''Icon'' is the fourth 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 ...

, released in 1993. It marked a departure from the

death-doom Death-doom is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal. The genre emerged in the late-1980s and gained ...

sound of their early work, and was the last album to feature Matthew Archer on drums. In February 2018, ''Icon'' was inducted into the

Decibel Magazine ''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...

Hall of Fame, becoming the second Paradise Lost album to be featured in the Decibel Hall of Fame (alongside ''

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''), with the magazine naming it influential to the development of the

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...

subgenre.

Style

In 2008, speaking to ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'' about the album's music,

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 ...

remembered:

Track listing

All songs written by

and Gregor Mackintosh.

Personnel

– vocals * Matthew Archer – drums * Stephen Edmondson – bass * Aaron Aedy – guitars * Gregor Mackintosh – guitars

Guest musicians

* Denise Bernard – female vocals * Andrew Holdsworth – keyboards

Production

* Matt Anker – photography * Geoff Pesche – mastering * Pete Coleman – mixing *

Simon Efemey Simon Efemey is an English record producer, most noted for his work with metal and hard rock groups, including Napalm Death, Paradise Lost, Obituary, Amorphis, Deceased and The Wildhearts. He has also provided live sound mixing with bands inclu ...

– producer mixing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Icon (Paradise Lost Album) Paradise Lost (band) albums 1993 albums Music for Nations albums