“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 …

Paradise Lost are back. Well, they hadn't really gone away. This is their 14th album in a career that has lasted over a quarter of a century. But while the band have been consistently filling venues in central and eastern Europe over the last decade, their albums have not been troubling the charts this side of the channel. That may be about to change as Paradise Lost release The Plague Within; a guitar driven, riff packed collection of gothic metal, the likes of which haven't been heard from them since 1995's Draconian Times.

Prior to recording the album, Nick Holmes had been singing with death metal supergroup Bloodbath. Lead guitarist and co-writer Greg Mackintosh had also been enjoying the heavier end of the metal spectrum with recently formed Vallenfyre. In interviews both have said that the album was already written before their side project sojourns but that the experience of playing heavier music did influence the recording of The Plague Within.

Paradise Lost have never been afraid to let their sound evolve. Early albums like Lost Paradise and Gothic were miserabilist death metal and kick-started the gothic metal subgenre. Katatonia have previously said that they formed essentially as a Paradise Lost tribute act and moved on from there.

The Icon / Draconian Times era saw Nick Holmes' vocals become smoother and more melodic and the band including acoustic piano and guitars in their repertoire. Then rather than capitalise of the success of those albums, the band continued to explore other ways of playing metal, bringing synths and symphonic elements into the fold. It's no surprise that the 'Depeche Mode of metal' enjoyed big successes in Germany and surrounding countries after that but this side of the water Paradise Lost faded from view somewhat.

Elements of all those disparate styles are evident throughout The Plague Within. The synths, classical backing vocals and string arrangements still there but in a supporting role. This album is guitar driven and packed to the gills with killer riffs. The songs range in tempo across the album; slow funereal dirges, mid tempo chugging riffs and explosive thrash shredding abound.

Greg Mackintosh's guitar sings, providing the melodies and countermelodies that we have grown to expect. Nick Holmes' vocal delivery uses the range of styles he has mastered over the years. His voice is an additional instrument, with effects board, from clean and soulful to grunty and aggressive, to full on death growl, depending on the mood of the music. The emotional range of their combination brings The Plague Within to a level that other heavy bands just can't reach.

In lesser hands such an amalgamation of metal styles could descend into pastiche but, in the context of The Plague Within, this is more of a consolidation of the many aspects of Paradise Lost's past musical exploits into a cohesive whole. They may be on their third drummer but between them the five members of the band have played Paradise Lost music for over a century and have probably the most enduring stable line up in metal. Perhaps it has taken this long to get to make an album of this standard because it takes that breadth of songwriting experience and a level of maturity in approach that only comes with the experience of playing together for so long.

This is the heaviest album Paradise Lost have done yet, aided by the production of Jaime Gomez Arellano (Cathedral, Ghost). Arellano was chosen for his "organic" approach and that certainly rings true on The Plague Within. Opening with 'No Hope In Sight', Mackintosh's and Aedy's twin guitars announce the album with a mid tempo riff that sounds like a fanfare heralding the return of a prodigal. Holmes uses different vocal styles from one section to the next, matching the changing riffs and moods of each section.

'An Eternity Of Lies' is a stand out track. Beginning with keys and strings, Mackintosh's melodic lead lines build gradually and inevitably to a Black Sabbath-esque trudging groove. 'Punishment Through Time' thrashes violently while 'Beneath Broken Earth' unleashes doom so down-tempo that even Massive Attack would consider it part of their slow-set.    

Apart from a show at Queen's University Belfast in 2009, Paradise Lost have disappeared from the radar in Ireland and the fan base has lain dormant. So the announcement of a gig in Dublin's Academy this September came as a surprise. The video for the glacial, in both pace and tone, 'Beneath Broken Earth' has roused much interest in the metal community.

In a world of screamo and metalcore it is almost a novelty to hear such an old-fashioned approach to metal. Thunderous and hummable riffs. Lyrics that are contemplative rather than histrionic. Such things stand out is the current environment and The Plague Within appearing now feels like Obama's initial presidential run. Can we have straight up heavy metal that embraces quality songwriting, and melody, and still be heavy as hell? yes, we can!

The Plague Within is available from amazon and iTunes.