Paradise Lost - Symbol Of Life

[gaz]

Paradise Lost is a band that seems to evolve with each album and with 'Symbol Of Life' they are at it again. It seems they never make the same album twice and after their previous album, 'Believe In Nothing', was welcomed by most fans as a return to form after the shock of the rather poppy and guitar-less 'Host’ album.
With the guitars back with full force and the more aggressive nature of the material, Paradise Lost have delved back into the past and finally come up with a worthy successor to the mighty 'Draconian Times' album, after 3 relative failures.
As usual the songs are moody, behind the guitars are some atmospheric keyboards, Nick Holmes voice is stronger than ever.
Apart from a couple of dodgy keyboards sounds, guitarist Greg Macintosh (along with Holmes) is penning some of the best songs of the bands career and is certain to woo back fans like me that got a little disenchanted with the direction of the band.
With not a weak song to be found, 'Symbol Of Life' has a consistency lacking from the band's previous 3 albums.
11 songs spread over some 45 mins or so might seem a little
short, but if you grab the digipak, you get 2 bonus tracks (both covers, including a bizzare version of gay pop band Bronski Beat's 'Small Town Boy') and this should be enough to satisfy any long time Paradise Lost fan.

9/10
http://www.paradiselost.co.uk

 

[replicator]

Good review, yeah i agree with all you say here, this album is the best after Draconian Times, I people realize that they are back in some way and support them. I read that in UK people don´t know about them, they are alive thanks for the german fans.

They deserve more with this release, looking forward...

 

[PIV Bassman]

Paradise Lost are a highly underrated band and this album should hopefully gain them some well deserved attention. I am one of the few people who actually thinks Host is a great album - it's just very different to their direction up to that point. I also thought Believe In Nothing was a good album, but Symbol of ife is much stronger. Check out their DVD Evolve, which features live footage and video clips up to the time of One Second, it's well worth a look.
I really don't like the original version of Small Town Boy but it actually sounds really good when Paradise Lost interpret it. It's an interesting choice for a cover though, given the lyrical content!

 

[them][nstrel]

Symbol of Life is a very strong cd, really the only one I can stand listening to repetitively out of any of them. Believe in Nothing comes a close second though.