Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
Music For Nations
Gothic Doom Metal
12 songs (48'55)
Release year: 1995
Paradise Lost, Music For Nations
Reviewed by Jack

This album will forever remind me the first little flat my wife and I rented back in 1995. The album was released in the summer of the same year and spinned in my cd player for at least six months without stopping. The interviews and the reviews in the metal magazines were announcing a hell of a great album; the perfect follow-up to Icon, but to the power of 10. Well, although at the time I thought it was true, I don’t think now that this album is superior to it's predecessor but it remains a perfect follow up.

For the third time and last time, the band collaborated with Simon Efemey and Pete “Pee Wee” Coleman, but this time they recorded at Great Linford Manor and Ridge Farm Studios. The sound quality remains equal to its predecessor but does sound a little warmer and more colored. This time the band didn’t ask for the help of a female vocalist, but added instead some choral arrangements by the Guildford Dead Boys Choir. Besides, the band went through the only line-up change ever as Matthew Archer left his place behind his drum kit for Lee Morris.

Once again I don’t think the track they chose as opener, Enchantment, is the right track, but Paradise Lost is used to opening its albums with that kind of mellow song. The band shows again its two sides, the ying and the yang (check my review of Icon). Enchantment, the disturbing Forever Failure with spoken dialogue by Charles Manson taken from The Man Who Killed The Sixties TV show, Elusive, Shades Of God that bears the same name as their third album, Hands Of Reason that somehow balances between the ying and the yang side of the band and finally Jaded are definitely to rank among the typical Paradise Lost mellow songs. On the other hand, Hallowed Land, The Last Time , which is an incredible live song, Once Solemn which is quite an unfamiliar song for the band, Yearn For Change and I See Your Face are some of the catchiest songs the band ever recorded. I just wish the band had included their Sisters Of Mercy cover of Walk Away on the album as this song just sounds like a typical catchy Paradise Lost song.

I had the chance to see the band once during the Draconian Tour in the spring of 1996, at the time the bandmembers still had long hair, I had long hair too, and this had been one of the best shows I ever saw. I am usually not the guy who goes mad in the crowd, rather staying either on the back or on one side of the venue, but this time I was right in the pit and my neck still remembers that day. The band indeed has the ability to come up with songs that either are mellow or on the other hand catchy as hell, but they all just sound awesome on stage.

Nothing on Draconian Times could make us suppose that the band would give such disappointing follow ups as One Second and especially Host, the later being an album that has nothing to do in their discography. Anyway, the band with Believe In Nothing and Symbol Of Life came back to a more metal edge and maybe their new album might enchant us again. Icon and Draconian Times are two of those immortal albums made to last forever and to bear the burden of time. I hope I will still be listening to those two albums on the threshold of my death and I hope future generations of metal freaks will still consider them in the years to come. Metal will live forever.

The band also released a limited two disc collectors edition featuring live stuff, b-sides and demos. However, I don't think one might still find this item in the shops.

Killing Songs :
Forever Failure, Shades Of God, Hands Of Reason , Hallowed Land, The Last Time, Once Solemn, Yearn For Change, I See Your Face
Jack quoted CLASSIC
Other albums by Paradise Lost that we have reviewed:
Paradise Lost - Obsidian reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Paradise Lost - Medusa reviewed by Goat and quoted 80 / 100
Paradise Lost - The Plague Within reviewed by Joel and quoted 92 / 100
Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol reviewed by Khelek and quoted 85 / 100
Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us reviewed by Charles and quoted 75 / 100
To see all 13 reviews click here
13 readers voted
Average:
 86
Your quote was: 100.
Change your vote

There are 1 replies to this review. Last one on Sun Sep 19, 2004 10:43 pm
View and Post comments