Paradise Lost: Shades of God (1992)

Paradise Lost holds a special place in my history of becoming a metal fan, and this time of year is appropriate to be talking about it.  They were one of the earliest non-mainstream metal bands I ever heard.  I remember seeing a review of their album Draconian Times in a music magazine and had heard "Once Solemn" on an underground metal radio show.  I was interested enough that their album was on a list that I gave my family when they asked for Christmas ideas.  Someone got it for me, and I fell in love with it immediately.  Unfortunately, in those pre-internet days, their albums were really hard to find.  It has taken several years, but I have gradually been checking out most of their older releases, as well as their newer stuff.

Shades of God was Paradise Lost's third album and it features the kind of rumbling mixture of doom metal and death metal that most of their earlier material was known for, as well as touches of the gothic sound that they had a hand in creating.  This album though is a little heavier on the doom metal than the other albums by the band around the same time.  But it is doom metal in the vein of groups like Candlemass and Trouble, rolling riffs and infectious hooks.  There are a few faster tracks to really get the blood pumping like "Pity the Sadness", one of my favorite Paradise Lost tracks.

One change the band made on this album was to lengthen the songs somewhat and use more progressive song structures.  The change showed a band that was maturing and becoming more confident in their abilities, but sometimes the tracks tended to meander a bit longer than necessary.  The band deserved credit though for attempting to expand their horizons, and they never went way too far out there.

This album is a great combination of the melodic and aggressive sides of the band coming together.  It should be held up as a classic by the band, but seems to be one of the more overlooked albums.  Paradise Lost remains a favorite band of mine, and discovering some of these lost albums has certainly helped keep them there.