Today I browsed through my cd collection fishing for something I haven’t listened to in ages. I came across Paradise Lost’s most criticised album, One Second.
Many Paradise Lost and heavy metal / gothic doom fans starting doubting Paradise Lost ability as musicians. Rumors were that the band was switching to commercial music, where income and fame have a higher priority than the quality of music. They switched from metal to electronic music, no more long hair, and they don’t look like scruffy metal dudes anymore.
Contrary to what many head bangers think, electronic music does not necessarily mean commercial music. In all music genres, there is music, and commercial music. I can easily jot down a list of commercial heavy metal bands.
Paradise Lost members grow older, and their likings change over time. What they used to like in their teens, does not mean they will still like it now, when they are 30+. As PL themselves said, they just wrote the music they felt like writing during that particular stage in life, and that is how they could express themselves best.
Listening to One Second, it is easy to notice that they still wrote ’slash your wrist’ lyrics, and still kept their ‘trademark’; dark atmosphere and sad music. When compared to previous PL albums, it clearly shows that they matured in their music writing abilities. They had the balls to move on and write the music they liked, instead of restricting themselves to what music labels told them to do. It was a very risky move, but a very good move. The world’s greatest bands produced the greatest music as a result of experimenting with different genres of music, without restricting themselves to a specific genre.
I’ve never heard of any other synthpop / gothic album which even comes close to One Second. If you like this genre of music, just give it a shot! It is true that Paradise Lost moved away from the metal scene with this album, but that does not mean they are no longer the good old Paradise Lost!
