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In their 30 years of playing the music game, Paradise Lost have never needed much more than the thematic edge of their music to hold the most dazzling and intense live shows. Starting this week, their whirlwind run of Australian tour dates look to be nothing less than a spectacular showcase of mighty, mighty metal.
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The most recent album from the Yorkshire terrors, Medusa, is laced with supernatural connotations, dark imagery and a slow doom of music that proves Paradise Lost not only still have surprises up their sleeve, they’re actively looking to still make people sit up. The rapid Yorkshire twang of frontman Nick Holmes crackles down the line. “It’s different – after 30 years you’re looking for things that aren’t what people are used to hearing from you. Medusa has a lot of connotations throughout history that I didn’t know anything about, like representing romantic idealism, a lot of feminist ideals, things I hadn’t even thought about beyond being in a movie I really like called Clash Of The Titans.
“There was one phrase, ‘Not looking into the eyes of Medusa is like not admitting the universe is meaningless’, and I liked that – it’s a very Paradise Lost-esque phrase. As a lyricist, I’m always looking for words I’ve not used or that people wouldn’t expect me to use. I think in heavy metal, the dictionary is not that big – I don’t like writing about fiction, I prefer writing real things, metaphors. After 30 years, I’m always looking for new things to jump on.”
Much like Paradise Lost’s interest in the gorgon legend, with such an attention-grabbing word, such an intricate name for their 15th album, you can’t help but look for deeper ties between the music and the philosophy. Medusa is very un-Paradise Lost, certainly. Darker, more brooding, miserable doom metal in the best of ways. It’s an angle that meant Holmes’ kept his attention to his craft poker straight. “It stems from trying to keep ourselves engaged in what we’re doing. When Greg [Mackintosh] picks up his guitar, he’s got a specific style, he’s had that since he was a kid and the band work around that. You can’t change that, it’s how he plays guitar, so it’s kind of working his style into what we decide to do.
“When we changed style around the 2000 era, I still think it sounds like Paradise Lost even though some of it is completely not metal – but this is the heaviest album we’ve ever done. Our roots are very much in doom metal and we’ve picked up different things over the years – if you stay in a band long enough, you’re always going to go back to what you started with. Many bands don’t get that opportunity, but we’ve been going three cycles.”
As far as the set list, it won’t be the same as Europe
[ Nick Holmes ]
Holmes’ brash accent clicks away in audible reflection. “From 16 to 25 years old, that was the best time of my life for music. It meant something. All the bands we liked then, we still love them now. You take it through your life, the music you listen to as a kid.” Paradise Lost’s catalogue of releases have, Holmes said, often had that same kind of impact on their fans, their music being the soundtrack of their lives. “Yeah, we get it all the time – it’s the same for us, it’s very humbling.
“Obviously certain albums, certain things, if you can use to help you pivot through certain situations, anything that helps you, we get people say they’ve found our music uplifting, it’s very flattering.”
Bringing forward the sentiments of Medusa et al through visual aspects is not something Paradise Lost feel they need to focus on for this tour. The band don’t need gimmicks to get by and after 30 years in the game, they still retain a spectacular amount of energy live – Holmes attests that Paradise Lost, to make up for lost time, will be doing as much as they humanly can for Australian fans. “As far as the set list, it won’t be the same as Europe,” he says. “With flying gigs it’s about doing what you can, working with what you’ve got. We’re gonna play a good chunk of the new album.
“We’re not doing somersaults and jumping around like 16-year-olds, that kind of stuff happened a long time ago! Beyond lights and creating a good atmosphere, it’s not about theatrics or anything. We’ve done so many gigs, we can play in any environment, it doesn’t matter, we’ve done every environment you can think of.
“It’s always nice to visit Australia – we’re full on hectic with the schedule but it’s gonna be interesting to see how people have reacted to the new album.”
Paradise Lost Australia Tour Dates:
Thursday December 14 – Triffid, Brisbane QLD
Friday December 15 – Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Saturday December 16 – The Corner, Melbourne VIC
Sunday December 17 – The Gov, Adelaide SA
Monday December 18 – Capitol, Perth WA
