Paradise Lost “Ascension”
Legendary death/doom act Paradise Lost have been purveyors of the genre for decades. Along with acts like My Dying Bride & Anathema helped push the genre into popularity and becoming a defining name in the genre. Throughout the band’s career, they would release seventeen albums, including a re-recording of the band’s iconic fourth album Icon. With the band’s new album Ascension, the band continues to help push the band’s sound into new direction with elements of gothic rock and metal and influences of traditional heavy metal the band has taken on throughout their career. How high does Ascension rise into the heavens or does it never leave the depths of darkness?
The album opens with “Serpent On The Cross”. Ringing and droning-like brass, get joined by a deep, bass heavy guitar strum and strings. Nick Holmes’ deep, guttural growls pierce through the wall of melancholy as the snare hits from Jeff Singer’s drumkit cut through the mix. Adding more thud with every tom strike. A stank-face inducing riff kicks in, with some more lively drumming into double bass. Greg Mackintosh’s lead guitar soars over the dark, dreary rhythm guitar of Aaron Aedy. Though sad in vocal delivery and guitar, the drums add a monstrous beat to the dark and downtrodden sound of the guitars and Holmes’ vocals. A heavy opening track that combines true, dreary and bleakness of doom metal, but with a more uptempo delivery and cannon-like drums by Singer.
“Tyrants Serenade” opens with a fist=pump inducing kick drum and guitar combo, before the groove heads into a clean-vocal performance from Holmes. Amongst chugging guitars and Steve Edmondson’s thumping distorted bass. Giving off vibes of an early era of the band, it captures that death/doom hybrid sound that is on the rise in the last couple years. More doom metal aimed compared to the album opener, the music just hits all the marks I love about Paradise Lost. Clean/growl vocal combos, soaring and atmospheric guitars and melancholic drive in the tone and drums. Church bells and ominous crow caws kick off “Salvation”. Drums have so much power and presence in the mix, giving off a call-to-arms feel, while the guitars create a vibe of the thousand yard stare of seeing the dead on the battlefield. Foreboding, bleak and just hopelessness truly embodies this song. Holmes sounds so dark and evil in his vocals. Delivering such grit and brashness, while a dark and deeply tragic-sounding guitar riff plays throughout. With the music delivering a tug-of-war like tone in the guitars and drums bouncing from ear-to-ear and creating a soundscape of one’s inner battle in their head. Matching the music’s motif and feel.
“Silence Like The Grave” has such a deep and ominous brass opening, before guitars pierce through. Adding to the uneasiness of the song, before Edmondson’s bass adds that calm before the storm when the drums kicks in. The riff is such an earworm and instantly had me stank-facing as soon as I heard it. With moments of traditional heavy metal, and moments of groove, the song caught me off guard when the song first came out, but I love this style of Paradise Lost. “Lay A Wreath Upon The World” and its acoustic opening, delivers a warm but sorrow vibe with the vocals in the background of the strumming. The synths is also a nice touch, until about the two-minute mark and the foreboding and thundering drums come into the fold. Female vocals add a nice touch over the drumming, before the in-the-pocket drumming and gurgling bass adds a nice, meaty rhythm to the track. On “Diluvium”, the main riff and drums just hit with a powerful thud before Holmes’ vocals bellowing vocals add a sludgy sound to the track. That picks up into a traditional heavy metal influenced track about halfway through.
Beautiful acoustic guitars open “Savage Days”, accompanied by Holmes’ somber and empathetic vocals. As strings and bass really add an uneasy feeling and capturing the true tragic feel and delivery in Holmes’ vocals. That funeral-dirge pacing comes in hard and just continues that trademark Paradise Lost sound that many fans fell in love with back on the debut. “Sirens” has another drum-heavy lead, with Mackintosh’s guitar just leading the dreary charge. More up-tempo and definitely giving that gritty vocal performance on classic 80’s metal. Holmes’ vocal juggling is impressive on the track. Ranging from optimistic and hopeful highs, to hopeless and somber lows.
“Deceivers” has such a strong opening riff/drum combo. I love the lead guitar on the whole track and just adds that mix of doom and heavy metal perfectly. Synths shine on the track, though do get buried in the mix behind the drums. Power and presence is the selling point on the track with the vocals and the riff on the chorus. Though for me, this was the one track that I actually wasn’t a fan of. I’m not sure what it is. The vocal mix? Composition? Not sure, just felt like something was missing on the track to truly match the aura and vibe of the others to me. Album closer “The Precipice” opens with heavy, ringing bass and a downtrodden and deeply dreary piano. Shifting halfway through to increase the tempo, adding more heart-pounding drumming and nasty sounding growls from Holmes as the album draws to a close in soaring lead guitars.
Ascension is an interesting record that i felt mixed on after the album ended. There were moments I loved like “Serpent On The Cross” and “Silence Like The Grave”. The bombastic, dreary and heavy nature to the band’s sound, but songs like “Deceivers” seem to miss that “one thing” to truly make the song work for me. The music is a good hybrid of traditional heavy metal and rock, while still paying tribute to the band’s doomy roots. This might be a record that might grow on me the more I listen to, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt, but just on first-listen, its will appease fans of the band, but could potentially be a divisive record to some.
SCORE: 3.5 / 5
You can purchase Ascension on the band’s Bandcamp or stream the album on the band’s Spotify. The band will embark on a European tour this fall with support from Messa. High Parasite will open on U.K. dates, while Lacrimas Profundere will open mainland European dates. Check out tour dates and purchase tickets HERE.
