Paradise Lost, The Academy, Dublin
- Written by Marky Edison
“I'm going to sing ‘The Doom Song’ now” – Gir, Invader Zim
The Academy is packed out this Sunday night. Paradise Lost are here for their first Dublin show since 2003. Latest album, The Plague Within, is their best in 20 years and the anticipation is dripping off the walls, along with whatever else that is. Before the band even appear, there is 90% humidity in the room. The gothic metal veterans have just come off a frantic worldwide festival tour and are kicking off the European dates for The Plague Within tour tonight. Credit to Dublin Metal Events who have done a great job recently of bringing quality metal acts here that previously might have passed us over.
At the appointed hour, the stage fills with smoke and organ music. An expectant hush comes over the crowd. The set begins with the opening song from the new album, ‘No Hope in Sight’. This catches the sound engineer napping, as the guitar fanfare that announces the song is initially deafening, then briefly silent, before settling.
Singer Nick Holmes has never looked better. The short hair and long beard suit him. All the long distance cycling has him looking healthy and has done wonders for his delivery. He is at ease on stage and between songs he banters with the audience with typical humour;
“ I hope you like the latest album?/ We're going to play quite a bit of it tonight/ So if you don't like it…/ Tough shit really”,
“First time we've played that song in a long time/ I'm glad we didn't fuck it up…/ There’s still time though”.
By the time they break out ‘Tragic Idol’ the balcony is dripping on to those below. Gregor Mackintosh’s dreadlocks are flailing and Aaron Aedy is his usual effervescent self. You can always spot the metal bands that are the better songwriters because the volume isn’t quite as high. Paradise Lost want to be heard.
‘Enchantment’ from 1995’s Draconian Times is very well received. Along with ‘As I Die’; “An old favourite/ a bit like Jaffa Cakes”. There are no moshpits tonight. It's more like a heavy metal version of a trip hop show, all nodding heads and existential angst. Some songs are so slow, Massive Attack would be in awe. Holmes introduces ‘Beneath Broken Earth’ as “The slowest song we've ever written” and ponders the ever-changing nature of metal subgenres; “I believe it is called funeral doom/ In our day it was just doom.”
The audience is noticeably split between fans of the older and new material. The repeated requests for ‘True Belief’ and ‘One Second’ are ignored but the set is peppered with classics, of which Paradise Lost have written many in their 25 year career. The new songs are meatier without losing the melodies that set this group apart from their doomy peers. ‘Victim of the Past’ provokes some air guitar playing and the devil horns are raised for ‘Cry Out’; “This is a song about being pissed off/ They're all songs about being pissed off/ But this one in particular.”
The encore break comes after only an hour and it’s far too soon. There is no pretence, the crowd just watch the stage expectantly. The mock-epic intro of ‘Return To The Sun’ is a great way to reintroduce the band and the extensive encore section also includes ‘Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us’ and ‘An Eternity Of Lies’, the standout track from The Plague Within. The fans of their populist years are sated as Paradise Lost finish with their most commercially successful number, ‘Say Just Words’.
For a band that specialise in doom, these guys certainly know how to make people smile. As well as writing catchy tunes that are made to be played live, they put on an exciting show and interact with the fans like they are old friends. The audience are grinning broadly as they exit, the sound of doom echoing in their collective ears. Doom, doom, doom …