While I’ve yet to listen to their new album ‘The Plague Within’ and it’s been quite a while since I was passionate about Paradise Lost, I thought I’d give this album a shot as it contains some good songs from their earlier works. and the first set of the double disc release has them playing with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra and Rodna Pesen Choir conducted by Levon Manukyan at The Ancient Roman Theatre of Philippopolis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Opening track “Tragic Idol” appears to be from an album I didn’t even know they had released and here the orchestra appears to be used more to emphasise the end of bars than to fill the sound.
“Last Regret” however has the brass section blowing at full force as the choir join the fray, and Gregor Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy’s guitars show their power and majesty.
The strings merge with the lead on “Your Own Reality” to give it extra harmonies in much the same way the choir does for “Over The Madness”.
What a difference knowing the song makes, and the orchestration is far clearer on “Joys Of Emptiness” as the orchestra and choir bring something different and new to the song, while having never heard “Victim Of The Past” it just sounds great and as if it were written to be played this way.
The violins do a great job opening “Soul Courageous” and the guitars are carried nicely by the trumpets.
And then there’s final song with the orchestra. The song that allowed me to appreciate death vocals and Paradise Lost, “Gothic”. The female vocals are superb and complement Nick Holmes’s growls just as you’d expect them to. The piano and strings accompany the sustains on the guitar giving the brass section a chance to buzz in the background. A well-chosen track to wrap up the first half of the album.
The second set has Paradise Lost carrying on, on their own sans the orchestra.
The choral vocals on “The Enemy” are excellent and the way the lead cuts through the chugging guitar riffs works a treat.
Now while the orchestra may have left, the keyboards are still very prevalent especially on “Erased” as is the almost dancey chorus. and taken from the same album and therefore keeping the dance vibe is “Isolate”, where Stephen Edmondson’s bass is beautifully audible as its rumble runs down your spine.
Nick proves rather undramatically the he has an amazing singing voice on “Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us” with plenty of power in reserve for when he’s singing over the guitars.
The roar that accompanies the intro to “As I Die” shows just how popular the song is and the way Gregor and Aaron blend guitars probably has a hell of a lot to do with that.
It was with “One Second” that their sound changed and while the guitars sound just as heavy as anything else in their set, I guess it’s the mood that makes it lighter someone, regardless of how dark the lyrics happen to be.
The driving rhythm guitars on “True Belief” with Adrian Erlandsson’s non-stop kicking take us to far more airy “Say Just Words”.
Aptly “The Last Time” is the final track on the album letting it end on a rather high note with the crowd chanting out the chorus.
I can safely surmise that all fans are going to go out and get this release, and must admit that it’s something they shall rather easily enjoy, but you can tell when an orchestra has been used on existing songs compared to when the songs were written with an orchestra in mind.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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