Paradise Lost - Cologne & Bochum 2007

It has been a year full of activity so far for PARADISE LOST. They have played several festival gigs in Europe and i.e. in Morocco. An absolute highlight was a concert in London in April in the Koko club, when new songs were played to the public before they were even released. This concert was filmed and will be released as a live DVD someday soon. You can get a little impression of the concert by watching the video of ‘Praise Lamented Shade’ which you will find on YouTube or over the PARADISE LOST MySpace site.

In the world of darkly tinged Rock and Metal, Waldemar Sorychta could be considered somewhat of a legend, the godfather of a genre: He produced every LACUNA COIL record and is responsible for the biggest albums by MOONSPEL (the latest being their smashing comeback ‘Memorial’) and TIAMAT (‘Wildhoney’ anyone?). He also shaped the sound and feel of SAMAEL, THE GATHERING, SENTENCED, and countless others by giving their material the sonic environment it needs, even co-writing some of the music. So it's fair to say that Waldemar Sorychta defined a sound. And now he's doing what he always did before and while producing all those bands: Writing and playing himself.



It's only natural then that EYES OF EDEN has his signature style and sound all over - and then some. In fact, if you consider that Waldemar Sorychta has played high class thrash with GRIP INC. and DESPAIR, you can be sure that ‘Faith’ has plenty of hard rocking guitars. You can listen to the album in candlelight, but you can also scream along to the heavier tracks. Just step in... EYES OF EDEN are Franziska Huth (vocals), Waldemar Sorychta (guitar), Alla Fedynitch (bass) and Tom Diener (drums). http://www.eyesofeden.de / http://www.myspace.com/eyesofedenband



Music
With Waldemar Sorychta on guitar you have already a guarantee for great music, sound and guitar riffs. His name is well known if you are listening to bands like LACUNA COIL, THE GATHERING, SENTENCED or MOONSPELL for example. But this band has nothing to do with trash metal or something like this - it’s more dark rock with an atmosphere. You must like bands like WITHIN TEMPTATION, rock with a high female voice. I enjoyed the music so much, but somehow I’m sure the whole package would sound better with a darker or male voice. Franziska’s voice is too thin for the music the other guys are playing. She’s also singing during some parts in an “Ofra Haza” style.



Performance
In Bochum the band was much more relaxed than in Cologne. Maybe one reason was that they are coming from the Bochum area and so they played at home. Especially Franziska seemed to be still shy on stage. The other woman in the band, Alla Fedynitch looked so damn cool as she has never done anything else before. Well, Franziska is seven years younger and it is always hard to be at the front. However I think she could rock much more on stage - it was never loud enough for Waldemar, he always wanted to see and hear clapping hands and some movement in the audience.



Setlist Cologne
01. Winter Night
02. When Gods Fall
03. Star
04. Pictures
05. Dancing Fire
06. Daylight
07. From Heaven Sent
08. Mother’s Revenge

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.1




Paradise Lost

Over their two decade long career, PARADISE LOST have not only created and defined genres and styles, but almost immediately transcended them. From the crawling, harrowing doom of their 1990 debut ‘Lost Paradise’, to the electronic flourishes prevalent in 1997’s ‘One Second’, 1999’s ‘Host’ and 2005’s stunning self-titled album, their sound has continued to evolve vastly, but haunting melody and dark rock power has remained at the very core of their identity.



In 1991 the band released ‘Gothic’, not so much an album title as the definition for an entire genre, while the influence 1995’s huge-selling masterpiece ‘Draconian Times’ - the missing link between METALLICA and the SISTERS OF MERCY - echoes loudly in today’s scene, with the likes of CRADLES OF FILTH, NIGHTWISH and HIM owing a huge debt to their knack for injecting heavy rock with their trademark dark sheen.



Recorded at both Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire with producer Rhys Fulber, and also in Canada and was mixed by Mike Fraser (METALLICA, AC/DC, VAN HALEN), ‘In Requiem’ sees the band taking a slight step away from the moodier leanings of their last few records into more stripped down territory, and continuing to push the envelope of what can be done with the dark side of heavy metal, while remaining as anthemic and recognisable as ever in their shadowy art.



“We wanted to make a heavier, darker Paradise Lost album”, says singer Nick Holmes. “But it was also important to write songs that encompass the melody that has become very much an integral part of our music over the last 10 years.” “More raw, organic, less polished” is how guitarist Gregor Mackintosh puts it. “Musically, it is about finding the balance between brutality and empathy, between horror and beauty. Neither a celebration nor a lamentation, simply the emotions that arise, being surrounded by life and death.” PARADISE LOST are Nick Holmes (vocals), Greg Mackintosh (lead guitar), Aaron Aedy (rhythm guitar), Steve Edmondson (bass) and Jeff Singer (drums). http://paradiselost.co.uk / http://www.myspace.com/paradiselostuk



Music
The band started the set with the first single from the new album ‘The Enemy’, which was a great opener. Followed by ‘Gothic’ (played in Cologne) from 1991 and a big surprise, it must have been ages ago they played the last time. Knowing Nick Holmes humour he would say now: Not ages ago it was just the evening before. *g* The woman’s voice came from tape, also like any keyboard sound and as well the woman’s voice you heard in ‘Erased’. But that’s fine with me. The setlist was a little mix of everything; it was a good review of the past years. The sound was more crap than good and Nick’s voice often too thin - especially in Cologne where the sound was not really good. It also must be difficult for Nick to sing songs like ‘Grey’ when his voice is distorted on the album and he shall sing this with a clear voice live.



In Bochum they gave the fans the opportunity to choose if they want to hear ‘Gothic’ or ‘As I die’ - the choice was ‘As I die’. Nick must have expected that, because he said: “I told you!” Somehow it is an all time favourite of the fans. It was a bit unfair to leave the Zeche with one song less (they didn’t played ‘Gothic’ at all in Bochum), because the crowd was much crazier and it was a better mood than in Cologne. But what can you do, everything comes to an end.

Performance
The cover of the new album ‘In Requiem’ was the background of the stage. The rest was the same picture as always: everyone rocked, moshed or banged with the songs, just Nick was standing still at the microphone stand. But he never moved a lot on stage. He is more the entertainer. If you know PARADISE LOST a little bit, you might know that Nick has a great and dry sense of humour. When they played a new song in Cologne, he said which number it is on the CD, maybe for those people who haven’t bought the album and just downloaded it. Later he said ‘As I Die’ was for the smokers and he introduced drummer Jeff Singer as Adam Sander. Do you see a little similarity? In Bochum Jeff was called Ben Kingsley. He had cut his hair. Both shows were great but as always too short and for a fan there are always songs which were missed.

Rating
Music 9
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 8
Total 8.3



All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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