Artist: Paradise Lost
Title: The Lost and The Painless
Genre: Gothic Metal / Gothic Rock
Release Date: 26th November 2021
Label: Peaceville Records
Album Review
PARADISE LOST are quite busy while waiting to hit the live stages and play songs from their 2020’s album ‘Obsidian’ for their fans, they re-released several albums on vinyl, released a recording of their streaming concert ‘Live at The Mill’ and since 2021 marked the anniversary of their ground-breaking album ‘Gothic’, they teamed up with Peaceville Records and released ‘The Lost and The Painless’. The set comes with demos, recorded live concerts and the remastered versions of their first two albums. The rather Doom prone ‘Lost Paradise’ and the second album ‘Gothic’ that later would become the reference album for the whole genre of Gothic Metal need no introduction.
If you get your hands on this set, start with CD1, no matter how long you follow PARADISE LOST already. The demo tapes will show you where the roots of the band’s music and influences are. Not everybody keeps their demos for such a long time, but PARADISE LOST did and so you can hear the heavy and doomy music, that lay the basement for the bands progress. Consequently, continue with CD2 that contains a remastered version of ‘Lost Paradise’ and even you love the original sound of the album, give the CD a spin, for PARADISE LOST lay the original tapes into the hands of Jaime Gomez Arellano who works with the band in his Orgone Studios for many years now and definitely helped them to achieve their signature sound and superior quality.
The author often dislikes remastered versions because of being used to the original pre-digital recording era sound so much, but so far PARADISE LOST always made me spinning the remastered versions from the day I got my hands on the record. From the Doom prone first album, the journey continues to the remastered ‘Gothic’ and the listener must admit that the remastered guitar work is really amazing. The female vocals by Sarah Marrion were a novum in what used to be called Extreme Metal back in the days and if you listen close, you can hear that PARADISE LOST were influenced by THE SISTERS OF MERCY when working on the album, especially in the second half of this release. The remastered instrumental parts performed by Raptured Symphony Orchestra and especially the outro ‘Desolate’ are just a blast and leave you with this wonderful ‘Goth’ feeling after the last tune faded.
CD4 is definitely one, who never got their hands on the original ‘Gothic’ in the EP version, while CD5 comes with the sound-track of a recording that was partly released as an VHS tape back in time and gives you a good impression on how the band sounded live, when their career just began. Same goes for CD6 that spans a whole live show instead of only a few songs recorded at club gigs and makes you think for what you might have considered as “good live sound” back in time and how spoiled live audiences are nowadays coming to the quality of the live sound.
The set also comes with a book with memories of Peaceville founder Paul “Hammy” Halmshaw, Barney Greenway of Napalm Death, MY DYING BRIDE’s Aaron Stainthorpe and, any more, as well as unreleased photos from the old days and an introduction by CRADLE OF FILTH’s Dani Filth, who is a long time PARADISE LOST fan. For those who strive to complete their collections of releases by PARADISE LOST, Peaceville Records released a limited gold coloured vinyl LP and the cassette of the original recording of ‘Gothic’ to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album.
‘The Lost and The Painless’ is not only interesting for collectors, but for everybody who loves the band’s first two albums. The crystal-clear sound of remastered albums shows how the band’s sound developed from a rather blurry Doom Metal to a more refined sound that would one day be called Gothic Metal. The demos and the live shows will bring you back to the band’s early days and maybe to your early days as a PARADISE LOST fan… or if you became a fan only recently, how the band sounded back in the days. ‘Gothic’ is a piece of music history and the book that comes with the set will give you a deeper insight on how it all began.
Tracklist
CD1 - Demos
Paradise Lost, 1988
01. Drown In Darkness
02. Internal Torment
03. Morbid Existence
Frozen Illusion, 1989
05. Paradise Lost
06. Internal Torment
07. Frozen Illusion
CD2 - Lost Paradise (remastered)
01. Intro
02. Deadly Inner Sense
03. Paradise Lost
04. Our Saviour
05. Rotting Misery
06. Frozen Illusion
07. Breeding Fear
08. Lost Paradise
09. Internal Torment II
CD3 - Gothic (remastered)
01. Gothic
02. Dead Emotion
03. Shattered
04. Rapture
05. Eternal
06.Falling Forever
07. Angel Tears
08. Silent
09. Painless
10. Desolate
CD4 - Gothic EP (remastered)
01. Gothic (Mix)
02. Rotting Misery (Doom Dub)
03. Breeding Fear (Demolition Dub)
04. The Painless (Mix)
CD5 - Live Death and Liverpool Live
Live Death
01. Deadly Inner Sense
02. Frozen Illusion
03. Breeding Fear
04. Paradise Lost
05. Our Saviour
06. Rotting Misery
07. Internal Torment
Live In Liverpool, 1989
08. Internal Torment
09. Our Saviour
10. Plains Of Desolation
11. Drown In Darkness
12. Paradise Lost
13. Nuclear Abomination
CD6 - Live In Ludwigsburg
01. Intro
02. Dead Emotion
03. Gothic
04. Paradise Lost
05. Breeding Fear
06. Eternal
07. Shattered
08. Frozen Illusion
09. Angel Tears
10. The Painless
11. Our Saviour
12. Deadly Inner Sense
Website
http://www.paradiselost.co.uk / https://www.facebook.com/paradiselostofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
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