Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us [Explicit]

THIS REVIEW ONLY RELATES TO THE LIMITED EDITION 11 TRACK ALBUM.

Here we have Paradise Lost's 12th studio album, and opinion is divided.
So what do we have? The answer is a crushingly heavy album.

Way back in 1990, Paradise Lost released their first album, and the opening tracking (just titled "intro") featured a man lacking hysterically before a ghostly gravelly voice asked "where is your god now?".

Nearly 20 years on, Paradise Lost finally answer that question with this album. Don't get me wrong - this is not a satanic album, and indeed god/deities do not come in for criticism, but rather Man's use of religion to divide himself does.

If you enjoyed Host or One Second (and they are good albums) then you will be disappointed.
If Gothic, Shades Of God or Icon was more to your liking, then you are in for a treat.

However, it is not enough to compare this album to previous PL works. Why? ... well because there is so much more going on with this album. It is layered, and textured - it has great depth. I'm still picking out new pieces within it after some dozen or so times of listening.

The use of the double snare has shades of My Dying Bride and The Nefilim, whilst some of the pickups in "Living With Scars" reminds me of Machine Head's "Burn My Eyes" masterpiece. The chord progression reminds me of Justin Sullivans "Navigating By the Stars" if your were to detune and play it all in D+7 power chord - huge vistas and sceneries.

And yet you should not dismiss this album for being massively heavy, because it is also an album of contrasts; some parts sound like they would be at home on a Santana album, or a Morricone film score. Similarly, there are no three chord tracks, but rather 5min+ non-radio friendly audio assaults that paint vast dark landscapes of ruin and desolation... and it sounds really good.

Vocally this harks back to more of Gothic sensibilities, but there are moments of clarity that could easily belong to Believe in Nothing or Symbol of Life. There are elements of Pete Steele (Type O)and James Hetfield (Metallica circa "...Justice") overlaid against guttural grunts and barks that sound like a slowed down Napalm Death (when Barney was first a member)

So how would I describe this... well it doesn't sound like anything else other than Paradise Lost. At the risk of ridicule, some of the tracks are really catchy, and within 30 secs of listening to the opener, "As Horizons End", I was singing along to the chorus.

Previous reviewers have criticised the lack of layers through the use of synths. It is true, that this album seems to be synth free, but it has been replaced by the use of a full orchestra, which I think gives great contrast and depth to the album.

For any fan of Paradise Lost's first 5 albums, you will instantly love this.
And therein lies the problem; this is not an immediately accessible album to any non-PL fans. If you want to be brought gently into PL, then start with the self titled 10th album, and come back to this in a month or so's time.

Indeed,in some places it album is really hard work. Similarly, whereas more recent offerings have seen tracks given over to subjects such as Dunblane, child prostitution, AIDS, death, alienation etc, this album deals almost exclusively with Nick Holmes long obsession with "faith" and a search for god/a deity.

Needless to say, this is not a happy album, either in tone, stlye or content. Nor is it ever going to be considered easy listerning.

However what this album is, is GREAT.
Paradise Lost prove that they have no intention of churning our 12 albums of the same material, unlike some of their contemparies. This takes the heavier elements of In Requiem and take it further, whilst giving it the texture and polish that made Draconian Times runaway successes. And yet at the same time it is totally original in its own right.

If you want to criticise the album, then you could say it lacks some of the irony of the last two albums. When Nick Holmes sings "I'm here like sunshine" on "Silent in Heart" it always cracks me up. And there is very little humour with this album.

However, this album has great tempo, and effortlessly changes gears to give real variety.

In summary; a hard album to get into, but well worth it.

I think it's obvious the previous reviewer has only heard the awful quality MySpace stream of the album and not given it enough time to digest the songs. From the start this album is more complex than anything they've done before, to come on here and give it a one star is absolutely ridiculous. I'm writing this after listening to the MySpace stream repeatedly for a week AND having listened to the Amazon MP3 download.

The core Paradise Lost songwriting style is still in place and as well crafted as ever, especially on songs such as 'Last Regret' and 'Faith Divides Us..". However unlike previous albums, which often used very straightforward structures and riffs 'FDUDUU' is much more complex, making songs such as 'I Remain' and 'Living With Scars' take a little longer to get into.. but after a few listens it all pays off.

If you were to play an album to a friend to say 'this is Paradise Lost' this is the album to do it. It contains elements of their 11 previous albums, from the epic opener of 'As Horizons End' to the polished writing of title track 'Faith Divides Us..' to the melancholic 'Last Regret'.

There's a lot more than could be said but it's quite late so i'll do a quick pro's and cons:

Pros:

-Drumming is the best of any Paradise Lost album. It's much more interesting and powerful than anything they've had before and this time really adds to the songs.
-Nick's voice is as good as ever, mixing his more recent singing style with a more powerful, deep vocal.
-Every song on the album is very strong, none are worth skipping.
-More complex songs makes the album a lot more rewarding and a refreshing change from their more recent style.

Cons:

-It's not as immediate as previous albums and may take some listens to get
-Fans of Paradise Lost's lightest work such as Host may have difficulty with the heaviness

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, apart from the first guy, who's on another planet ;-)

This album has elements of Shades of God in the riffing (there's even a twisted sounding old style death/grind riff on Living with Scars, which I'm well chuffed with!) and feel that encompasses all their past years, with minimum electronica mind you. I get chills listening to this and will still do for a long while yet, just as with the older material from back in the day.
Now that they've got Erlandsson on board, all we need is some occasional blastbeats to mix it up further!

Can't wait to see this stuff performed live!