Customer Reviews

Symbol of Life

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Some might call this album a "return to form", although in my opinion this great band never left in the first place. I think it's a great album, not only for its listenability and top-notch production, but for the fact that the band continues to progress through experimentations without sacrificing their trademark "dark" edge.
They start the album off with a strong statement in the menacing "Isolate," a catchy and heavy fist-pumper. "Two Worlds," "Perfect Mask", "Pray Nightfall" and "Symbol of Life" are all very strong points, making good use of heavy guitars, strings, and programming. Nick Holmes gets better with every album as a "clean" singer, and happily throws in some on-key growling when appropriate. The guitars in "Self Obsessed" (especially the lead) are great-- they take me back to the glory days when this band wrote amazing guitar-driven songs. It's too bad the lyrics are a little silly. One of the very best efforts on the album is the superb cover of the Dead Can Dance song "Xavier." The band continues its tradition of excellent covers here, as they take this amazing song and make it their own without cutting out the "otherworldly" atmosphere that Dead Can Dance create. Weak points like the cheesy chorus in "Erased" and the boring "Mystify" are easily overlooked in favor of the album's strengths.
Rhys Fulber's production work is very impressive, especially in light of John Fryer's disappointing effort on the band's previous record, "Believe in Nothing." The guitar sound is more satisfyingly thick throughout than it has been since "Draconian Times" (1995) It's also great to hear real live drums making an impression and standing out again in the music. The drum machines of the previous three albums made for some truly excellent dark songs, but it was a shame to have a good drummer like Lee Morris in the background instead of the forefront.
Perhaps the best thing about this album is its return to heavier music without regressing. As much as I love "Icon" and "Draconian Times" (see my "DT" review, hehehe) I would have been disappointed if they had fallen back on music they wrote seven years earlier. Such desperate retro- grasping is the sign of a band in decline, and this album shows in spades that Paradise Lost are still going strong and moving forward.

Paradise Lost (PL) are perhaps the most talented and least recognized metal acts of all time. They are also very productive, churning an album out every other year. Symbol of Life (SOL) which comes after the phenomenal Believe in Nothing, raises to the expectations after 3 close listenings. I have been a fan of PL for 8 years now, have seen them live, seen the transformation of the band from early thrash metal to moody melodic to what it is right now, we just cant classify PL. SOL has some incredible tracks and rest are good. Not a single bad song. It starts with the rocking ISOLATE, Nick screaming menacingly. Goes to ERASED, superb keyboards by Greg. The chugging guitars of Aaron in the following tracks will remind of the pre-Host PL. PRAY NIGHTFALL stands out, its a song of incredible dimensions, the chorus, awesome guitars and melody, its haunting. NO CELEBRATION is dark and depressing, classic PL. The last track is atypical PL, good one. The 2 covers are superb, tho I like SMALL TOWN BOY more. This album has shades of Moonspell and is like Icon + Host. Dark, menacing, melodic and incredible, long live PL, I am fan for life.

The new Paradise Lost album "Symbol of Life" is by far the best album of 2002 for me.
It reminds the listener of the band's great ability to churn out metal of the heaviest and darkest order, this is their heaviest since "Draconian Times", and when you remember "Believe in Nothing" ended with "World Pretending", "Symbol of Life" had to be the face of things to come. Witness the true return to form of Paradise Lost!
The album features songs more typical of the Paradise Lost of late, slow, atmospheric and very nice guitared songs such as "Pray Nightfall" and "Symbol of Life" the title track, demonstrating the nice futuristic sheen presented on "Host". There are crunching, out and out metal songs such as "Two Worlds", "Self Obsessed", "No Celebration" and the strange, disturbing end song "Channel for the Pain", a very nice thrashy number indeed. Another strange but very effective song is the opener "Isolate". This song is not typical of Paradise Lost but carries a very nice groove nevertheless. "Perfect Mask" is a brilliant, slightly industrial song, with a superb chorus carrying the best vocal line on the album. "Erased" posseses a very nice piano introducton with very nice female vocals by Joanna Stevens, adding a great atmosphere. "Mystify" presents one of the album's most effective chorus, and a very nice bassline carrying the low end strongly through.
This leads me to my favourite song on the album "Primal". This is a song unlike any other by Paradise Lost. Slow, crunching, obscure chording and an air of hopelessness make this my outright favourite on the album, along with the brilliant title track, "Symbol of Life".
Other standout songs on ths album are the brilliantly executed, very downbeat "No Celebration" and the equally despairing, slow brooding number "Pray Nightfall".
I've picked up the digipack version, comprised of two closing cover songs: Dead Can Dance' "Xavier", a corker of a song, rather suited for remake by Paradise Lost. The second is Bronski Beat's "Small town Boy". This is the best cover the band have made, and closes the album on an amazing high. The album's official closer is "Channel for the Pain".
With Nick Holmes' use of his older style yelling and grunts coupled with his great singing progress, Steve Edmondson's bass turned up yet another notch to growl and tear its way through the subsonic end, Greg Makintosh' guitar leads and melodies coupled with Aaron Aedy's unbelievably accurate rhythmn chops and Lee Morris' returning ghost strokes, offbeats and great bass pedal flicks, the musicianship on "Symbol Of Life" is absolutely superb, this is the greatest album of 2002, and possibly my favourite album ever.
Paradise Lost return to the dark, experience the realm of the black!

Ninth album from former Doom Metal band Paradise Lost. Compared to the later releases like Believe in Nothing, One Second and especially Host, Symbol Of Life album sounds heavier. The music on Symbol Of Life album still cannot be compared with albums like Gothic or even Draconian Times, but the term Metal can be mentioned again. Especially the fast and heavy "Channel For The Pain" and also the fast "Self-obsessed" remind me of songs from Draconian Times. "Self-obsessed" shows some harmonic leads that I missed on One Second, Host and Believe In Nothing. The band still uses electronics, but not as often as on other recent albums. One of the best tracks is "Erased", with some soothing female vocals. Nick Holmes his vocals are good, but I prefer his cleaner, melodic voice on the album Believe In Nothing.

An overall strong side of the album is the diversity. Not only the pace of the song, but also the balance between the use of guitars and electronics changes per song. The music on the album is melancholic, but who would expect something different from this band? One day I listened to the album after midnight and I really enjoyed it. The day after that I listened to the album in the middle of the day and the album was not half as good as the day before. I therefore recommend people to listen to the album at night.

The only problem that I have with this album and also with most other albums from Paradise Lost, is that the songs are too short. There aren't any (semi)length instrumental parts. The songs are well written, but too damn short. I also think that the songs on Believe In Nothing are better, but Symbol Of Life still is a great album.

When I first heard Paradise Lost, I was blown away with their album Draconian Times. It brought me to a whole new perspective of music. I think that this album did the exact same for me at an even higher level. The music is just simply unique. "Pray Nightfall" is probably one of the best songs I've ever heard in my entire life. In songs like "Isolate," "Erased," and "Perfect Mask," they manage to bring an electronic goth sound to this album in their own personal style. They include cover songs like "Xavier" by Dead Can Dance and "Small Town Boy" by Sommerville, Forest, Cole. All I have to say about this album is that it is simply amazing. If you want an album that will, like Draconian Times, blow you away with originality, then buy this cd.

This Album is by far PL's best effort to date. Starts out heavy with alot of driving low end and continues all the way through with some interesting surprises. Dark! Melodic! Haunting! Great lyrics and Great music make this this band better than most of today's "Nurock." Why this band never made it big in the 'States is beyond me ( oh wait! they actually have talent which is something not required by American labels. )

Tracks that really stand out: Pray Nightfall, Perfect Mask, No Celebration, Symbol of Life, Xavier and Smalltown Boy.

I got this album when it was first released and was unable to listen to it for two weeks due to copy protection - kept crashing my computer. ( No I don't have a CD player other than my pc. ) I got in contact with BMG and they were no help since they feel as long as they have your money that's all that matters.

Now that the disc is playable, it is all that I have listened to - well worth the wait. Highly recommend this to anyone who likes music with substance.

this is the best cd from this band since "draconian times" they have finally figured out how to combine their electronics with their orignal sound. this album was very much a step in the right direction. my favorite songs include "two worlds" and "perfect mask". this album just rocks, all hail to paradise lost.

Well, here goes my third Paradise Lost review in two months. Really, I'm just a fan, not head of their fanclub - but here goes! Most of the European reviews of this new P.L. release are touting it as the successor to "Draconian Times", whereas I see it as a return to the formula of the "One Second" album - harder, more guitar-edged than their latest two releases, without losing the undercurrent of electronica. For me, I'd have preferred the band to Just Say No to the metalheads who'd have them stay just the same with every album since "D.T.", and continue to explore the inventive textures found on "Believe in Nothing" and "Host". That said, this is still another solid offering from one of the best hard rock bands in the world. Dark, often complex and very alluring goth-tinged metal. Added bonus: the two cover songs that are on the European "special-edition" are included here, and are two of the best tracks on the album!!

Warning to those who buy: this CD (from Koch) has Copy Control. May only play on your CD player and NOT your computer. However, very good music.

From the back:
"This product features copy control technology. It is intended for use only in standard home CD players and may not play on other devices, especially computer drives. The music contained on this disc is playable on PC's (Windows) by software also contained on this disc. In case of problems, please contact your dealer or BMG at www.bmg-copycontrol.info.
System requirements: at least MS Windows 95, Pentium II 233Mhz, 64MB RAM."

2002's Symbol of Life was the ninth studio album from English gothic metal innovators Paradise Lost. Coming after the solid but not remarkable Host and Believe in Nothing, Symbol of Life seemed like a much more focused and powerful album.

Symbol of Life is still very much in the accessible, gothic rock/metal territory the band introduced with Draconian Times and One Second, but it's a harder, heavier album. Actually, it has a lot of samples and poppy elements too, which makes for an interesting overall sound. It works though, with dancy goth songs like "Perfect Mask" and "Erased" playing off of heavier metal tunes like "Isolate" and classic sounding songs like "Symbol of Life." Still, the emphasis is definitely on the gothic side of things, as proven by the bonus tracks - covers of Dead Can Dance and Bronski Beat. The album really works as a whole though, and I say that as someone who is not typically a fan of gothic rock.

If you're looking for the heavier, doomier Paradise Lost, this isn't it. Try Gothic (Dig) or even their latest Faith Divides Us: Death Unites Us. If you're into the more accessible, gothic-sounding Paradise Lost, you'll definitely enjoy Symbol of Life.

NOTE: This CD has a copy protection program that can allegedly muck up your computer. I had no problems with it on my machine, and it ripped to iTunes just fine.