Customer Reviews

Icon

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you were to look up "doom metal" in the Headbangers' Illustrated Dictionary, you might just see a picture of Icon. Slower and heavier than the masterpiece that followed it (Draconian Times), Icon is a powerful album that takes several listens before you really begin to appreciate it. But once you've digested its subtleties, you'll find yourself returning to it again and again for years to come.

Listening to Paradise Lost is all about letting the euphoric melancholia that only they can create take over your senses. And nowhere is this melancholia more in effect than on Icon. Just seconds into the gorgeous orchestral synth introduction to the first track, "Embers Fire", you'll sense that feeling creeping over you - you're pleasantly depressed. Don't worry, you'll snap out of it in, oh, about 50 minutes. Your only job is to enjoy it while it lasts.

The songs flow seamlessly one into the next with the highlights being "Embers Fire", "Dying Freedom", "Widow", "Poison", and "True Belief". "Christendom" incorporates female vocals to fine effect. As in most middle-era Paradise Lost, there are some great melodic guitar solos on Icon. By album's end, you're drained but ready to resume normal life again.

If you are into Paradise Lost at all, you need to have this album. If you are new to Paradise Lost and curious to try them out, I recommend you start out with the more accessible classics, Draconian Times and One Second, then work your way back to Icon. Icon is an album for true Paradise Lost aficionados.

Before hearing "Icon" and reading bad reviews on Paradise Lost's older material ("Gothic" being the target of most of the slander), I chose to not give anything old of theirs a chance and stuck to "One Second" and "Draconian Times," assuming those to be the best albums by this band.

I've never been so wrong in my life.

"Icon," at first listen, didn't especially grab me in any way. The catchiness of some of the simpler tracks on "Draconian Times" caught my attention more immediately at first, but there was something about "Icon" I couldn't quite figure out at first. Sometimes music does that though...the truly good stuff doesn't quite grow on the seasoned listener until a few thorough listens.

But after about the 4th listen to this remarkable work of darkness, I was hooked. "Embers Fire" is so deathly subtle yet so incredibly well-written it eluded me at first. The haunting cello intro will echo in your mind for days upon nights as you stare at your ceiling while lying in bed, and the melodies of the groove-laden guitars are sure to become immortal with true fans of metal. The lyrics are dark, mostly concerning dishonesty, revenge, and hatred. My personal favorite song on the album is probably "Shallow Seasons," with Nick Holmes bellowing like a seriously angry demon: "Anger compels the force of weakness or fear, but I promise no forgiveness for the rest of my years." When you hear him roar this out, you probably won't doubt him.

This album is an absolute masterpiece. Since I 'discovered' it about 5 or 6 months ago, it's been in my car CD player for about 80% of the time I drive. While "Draconian Times" and "One Second" are still very good albums, (I particularly like the experimental style on the latter, though some metalheads would probably burn me at the stake for saying that), "Icon" is just a landmark achievement in the world of dark music. This is music for the depressed, for the sick, for the weak, for the strong, and for anyone who desires a musical experience they're not likely to forget.

When I got ICON in 1994 from Vanessa Warwick at Headbanger's Ball Festival, Germany, and later listened to it, I could not really find an entrance to this gigantic artwork of Paradise Lost instantly or at once. In the beginning of my personal "Icon-Experience", to my mind it sounded strange, unconventionally, uneasy to listen to and even more problematic to understand it's meaning and message - talking about both: the lyrics and the sound. But what goes for all great or major artwork - that the later by us most appreciated things, do not please us normally "at first sight" - also applies to Paradise Lost's ICON album: access to its very own idea, to its specific point of worldview, we might say, and to its "sense" can only be gained by opening oneself to it totally, by letting the music flow into our mind and soul, filling us totally, until we - eventually - become the music ourselves. This happened in my mind, and then I understood, then I have seen, and the words - both: the lyrical and the musical - became meaning to me, shaping, rendering and changing the emotional aspects of my spirit, and rewarding with a new, a different view of what (according to my own reality) is. In accordance to this, the Icon-experience can even be a "religious", or better: a mystical, metaphysic experience to the one who listens carefully with his whole existence to this magnificent tunes, that swallow everything; it may also set free new horizons - like leaving one shore (which is the one of our average experience) and reaching another one (different, maybe "higher" in a way): the expansion and enlargement of our awareness and consciousness. What can there be else to say about? Well, it's the first and only CD that I'd take on this "lonely island" - if I would have only one choice.

There is a common feeling among PL fans that their fourth outing was by far their best, setting them apart from all the other bands with their uniquely gothic-metal sound. With the introduction of the prevalent wah-pedal to McIntosh's lead, the extra crunchiness of Aedy's rhythm guitar, and the less-gruff/more experimental aspect of Holmes' vocals, the band perfected their dalliance with death-metal and gothic, blending the two into a style which both rocks and holds an almost tangible atmosphere throughout. At once dark and foreboding, moody and stirring, every song shines and every song moves. Lyrically, musically, emotional and spiritually, you won't ever find an album like this one.

'Icon' opens with 'Ember's Fire', the song which defined gothic-metal the moment it was first released, a driving intro and empowered verses breaking into a unique and skilled guitar solo voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in several magazine polls. Followed by 'Remembrance', another power-rock number with an angry solo, they combine to hammer home from the start the angle from which PL strikes. 'Forging Sympathy' and 'Joys of the Emptiness' are slower, gloomier songs, their structures original and unpredictable. These two songs, like all on this album, have lyrics which leave you in doubt as to what exactly is the chorus, what is the bridge, what is the verse; it is all equally catchy, and this melding of musical and vocal hooks are what makes the album so special. 'Dying Freedom' and 'Widow' take the speed up a level, pounding rhythm and dancing lead guitars making them strikingly sombre yet surprisingly uplifting. 'Colossal Rains' is an experimental song with distorted vocals making it a largely instrumental track for the first half, before the vocals kick in proper with suitably colossal, timeless lyrics. Rated as a full-on metal track, 'Weeping Words' is undeniably moody, has a unique solo that uses a timed echo to great effect, and ends with an experimental whistling wah outro. 'Poison' is the heaviest track on the album, kicking in fast and hard and maintaining it right up to the blistering guitar solo finish. Commonly rated the greatest PL song, 'True Belief' is moving, dark and melodic, a palm-muted guitar-driven verse cutting to an atmospheric, deep-throated chorus that is all gothic. 'Shallow Seasons' is faster, heavier, livlier, a flanger guitar giving it a timeless property that leads easily into 'Christendom'. This track is the weakest on the album, using a female opera singer as it did on the earlier album 'Gothic'; this time it does not work half so well. Finally, the piano-fuelled instrumental 'Deus Miserateur' moves the album to its close with grace and harmony.

For non-Paradise Lost fans, this is probably quite a difficult album to get into due to the fact that it sounds so unlike anything you will ever have heard before. Lyrically it is very poetic and emotional, with unashamedly gothic lines like: 'Time is the father in my corrupt mind' and 'My halo is fading with all the sin I deal' alienating anyone who wants an easy-to-interpret quick lyrical fix. For a mainstream rock fan, I'd recommend their 'Draconian Times' album to get a taste of their style, but ultimately, this is the album you need. It may be hard to get into but, once you have, it will stay number one in your collection forever.

Icon is Paradise Lost's fourth full-length album and contains their best material up to that point. Paradise Lost's style, at the time, could perhaps best be described as mid-paced gothic doom metal with a singer that sounds like James Hetfield on a good day.

The standout tracks are the kick-a$$ opener "Embers Fire," as well as "True Belief," "Christianity" and the haunting closing gothic instrumental "Deus Misereatur." These four cuts are all 5-Star pieces and definitely worth the purchase of the CD. The reason I rate it 4-Stars, however, is because the rest of the songs are filler, at least for the most part; they're unmemorable and, at times, even annoying. I always skip 'em.

In "True Belief" singer Nick Holmes powerfully cries out for a true belief (what else?). The transparent honesty and spiritual depth of this track, not to mention the moving vocal delivery, are most welcome. In fact, the song will give you goosebumps! Isn't a "true belief" what we're all looking for? The truth or ultimate reality? Something we can sink our teeth into and live or die by?

"Christianity" is another phenomenal enigmatic piece featuring a haunting melodic intro with soothing female vocals. By the way, what an unconventional song title! Only "Paradise Lost" would dare to name a song "Christianity" in a typically sacreligious musical genre. Any other doom/death/black metal band would name the song "Christianity DIE!"

I rate Icon on a par with their fifth opus, the popular Draconian Times. After this Paradise Lost would venture forth into pop-goth rock terrain, pretty much leaving the metal genre behind for good.

Although their past few albums have been too lightweight for my tastes, the first 5 albums by the band are classic GOTHIC METAL, NOT doom metal like one reviewer put it. Doom is Candlemass, early Sabbath, Solitude Aeturnus, Wretched, Pentagram, Obsessed, etc. Gothic metal is Paradise Lost up until the late 90s, mid period My Dying Bride etc. Paradise Lost is just a great gothic metal band who has become over the last few albums.... LOST, but this album from the mid 90s is classic.

The mood throughout the CD is held intact by shifts in lead guitar and occasional swashes of keyboards. But by track 12 a monotony has completely unfolded and I was left with a gothic experience with very little variation. The final track(#13)is easily the most interesting, sounding more like classical music than the doom-laden instrumentation of the earlier tracks. But I can't say I didn't like the album. It was good, with enough interesting lead guitar changes to keep things relatively on course. But get "Draconian Times" first...because I said so. "Respect my aw-thor-a-tay!"

My god, the hyperbolic reviews about this album! As a "veteran" metal fan, who has been trying to catch up on what's been going on "lately," I finally decided to give this vaunted album a spin. This is a good, not a great, album. It is pretty derivative, but not as gratingly so as, say, Iced Earth. Other reviewers refer to the "brooding cello intro," almost as though it is some sort of master stroke; this is a "synth cello" that is not ineffective, yet not some great dramatic device either. In any case, at least this album is not littered with cheesy "goth" keyboards, or weak quasi operatic vocals (except on the second-to-last track). The lead singer has an effective gruff, but not "death metal growling" voice, in the James Hetfield vein. Based on what I've read and heard of this band's development, they seem to go along with the tide of whatever's popular at the time. If they were to release a new album now, it would probably have "nu metal" episodes in it.

All of that said, there are some good, heavy, moderately-paced guitar riffing here, and the songs are pretty good, if not particularly original - although the album definitely begins to flag a bit after about track five. I don't think it's any coincidence that this album was released the year after Metallica's "Black Album," as the first half of the album in particular reminded me a lot of the slowed-down, less technical, more accessible, approach that the former thrash masters took on their fifth opus - right down to the increased prominence of the wah wah pedal. Ironically, I found the last instrumental track to be among the most compelling, but alas it's way to short as the band went for the old metal album cliche' of the short, stapled-on, instrumental outro/closer; if you're going to bother to put an instrumental on a metal album, go ahead and develop it out a little more.

I didn't find this album to be quite the life-changing experience that some of the other reviewers here found it to be, and it wouldn't make my top 25 (or maybe even 50) metal albums list, but it's got some things to recommend it, especially for those who are relatively new to metal. Metal fans who have been around for awhile, may just find them selves reaching for some good ol' 'eighties speed metal, after listening to this.

1994 was the best year for Paradise Lost. Though "Draconian Times" sold over a million copies world wide, "Icon" will be remembered for its sanity, insanity, blazing guitars and excellent and dark lyrics. Nick Holmes had found the perfect baritone to enhance each song on this offering, unlike the growls on the earlier works. An evidence of his chilling baritone can be heard on the opening lines of "Shallow Seasons", which is my favourite song on this CD. The opening track "Embers Fire" is like a slow descent into the hollow crevices of the dark, with its brooding cello intro breaking into crunching slow guitars. Mackintosh and Aedy do a fantastic work with the guitars, and Edmondson is great with his bass. Matt Archer's drum beats are simple, but solid as a nail in a coffin. This is easily Paradise Lost's greatest work...a true reminder of their halcyon days. I wonder if they read this some day and decide to get their days of glory back and rock like we want them to

An album of timeless classics that you will never tire of hearing. This is five people harmonising to such an extent that it goes beyond being merely an album: it is an expression. The guitars, drums and vocals blend together seamlessly, all at once atmospheric, moody, and strangely uplifting. If beauty can be contained in music, it can be found in every song on this album. Do not be without it.