Paradise Lost are fucking miserable. Since forming in the rain-soaked North of England in 1988, the Bradford bunch have tried their hand at everything from death/doom to synthpop. However, they’ve never once done it with a smile on their face.
Those 35-plus years of sorrow and dynamism have made this band influential across metal, with the likes of Nightwish, Him, Katatonia and Lacuna Coil all bowing before them. But it’s also made knowing where to start with their 16-album back-catalogue a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, us super-fans here at Hammer have listened to it all in-depth, and this is our ranking of Paradise Lost’s despondent discography from worst to best:
16) Paradise Lost (2005)
Paradise Lost was self-titled for a reason. Ostensibly ending years of synthy and electro-rock detours, it was meant to be the Yorkshiremen’s grand return to the goth metal they’d defined one decade prior. For some reason, though, electronica connoisseur Rhys Fulber remained as producer, turning such would-be anthems as Grey and Red Shift into semi-digitised disasters. Great on paper; deeply befuddled in practice.
15) Believe In Nothing (2001)
If an album can be “cursed”, then Believe In Nothing was. Recorded after divisive synthpop diversion Host, album eight found Paradise Lost creatively confused and tearing at the seams, as well as struggling individually (singer Nick Holmes admits he was on disorienting amounts of antidepressants back then). The songs proved rather lifeless as a result, hindered even further by flat-as-a-pancake production.
14) Medusa (2017)
After the band rediscovered death metal on The Plague Within, guitarist Greg Mackintosh promised the next album would be “slower, sludgier and more doom-filled”. That pursuit of darkness led to Medusa eschewing some all-important melody, though. As crushingly heavy as Fearless Sky and From The Gallows were, they struggled to be memorable, and only Blood And Chaos has persisted in the Paradise Lost setlist.
13) Lost Paradise (1990)
By mixing death metal with the slow-paced solemnity of Candlemass, Paradise Lost’s debut album was ground-breaking. It also introduced some of the idiosyncrasies that would later define them, like the odd lead line from Greg and some ominous choirs. However, this early in the game, the band hadn’t mastered the art of songwriting. While there’s no questioning Lost Paradise’s importance, its individual songs lacked identity.
12) In Requiem (2007)
In Requiem was the true re-embrace of goth metal that Paradise Lost began pushing the band towards. Although producer Rhys Fulber returned, his electronic undercurrents were repeatedly overwhelmed by the power of the choirs, the guitars and Jeff Singer’s drumming. The Enemy and Requiem were the most imposing Paradise Lost had sounded since Icon, while Unreachable found space to be danceable amidst the doom.
11) Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us (2009)
Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us was Paradise Lost’s most timeless- and sullen-sounding metal album in aeons. The title track was the song that found immortality, climbing from guitar strums to a multi-layered chorus, yet hidden gems were strewn throughout these 46 minutes. With Greg’s lead playing more prominent in the mix, Paradise Lost well and truly returned to form.
10) One Second (1997)
After touring Icon and Draconian Times incessantly, Paradise Lost grew sick of their own stuff. So, One Second emphasised keyboards over riffing. The title track and Say Just Words proved to be must-listens, with Blood Of Another and Soul Courageous being underrated earworms. Some observers raised eyebrows at the pop inclinations (which would only strengthen afterwards), but when it sounded this good, it didn’t matter.
9) Tragic Idol (2012)
Tragic Idol was basically the rawer, angrier sibling of Faith Divides Us…. Solitary One flaunted from the off that Nick Holmes had rediscovered the kind of bark he’d previously ditched after Icon. Then, Fear Of Impending Hell and Honesty In Death offered episodes of immense energy, their tempo picked up by the addition of At The Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson to the band.
8) Host (1999)
Some may baulk at Host being anywhere but the bottom of this list, clutching their pearls over the album ditching rock in favour of downtrodden electro-pop. That said, as a downtrodden electro-pop album, this was crammed with quality. So Much Is Lost started things off with one of the best choruses in Paradise Lost’s arsenal, and the infectious excellence kept coming from there.
7) Symbol Of Life (2002)
The years between 1999 and 2002 are widely regarded as when Paradise Lost drowned in a sea of confusingly disparate electronica. However, Symbol Of Life was top-shelf dance-rock. Isolate was the best (and heaviest) Depeche Mode song never written, Self-Obsessed was upfront enough to cram a 2000s nightclub dance floor, and that Smalltown Boy cover was an aptly gloomy reinvention of a synthpop classic.
6) Obsidian (2020)
Obsidian felt like the album Paradise Lost built up to for their entire career, with everything that had ever given them their appeal showing up. Fall From Grace leapt off a hopeless-sounding guitar melody to contrast roars against an infectious chorus, then Nick’s vocal lines on The Devil Embraced evoked flashbacks to Draconian Times. Ghosts even revived the band’s turn-of-the-millennium dance-rock flirtations. Brilliantly, diversely depressing.
5) The Plague Within (2015)
Between Tragic Idol and The Plague Within, Greg and Nick recorded death metal albums with Vallenfyre and Bloodbath, respectively. That energy doubtlessly fed into Paradise Lost’s 14th album, which furthered the desolation of Faith Divides Us… and Tragic Idol using bowel-quaking growls. Every song demanded your attention differently, from the crawl of Beneath Broken Earth to the orchestral bombast of Eternity Of Lies.
4) Icon (1993)
Paradise Lost fit more standout songs into Icon than most bands do into a whole career. Embers Fire, True Belief and Widow in particular were perfectly placed for where metal was in 1993, endowing groovy, barking, Black Album-esque heaviness with the introversion you could only otherwise find in grunge. Mainstream critics and MTV were basically forced to take notice of the band after this.
3) Shades Of God (1992)
Shades Of God was the first indication that one soundscape would never be big enough for Paradise Lost, as it pushed the band into thrash, goth and even prog territory. Considering they found their groove in downtempo anthem-making on Icon, this sadly made the guitar chugging of Pity The Sadness and the galloping drums of Mortals Watch The Day one-offs. On the other hand, that scarcity was what made this album especially essential.
2) Gothic (1991)
After Lost Paradise introduced Paradise Lost’s characteristics, this follow-up focussed more clearly on them, thus defining the parameters of the death/doom subgenre. The crawling pace, string sections, bleak lead guitar lines and clashes of growls with operatic singing all combined to create an album that matched the dread and grandeur of the apocalypse itself. To this day, only a select few acts in metal have ever touched the magnificence of Gothic.
1) Draconian Times (1995)
There’s a convincing argument for any entry in this list’s top five being the best Paradise Lost album. However, what earns Draconian Times the number one spot is that every second of it was ceaselessly, persistently unforgettable. Enchantment, Hallowed Land, The Last Time and Forever Failure by themselves could open a greatest hits compilation, each one perfectly meshing Sisters Of Mercy with Metallica, matching oomph, nihilism and catchiness. For 12 songs and 49 minutes, that formula’s impact never waned. This remains Paradise Lost’s highest-charting album as a result, and its legacy is so strong that the band still occasionally perform the whole thing in full.
