Classics: Paradise Lost - Icon

In the "Classics" posts, I talk about the albums that I believe are true metal classics, or at the least meant something special to me. These will usually be releases that are several years old. If you haven't heard them before, I definitely recommend checking these out.

Icon by Paradise Lost was my first metal love. I listened to some metal bands before this release, but this was the first one that really got to me. I remember taping Headbangers Ball on MTV at the time, and in one of the shows there was a special on Paradise Lost that contained 30 minutes of live footage of one of their recent concerts. It was filmed in black and white with some grain added to the footage too. This worked remarkably well in setting up the atmosphere. The first song, Mortals Watch The Day, immediately caught my attention. There was something about this band that I hadn't heard before. When they started playing their newer songs, like Embers Fire and True Belief, it felt like coming home. It was if I had found something I had been looking for all my life.

It didn't take me long to go out and get the CD. I would just keep on listening to it. I bought their t-shirts. I wrote the lyrics in my school binders. I would even wonder if I could go a day without listening to it... It contained so many well thought out songs. It had a perfect opener in Embers Fire that set the heavy, melancholic tone for the rest of the album. It had uptempo songs (well, sort of) in Dying Freedom and Widow. It had one of the best metal anthems in True Belief. In the song, Christendom, they had a female vocalist contrasting with Nick Holmes' grunts. It was actually very well balanced and even varied for a doom metal release at that time.

With hindsight, I can now say that this CD was special in other ways as well. Up until then, my friends and I used to listen to more or less the same music. This album however, marked a change in this regard. For my friends, it was about as hard and heavy as it should get. For me, it was the start of getting into heavier and more extreme music.

As for Paradise Lost, I still find this to be their best release. I believe it marked a change for them as well. Icon seems to me the culmination of what they had been doing till then. Over the years, I managed to get my hands on their older releases as well. Those albums had some good songs as well (especially Gothic is worth checking out as well), but I didn't feel they had the same impact. After Icon, they distanced themselves more and more of the doom metal genre. They softened down their metal roots with cleaner singing and less heavy guitar play. I still bought Draconian Times and One Second, but after that I lost track of them.

As far as I'm concerned, Icon is one of those releases that helped shape the metal genre in the early nineties.

The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal

The Black Dahlia Murder totally caught me off guard and just blew me away. I know this release, "Nocturnal", already came out in september '07, but I picked it up in january as a recommendation by my brother. I expected it to be more of a metalcore type of music, but they play some of the best Melodic Death Metal I heard in some time. They even have the artwork and the lyrics spot on. I still remember the days when you had to be born and bred in Sweden to be able to make music like this. Maybe these americans have scandinavian roots, who knows?

It also seems that they are rather controversial in the metal scene as they have their own hate group on last.fm (which I refuse to link to). Apparently, they "steal" from bands like Sacramentum, Carcass, and At The Gates. First of all, yes, they play music in the same vein, but steal? Please tell me, which parts did they steal exactly? None, that's how many. And second, those bands mentioned don't even exist anymore, let alone release any new music. Why not be happy that other bands, new bands, keep playing this genre?

Anyways, the title song, "Nocturnal", is definitely my favourite. It embodies all the typical elements that you expect from a Melodic Death Metal song and it's perfectly executed. But that's not the only one. The album is just filled with other killer songs as well: "Deathmask Divine", "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse", ... I can play them again and again.

What truly lifts them up above other similar artists is their ability to create a dark and foreboding atmosphere with just the basic instruments and Strnad's incredible vocals (no synths on this one). It's something you don't see often, except in the great MDM releases like Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane, or At The Gates' Slaughter of the Soul.

I also firmly believe that you should always support the bands you like, so earlier this week I ordered some TBDM swag (a t-shirt and a zipped hoodie). Can't wait for that to get here.

For fans of: Dissection, At The Gates, (old) Dark Tranquillity, (old) In Flames

Saattue - Jäähyvästi

Lately, I have been listening quite a lot to Saattue's first full length album, Jäähyvästi. It was recommended to me by the owner of the Metalzone cd-shop in Vosselaar in february, based on some other cd's I bought at that time. I didn't pick it up initially, but I wish I had. Because after I did get it last week, it's been in my cd-player and my iPod for quite some time.

Saattue hails from Finland, and they play doom metal in their native Finnish tongue. I wasn't quite sure how those Finnish lyrics would turn out, but they work very well for me. Even though I don't understand one word of what they are singing about, they are able to touch me purely through their music. For me, a doom metal band is succesful if they are able to give you a feeling of melancholy. This band succeeds in that goal wonderfully. This is precisely the kind of cd I like to put on while driving home from work when it is overcast or raining. It doesn't surprise me that this bands comes from Finland, I think you almost need long periods without sunshine to help you make this kind of music.

My personal listening favourite is the second song, Vieraaseen Multaan. It has a female singer as well to help develop the ambience of the song (she doesn't have any lyrics). Her vocals contrast wonderfully with both the heavier sound of the rest of the music. If you don't mind Finnish lyrics, and you like doom metal, you should definitely check this band out. If you do mind the Finnish lyrics, check them out anyway, they might just make you change your mind.

For fans of: Evoken, My Dying Bride (especially the older releases).