''Draconian Times'' is the fifth studio album by British
heavy metal band
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
. Two tracks from the album, "The Last Time" and "Forever Failure", were released as singles with music videos, and both charted.
The album was played in its entirety on the band's live record ''Draconian Times MMXI''. It was also released with ''
Shades of God
''Shades of God'' is the third album by British metal band Paradise Lost, released in 1992. It retains the heavy instrumentation and growled vocals characteristic of the band's previous death-doom efforts, and also shows the beginning of the ba ...
'' and ''
Icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
'' in a boxed set called ''Original Album Classics''.
A song called "Another Desire" was written during the recording of ''Draconian Times,'' but not released on the album or the reissues. Instead, it was included in the "Forever Failure" single.
Reception
Daevid Jehnzen of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
rewarded the album a score of 4.5 out of 5, calling it a mix "between stark, oppressive
goth rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...
and crunching heavy metal" and praising Paradise Lost's ability to "create and sustain a mood".
Ulf Kubanke of
Laut.de
laut.de is a German online magazine dealing exclusively with entertainment music, especially pop music, rock music, alternative, metal, hip-hop, jazz and techno. It comprises record reviews, interviews, biographies of important artists, music ...
calls the album "a perfect mix between beauty and
morbidity
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
" and also points out that the album sounds "as if
Hetfield took a bite out of the album ''
First and Last and Always''".
Track listing
Personnel
Band
*
Nick Holmes
Nicholas John Arthur Holmes (born 7 January 1971) is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist of British gothic metal/ doom metal band Paradise Lost and Swedish death metal band Bloodbath.
History and style
Holmes formed Paradis ...
– vocals and lyrics
*Gregor Mackintosh – lead guitar
*Aaron Aedy – rhythm and acoustic guitars
*Steve Edmondson – bass
*
Lee Morris – drums
Guest musicians
*Andrew Holdsworth – keyboards
Production
*Simon Efemey (Zomba Management Ltd.) – production
*Pete "Pee Wee" Coleman –
audio engineering
Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to:
Sound
* Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound
*Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum
* Digital audio, representation of sou ...
,
mixing
*Kevin Metcalfe (at Townhouse Studios, London) –
mastering
*Holly Warburton –
illustrations
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...
and photography
*
Stylorouge Stylorouge is a graphic design studio based in Yalding, Kent, formed in London by creative director Rob O'Connor in 1981.
Art work created by the studio has included record sleeve designs for bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees for their 1981's ...
–
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
and
layout
Layout may refer to:
* Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page
** Comprehensive layout (comp), a proposed page layout presented by a designer to their client
* Layout (computing), the process of calculating the position of obje ...
*Andy Griffin, Phil Woods, Phil Luff – assisting
* Spoken Dialogue on "Forever Failure":
** taken from "''Charles Manson – The Man Who Killed the Sixties''"
** produced by Box Productions for Channel Four Television Corporation.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Authority control
Paradise Lost (band) albums
1995 albums