Paradise Lost, My Favorite Band

commons: Lilly Mpl.wiki: Lilly Mreal name: Małgorzata Miłaszewska, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Recently, I was scrolling through r/doommetal and someone posted a Paradise Lost track. I had to stop and listen, as Paradise Lost is my favorite band of all time. I stated such in the comments and the person responded with:

What’s your favorite album/song? I’m just getting into their music.¹

Below, I am pasting my response just so I can come back to this list and revisit why I love PL.

tl;dr

Want more?

I don’t think I will be able to give you a favorite song, but instead I will give you a track to listen to from each album. I have been listening to them since the beginning (1992-ish) and have enjoyed each album on the musical journey.

The Early Days (Death/Gothic Metal)

• Lost Paradise Frozen Illusion (runner up: Rotting Misery)
• Gothic Eternal (entire album is amazing)
• Shades of God Your Hand in Mine (the build that starts around 5 min mark and ends in the climax brings tears to my eyes to this day! Also, this entire album is amazing)

Clean Vocals on the Way

• Icon True Belief (It’s here that Nick Holmes begins to change his vocal style a bit, and people lost their shit. However, keep the faith!)
• Draconian Times Once Solemn (That bass tone!)
• One Second Lydia (Here we have another shift in music, I believe there are a few songs on this album that don’t even include guitar tracks!)

Cue the “Commercially Viable” Times

• Host Behind the Grey (And here we have the best Depeche Mode album ever made, as a friend of mine likes to say. At this point, PL has completely abandoned the tropes of gothic/death/doom metal and is experimenting with pure emotion. I love this entire album. Some more fans were alienated at this point. However, if you love Sisters of Mercy you will love this album.)
• Believe in Nothing World Pretending (It’s at this point that Nick and Greg have said in an interview that the record label was pressuring them to be more commercial. That they themselves don’t consider this to be PL material. I will see if I can dig up the interview… Regardless I love this track.)
• Symbol of Life Pray Nightfall (Excellent track, however, the best song on this album is their cover of Small Town Boy.)

The In-between

• Paradise Lost Spirit (I love the keyboard lick in the background of this song…)
• In Requiem Fallen Children (Love the “strings” in this track.)
• Faith Divides Us Death Unites Us Universal Dream (This track could’ve been on Shades of God!)
• Tragic Idol Fear of Impending Hell

A Return to Growls

• The Plague Within Beneath Broken Earth (THIS IS THE ONE)
• Medusa Medusa
• Obsidian Ravenghast

This is Paradise Lost at their finest IMO, a real depth of having been on a journey, knowing their “voice”. They are firing on all cylinders these days! Looking for many more amazing albums!

Finally, thanks for asking the question. I spent all morning revisiting some great music and will likely put PL back into my regular rotation. Here is a YT Music playlist of the above songs.