Paradise Lost: Ascension interview and black sandwiches

Paradise Lost in 2025 — (Image credit: Ville Jurrikkala)

Credited with coining the term ‘gothic metal’ with 1991’s Gothic, Paradise Lost have enjoyed three decades as a beloved – if somewhat cult – metal sensation.

In that time they’ve explored everything from death-doom (a genre they also helped pioneer) to synth-driven goth with an enduring sense of adventure that has seen them consistently reinvent themselves without losing sight of what made them magic in the first place.

New album Ascension continues a stellar run of form that began with 2015’s The Plague Within. But in a rare spot of optimism from chief miserabilist and vocalist Nick Holmes, he assures us the best is yet to come.

It’s five years since the last Paradise Lost record. What was the hold-up?

We got sidetracked. We decided to do Host [Nick and guitarist Greg Mackintosh’s synth-driven goth sideproject with echoes of Paradise Lost’s 1999 album Host], so that filled a gap, and we shelved a few songs that we eventually came back to. We re-recorded Icon [’93], too, so that took some more time out. Afterwards we decided we wanted to try and get some of the flavour of that album in this one too, capture some of our youthful selves.

The band have done quite a bit of revisiting albums for shows – Gothic and Icon at Damnation Festival, Draconian Times at Bloodstock…

I quite enjoy revisiting some of those things. A lot of it is from such a long time ago, and we’ve got some fond memories of when we actually had memories. It’s fun to tap into that stuff and see if you can still do it. But after all these albums and all these years, we still don’t think we’ve done our best album. If you start thinking your best album was in your first five years, you might as well not bother.

What was it about Yorkshire in the late eighties and early nineties that made it such a fertile breeding ground for miserable bands?

I don’t know, really. My Dying Bride always say about the dark satanic mills, which is fair enough. It pisses down a lot, so that might have something to do with it too. But you’ve got to be able to laugh, especially in our field, where so many things can go wrong constantly.

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What are your favourite memories of the years when goth-metal first started blowing up?

I believe it was at Monsters Of Rock, the record label had dyed all of our food black. Black sandwiches! The colour meant nothing looked nice. It was a nice idea – goth to the extreme – but didn’t really work.

Later this year the band are playing in Bradford with New Model Army and Terrorvision. That’s quite a musically varied bill.

We’ve known all those guys for years. We’ve all got our own separate followings, so it should be one big happy family of all these different people.

Other than a Spinal Tap-like propensity to lose drummers, Paradise Lost’s line-up has remained remarkably static. What’s the secret to longevity?

We started off with righteous intentions – it was all about music. That’s never really died. And we always have a laugh. We went out in Leeds drinking with a limousine to celebrate ten years of the band. Now that feels like nothing. You just don’t realise how fast time goes.

Ascension is available now via Nuclear Blast. Wool City Rockers ft. New Model Army, Terrorvision and Paradise Lost is on December 13. Get tickets.

Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn't fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.

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