REVIEW: Paradise Lost - Ascension

The world seems an almost happy place in the years between PARADISE LOST releasing albums. Every time this group puts an album out, the world is experiencing some great rough patch that renders the population inert and glum. Nothing to do with the music of course, just an observation. When they released Obsidian in 2020 the world had just been plunged into a new plague. Now it’s 5 years hence, and the world has exited post-lockdown elation and gone back into proverbial shit. Just the right set of circumstances for a new LP from the grim boys of Halifax, West Yorkshire.

May we be the first to formally say, welcome back PARADISE LOST! It feels like Obsidian was released both a week and a lifetime ago. And Obsidian was solid. It was a great release, one that built upon the momentum they’d cultivated since The Plague Within a decade ago (yes, a decade ago). As it stands, PARADISE LOST are a band truly existing within the now and, a bit like your dad, they have come to terms with their experimental past. God only knows what was happening from 1997’s One Second to 2002’s Symbol of Life when they thought they were called Depeche Lost. The band themselves may look back upon their softer past with slight reluctance, but that remains some of their best material. Ever since The Plague Within, the band has been reviving the sounds of their first three albums with a learned acquiescence. They seem to have reconciled their sound into a final mix of death growls and Hetfield-ian barks. As for their more synth-centric catalogue, it seems they’ve found an outlet; with side project HOST acting as a pseudo-continuation of the album of the same name. A very beautiful thing. And while they’re not remixing or remastering their very full and bodacious back-catalogue, they’re recording the next in their current run of goth dad goodness. That leads us to 2025’s Ascension, with a lot of hype riding behind it. Time to see how much fuel these guys have left in their tank. Will they lead us into a new era? Or will they retread the ground travelled many a time before?

You would be forgiven for thinking that you’d accidentally put on METALLICA’s The Unforgiven when starting this thing up, as the intros are uncannily similar. Serpent On The Cross is a pretty strong opening, more similar to the pounding No Hope in Sight than the melancholy of Darker Thoughts. But to be completely honest, it doesn’t match the bombast of either, instead serving up a decent but not spectacular overture. Yeah, it’s still as strong as a concrete elephant, but for a band that has some of the best opening tracks in metal it falls a little short of their own incredibly high standard. Meanwhile, follow-up Tyrant’s Serenade offers up more classic Paradise Lost fare. Clearly, the band has spent much time relistening to their recent Icon and Draconian Times remixes, as this one has a wonderfully realised sense of purpose. It lumbers forward at the pace of someone walking dejectedly down a dark road, and feels right on the money. Now we’re cooking.

With the cawing of the crow, Salvation arises with its thunderous riff, slow as treacle. NICK HOLMES growls like an angry tiger. But instead of ascending, the song stalls. The architecture is impressive; structurally immaculate, technically hermetic, but the essence just feels… absent. What should ache with melancholy instead drifts toward inertia, and the emotional calculus doesn’t quite resolve itself. In fact that seems to be a pervading problem with a lot of the first half, that je ne sais quoi is not as omnipresent as it should be. It just doesn’t strike that melancholic and bittersweet tone this band has honed to near perfection, and all you’re left feeling is languor - not the greatest trade-off. Somebody once said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and when you can’t quite describe what makes a song a firecracker, you start to wonder about the architecture instead. It frazzles your mind. Questions start creeping in like; Why does the intro to Silence Like The Grave sound so much like Embers Fire? Why do the structures feel like references to the band’s classic era? The callbacks are deliberate, and once heard, they shadow every corner of the album. It helps in some instances - Silence Like The Grave was the first single for a good reason. It’s got that attitude that so saturated their benchmark records and feels like an effortless addition to their stellar roster – and it’s a really great song. The bulldozer rhythms that GREGOR MACKINTOSH pulls off are absolutely incredible, in fact it might be the best riff they’ve done since No Hope in Sight. It’ll be a setlist staple too. Just watch.

Lay A Wreath Upon The World is a nice little reprieve from the furious hell-marching thus far. A more controlled number fitted with an acoustic framework. at least until the Wonder Woman wailing and guitar breakdown ensues. It’s not a bad song at all, just a bit repetitive. The predominant phrase of this song is quite literally just “lay a wreath upon the world”. But it does the job of segueing thematically. There’s not a whole lot to be said about Side A closer Diluvium aside from it has some great lyrics and great drumming from GUIDO 'ZIMA' MONTANARINI who replaces WALTERRI VÄYRYNEN, now sticking for OPETH. “NATURE COMES FOR ME” screams HOLMES, whilst MONTANARINI blasts the double bass like it owes him money. It’s a decent piece, but once again forgettable as a track as it melts away into the album itself. Side A is good, but not great. The songs are meticulous and clearly made by masters, but there is no reason given to be emotionally hooked into some of these songs yet, aside from the stand-out singles, it’s all looking a bit pedestrian.

That is, until Side B. In fact, Side B is like a completely different album. It’s like the band needed a warmup before really getting into their meat and potatoes. Savage Days begins with a fantastic clean intro that has Medusa-esque sinister undertones. Then it less explodes rather than implodes into a restrained, but still clearly pissed-off crescendo, “savage days, suppress my inner rage”, the song transforms into a bottled-up belter. Side A wasn’t bad by any means, but this? Oh yeah, this is the good stuff. Sirens continues that momentum with a dirge-y buzzsaw riff that’s as brutal and crushing as one of those giant excavating machines they have at mining sites. You know, the giant ones with the big saw on the end? Right? Ah, forget it. Anyway, bottom line is Sirens feels colossal, with a stand-out performance from rhythm guitarist AARON AEDY whose deliberate movements give the song its compelling gravitas. The album isn’t even out yet, but this one is already underrated. Deceivers starts up and you wonder; “where the hell was this energy during the first half?” This one almost sounds like something JUDAS PRIEST would put out in the mid-nineties, but gloomier – of course. It’s still pretty damn fast for PARADISE LOST, and it only ever lets up to insert some bittersweet guitar lick into your earholes.

By the time The Precipice begins, you’ve probably already ascended out of your body and begun astrally projecting. This one is our favourite. Subdued, vicious, and purposeful, it sounds like a Wolverine caught in a bear trap. With a piano accompaniment to the hulking requiem, it successfully calls back to that early 2000s period that was so desperately missing from this album so far. It doesn’t try to merely replicate the sound of that era, instead to evoke the feeling, and it does it with near effortless precision. It’s really, really good. This Stark Town is yet another fillip, injecting more noticeable synth into the mix. It bounces along for the first half, but then when the music tones down a notch, HOLMES’ low-register croons are plaintively gentle and something that would sound at home on One Second. It then peters out, and just gives up. And for PARADISE LOST, this is a good thing. There are high hopes for the closer, A Life Unknown, and it is another excellent track. With a striking riff from MACKINTOSH and a solid performance from the rest of the band, it’s not gonna be anyone’s favourite track, but it’s still solid as a rock and a damn good way of ending the whole affair.

ASCENSION is a bit like a game of basketball, sometimes you get a mega slam-dunk but other times you shoot for the hoop and it just bounces off. If you’re a die-hard PARADISE LOST lifer and are riding that train they set off with in 2015, you’re probably gonna love this. It’ll be your 9/10 album – maybe even your album of the year (if the new KATATONIA hasn’t already taken that spot). If you’re one of those golden oldies still pining for the Lost Paradise days, it’s still worth sticking around for the back half. As for the fans of their DEPECHE MODE era, just go listen to IX by HOST for pity’s sake. After all, they made it for you. The bottom line is if you’re already liking where they are musically, you’re gonna like this one. Therein lies the issue. PARADISE LOST have ‘returned to form’ for a good while now, and it feels odd that they’ve gone this long without another reinvention. It seems like they’ve grown comfortable in this niche, and more power to them. Their two decade long identity crisis is now well and truly over, but is this good in the long run? Where do they go from here? It’s probably far too early to be thinking about their next album, but if they continue to move solely in this direction then things might turn a little… dull, to say the least. While this album is a great addition to their catalogue, there is a worry for the future. People clearly like this direction and are ready to ride with them wherever they go, yet for an ever-changing chameleon of a band it feels like it might be high time for another reinvention. Yes, it’s finally time for Symbol Of Life 2: Depression Boogaloo!

That was a half-joke.

Score: 7/10

Ascension will be released on September 19th 2025.

Words: Kiarash Golshani

Photos: Paradise Lost