higher up the UK thrash metal tree. Their first recorded venture as a four-piece and the first album recorded in collaboration with Samuel Turbitt of Ritual Sound Studios, Palace For The Insane should be welcomed by UK thrashers and non-thrashers alike. 8/10
Sertraline: Clouded Minds & Silver Lines (Self Released)
Progressive technical metal comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and this package is one of the more surprising varieties. The combination of clean and rough vocals is nothing new and Lizzie Parry gives a solid delivery with her mixture of styles working well alongside the band’s staccato style delivery. All deep diving bass, choppy riffs, military controlled drumming and atmospheric break downs, the quintet from Leeds and Manchester. Opening song Inside Out is well placed as the opening song, whilst the jagged Mean To Me II is a confusing barrage of delicate passages blended with more aggressive elements. Parry’s cleans are much more pleasing than the rather limited guttural style, her soaring singing by far the most effective. Plenty of heavy riffs on Screaming For Sleep, a pulsing explosive track with a killer hook, even if there is once again a jumble of styles which makes it an aural challenge. The band search out melodies in every track, giving plenty to work with and the punchy closing track Isolation is no different. Having been together since 2014, one wonders if the band have really identified their true sound, as each of these tracks seem somewhat chaotic at times. Plenty of promise, but plenty of work still to be done to push further forward. 6/10
Ravenscry: 100 (Self Released)
Badged as both alt-rock and Progressive gothic metal, the fourth album from Milanese outfit Ravenscry demonstrates the frailty of labelling a band with one style. 100 is a totally mixed bag, with some symphonic metal elements, an at times almost pop sensibility on top of the gothic influences. Disappointingly, it’s a little bit too schizophrenic in parts, with some songs, such as Binary and The Door Inside rather bland. For a band on their fourth album, this one following 2017’s The Invisible, it would be reasonable to expect a little more. Giulia Stefani’s crystal-clear vocals fit the songs well, but the mundane plod on several tracks really doesn’t allow her to really let rip. By the time I’d reached The Entertainer, which has some classic symphonic elements, I was anything but entertained.
Badged as both alt-rock and Progressive gothic metal, the fourth album from Milanese outfit Ravenscry demonstrates the frailty of labelling a band with one style. 100 is a totally mixed bag, with some symphonic metal elements, an at times almost pop sensibility on top of the gothic influences. Disappointingly, it’s a little bit too schizophrenic in parts, with some songs, such as Binary and The Door Inside rather bland. For a band on their fourth album, this one following 2017’s The Invisible, it would be reasonable to expect a little more. Giulia Stefani’s crystal-clear vocals fit the songs well, but the mundane plod on several tracks really doesn’t allow her to really let rip. By the time I’d reached The Entertainer, which has some classic symphonic elements, I was anything but entertained.
A bit more oomph was promised with Destination Nowhere, but the dramatic opening gave way to a strange industrial/electro combination which was turgid, before the chorus at least picked it back up again. And I’m afraid it didn’t get much better after that. Routine, dull and insipid describe many tracks here. The disjointed style of play suggested that they hadn’t quite fitted out how all the instruments linked together, with songs such as Binary and Light You Up sounding more like a mixture of two songs than one fluid track. For a band who’ve been together for well over a decade, I’d have expected substantially better. 5/10
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