Almost twenty years after their last visit to the city, British band Paradise Lost presents their latest album, ‘Obsidian’, in the Murcian capital
Year 2003. Facebook is just the seed of an idea in Mark Zuckerberg’s head, Daddy Yankee hasn’t published ‘Gasolina’ yet, Real Madrid’s Galactic Era is at its peak and Murcia’s Gamma Room is running regularly, without still having that cave of Ali to be Baba who stays closed until a few times a year someone remembers the magic words. The music scene is having a sweet moment in the Region and the promoters allow themselves the luxury of taking risks, even some extravagance. The year is 2003 and inexplicable things can happen, such as Paradise Lost, a cult but relatively minority band, performing twice in Murcia, just eight months apart.
Those crazy times are over. It took almost two decades before the band from Halifax set foot on a stage in the capital Segura again. The world has taken many turns. Facebook has had time to revolutionize social networks and go out of fashion, reggaeton exists, no vaccine has yet been discovered, and we are emerging from a pandemic that has paralyzed the world of live music, which is now in danger of rebounding. Paradoxically, little has changed in the ranks of Paradise Lost, a band that has kept pretty much the same lineup since their formation in 1988, with the sole exception of a few replacements on the drums, and has been immersed in recent years in a creative phase of return to the origin.
The old aftertaste emanating from his latest productions, especially the recent ‘Obsidian’, an album that accounted for almost a third of the repertoire played this Wednesday at the Garaje Beat Club, created a sense of homogeneity that is no less. remarkable because it has been studied. And then we’re talking about a versatile band that over the years has incorporated elements of ‘doom’, gothic rock and even electronic pop into their existentialist metal. For example, the first part of the concert was a sandwich with the classics ‘Enchantment’ and ‘Eternal’ from the 90s, including the newly minted songs ‘Forsaken’, ‘Blood and Chaos’ and ‘Faith Divides Us’. – Death Unites Us’, which fills the sandwich very coherently.
With the heavier and darker facet of Paradise Lost so clearly predominant, ‘The Last Time’, ‘One Second’ and ‘Say Just Words’ sat like a balm. They were the only concessions to his most melodic period, interspersed with other more arid pieces from his extensive discography. While I personally missed some nods to the more experimental stages, it’s probably an unpopular opinion, judging by the audience’s apparent enchantment, which practically filled the room’s capacity and stayed in a trance for an hour and a half. the concert lasted a long time.
It didn’t matter that the sound wasn’t the best it could be, Nick Holmes’ voice sounded a little faint or his stage presence was as shy as ever. The enchantment of Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy’s seven-string guitars, vastly in tune, was enough to create a hypnotic atmosphere so dense you could almost feel it, like a silkworm doll.
After the usual parenthesis, the British quintet returned from the dressing room to offer an inverted version of the original sandwich as an ‘encore’. On this occasion, the filling was ‘Embers Fire’, belonging to ‘Icon’, the album that consolidated them in 1993, while ‘Darker Thoughts’ and ‘Ghosts’, the two most notable pieces of ‘Obsidian’, served as bread. Pulling on a series of classics would have been a safer option to end the night and, why not say so, more satisfying too. However, without being his last most notable album that has signed Paradise Lost, I credit him for having been able to connect with his early works and, in a way, close the loop.
Finally reconciled with their legacy and now with the city of Murcia, we’ll have to wait and see what new areas of sound Halifax decides to explore next. I don’t think they’ll be back in eight months, but I hope they don’t keep us waiting another twenty years. After Wednesday’s good turnout figures, Ali Baba may find the keys to reopening the Gamma Room for them.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
