paradise lost

A nice crash-course in the classics.

After 21 years of housing some of the finest metal acts known to mankind, British label Music For Nations closed shop in 2004. The label was folded in Sony Entertainment’s Zomba Record Group and mothballed until last year when Sony rekindled the legendary label’s fire.  So, we’re celebrating with an essential Top 10. 

The plague keeps spreading.

To commemorate five years of Decibel Flexis we’ve asked Decibel writers to write a review-length tribute to their favorite disc. Today’s installment features Evoken’s cover of “Rotting Misery,” originally by Paradise Lost.

Just in time for fall:  doom over the world… now available in ones and zeros. 

The Plague Within
A dark and darkening journey
dB Rating: 9/10

“I fucking hate metal band performance videos,” says Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh (also of Vallenfyre), “so when I got told that we needed to do one I was obviously annoyed but then came the idea to do a performance video of utter misery. The slowest song we have ever recorded.

Paradise Lost have done a retrospective compilations before—The Singles Collection, Reflection, and more recently 2012’s Lost in Time—but none of them are as special as Tragic Illusion 25, a collection of old and re-worked tunes celebrating the Brits’ 25th year as a functioning, productive outfit. And by re-worked, we’re not talking something stupid like an…

Your intrepid hosts sit down with perpetual good sport/extreme music tastemaker Gordon Conrad (Season of Mist) and divulge the stories behind the best covers in the Decibel Flexi Series. Featuring:Revocation “Pull the Plug” (Death) Anaal Nathrakh “Man at C & A” (The Specials)Evoken “Rotting Misery” (Paradise Lost)Watain “Fuck Off, We Murder” (GG Allin)In Solitude “Mother of…

5. Saint Vitus. Crosses galore on the second Vitus logo. Three of them. For the Trinity perhaps. The original SVS logo only had one. Three’s a crowd, we say. But this logo is boss. Looks a bit cheap and overdone at first blush, but the barbed letters? Could be heavy metal cliché. Nope. Crown of…

The little birdies over at Century Media want us to present a sweet contest where One (1) winner can get tickets to see Decibel cover darlings Paradise Lost [issue #92, HERE], Devin Townsend, and Katatonia in the righteous flesh when the bad-ass tour of late summer kicks off September 4th in Seattle, Washington. But guess…

This piece is a long lost companion section to Decibel #92 cover story Paradise Lost. It explores and debunks the myth of the Peaceville Three—Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema—connecting and riffing off one another in the early to mid-’90s. Think of it as an updated version of fellow Decibel contributor Greg Moffitt’s UK…

To celebrate Tuesday’s release of Tragic Idol, we asked Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh to a pick a non-PL record that related in some way to each of his band’s thirteen full-length records that he’s played on over nearly a quarter century (i.e. all of them). Last week, Greg’s entries took us from 1990′s Lost…

OK, we’ve just unveiled our first ever Paradise Lost cover story [Decibel #92] and exclusive Paradise Lost B-side flexi disc—which we’re super-chuffed about—but to say that we’ve been sleeping on one of the UK’s most important heavy acts of all time is all kinds of hyperbole. See, at Camp Decibel, Paradise Lost is given “special…

British legends Paradise Lost will release their thirteenth album on Tuesday, the latest entry in a discography that is quickly approaching a quarter-century worth of releases. To celebrate this achievement, we asked guitarist Greg Mackintosh to a pick a non-PL record that related in some way to each of the thirteen full-length PL records that…

Without spilling too much digital ink, we’d like say we’re pretty chuffed — as Mick Harris would say circa ’91 — to be premiering not one but two studio reports for beloved doom metal outfit Paradise Lost. The Yorkies — not the dog, natch — are preparing for the release of new album, Tragic Idol,…

There are game changers and then there are game changers. I wouldn’t say Hard ‘N Heavy’s Grindcore Special Issue was a game changer in the same way Entombed, Paradise Lost, Napalm Deafth (phonetic spelling, natch), Bolt Thrower, Tiamat, and many others were in the dimmest part of the early ’90s, but it, unlike any Xeroxed…

Earlier this month, we had the desolate delight in premiering Vallenfyre’s–featuring Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh on vocals/guitar, Paradise Lost drummer Adrian Erlandsson, My Dying Bride’s Hamish Glencross on guitar, and Doom bassist Scoot–new song “Desecrated“. To say it raised a few eyebrows would be an understatement. Who knew six string moper Mackintosh had the balls…

Upstart British death metallers Vallenfyre will be new to most, but the group’s membership is as seasoned as they come. Featuring Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh on vocals/guitar, Paradise Lost drummer Adrian Erlandsson, My Dying Bride’s Hamish Glencross on guitar, and Doom bassist Scoot, Vallenfyre have only issued the Desecration / Iconoclast 7-inch to date. Limited…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The…

Northern England, 1990. Amid the cacophony of blast beats echoing from the speed obsessed world of UK death metal and grindcore, five lads from the grim North were feverishly gathering songs and ideas for the follow up to their doom laden debut album Lost Paradise.