A mighty band and album

This band just never ceases to amaze me with their infinate motivation and will to constantly evolve musicaly. This is easily their strongest release since the Draconian Times era. Their last release "Believe In Nothing" was the first attempt to merge the past heaviness with their current style. That effort fell short in some areas. Paradise Lost have succeded big time in achieving this with this album. Where they have arrived sounds like a more sophisticated and gothic Draconian Times, but in reality this album doesn't sound like the others, and so it is one of their most interesting releases with a lot of repeated listening potential.

Tracks like the mighty "Prey Nightfall", "mystify" and "self obsessed" are one of their best to date. The covers of Dead can Dance "Xavier" and Bronsky Beat's "small town boy" are stunning.

Musicaly the keyboards and effects are still present but the guitars take a leading role here. Nick Holmes alternates between the coarse Draconian / Icon roar to the One second tone throughout the songs.

Overall a mighty return for a great band. Symbol Of Life is an album for every PL fan.

Beautifuly done

This is one of my favorite goth albums. I especially enjoy the vocals on this one. They are magnificantly sung, much different from their early stuff like Lost Paradise and Gothic. Although i love the screaming vocals of those albums.

I would definently recommend this one to fans of goth/doom stuff. If you are a hardcore fan of their earlier works, then i might shy away from this one.

Great album to listen to at night

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.

just awsome

I meant to review this one a long time ago. I picked it up for the first time in ages on a road trip and rememebered how good it was. Very catchy, hints of gothic, perfect. If you like metallica: You will like this