On stage: Paradise Lost

 
- Waldrock
 
- June 1998
 
- Burgum (NL) -


 
- Paradise Lost
 
- Nov. 2002
 
- Cologne (D) -


 
- Paradie Lost & Orphaned Land
 
- May 2005
 
- Cologne (D) -


 
- RockHard Festival
 
- May 2008
 
- Gelsenkirchen (D) -

Paradie Lost & Orphaned Land

- May 9th 2005 - Cologne (D), Live Music Hall -





 

  


  

When we arrived at the Live Music Hall the last notes of Society 1 were fading and so I can't tell you anything about their set. But still early enough for Israel's metal band no. 1 - Orphaned Land. The sextet have some fans here in Europe who couldn't wait to see them live for the first time. As they are part of a package they just got 45 minutes and so they concentrated on songs from Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven. Orphaned Land's music is nothing for the narrow-minded! They combine melodic death metal with Israelic folk and add some progressive elements and a dark atmosphere. An outstanding mixture. Frontman Kobi Farhi has a huge variety which spans from deep growls to clean vocals. A tight band played this songs which have many different facets. It was great to see them bringing orient and occident together. The traditional outfit of Kobi Farhi looks a bit strange for us, usually we see it just in the news, but it shows that the Israeli try to stick to their roots as well as opening up to the western culture - music-wise. Songs like Ocean Land and Halo Dies put the audience under a spell and led them into a world of sounds we aren't used to. The guys are so talented that they don't need the bonus to be exotics, but perhaps it makes people more curious. Anyway, they deserve to get more attention. That they have some fans here was most obvious when they started the traditinal song Norra El Norra which more then just a handful fans sung along. They are building a bridge between nations, religions and races. What a band! I hope they get the chance to play some festivals next summer to give more people the chance to discover the outstanding music of Orphaned Land. And perhaps they can come back one day and bring all the exotic instruments with them which they use for the recordings...

A break and it was time for Bradford's finest - Paradise Lost. I got into them with Icon, when they already left the death metal behind or been on the way to a more gothic sound. Another change they made and became more electro-pop then metal. With Symbol Of Life they started to get more heavy again. Now with Paradise Lost they managed to combine heavinss, bittersweet melodies with electronic sounds. Nick Holmes and co. decided to kick off with two new songs - Don't Belong and Grey. With True Belief they presented a rare look back in their history. Guitarists Greg Macintosh and Aaron Aedy have created their own guitar sound about a decade ago. A trademark for the Paradise Lost sound which is complete by Nick Homes vocals. For a long time they had a steady line-up, but now there is a new face behind the drums - former Kill II This / Blaze drummer Jeff Singer. Together with Steve Edmondson he delivered the sound base for the guitars. As usual the light show supported the dark atmosphere. Even if the fans of the early days got disappointed again, at least they played some songs from Draconian Times, One Second and with So Much Is Lost the best track from Host. The setlist - see below - was well chosen and so it sounded very homogenous. Even if I would have love to hear more old tracks... Fans were shouting for As I Die which they played, but with the clean vocals it sounded for many not heavy enough, but they are no death metal band anymore. Well, left the death metal behind more then 10 years ago, so perhaps it was  a bit too optimistic to expect them play it as they recorded it. Last song of the set was One Second and then they left for a few more seconds. Holmes and his mates returned to the stage for 3 more songs and with Last Time they finally left. Hopefully it wasn't the last time we heard this songs live! Paradise Lost always been special and if they keep it heavy in future they won't loose their fans. The self-titled album built a bridge between Draconian Times / One Second and Host / Belive In Nothing. Fans from the first releases will probably no longer follow them, but others will join in.

A great night of metal with the outstanding Orphaned Land and the unique Paradise Lost. Hope to see them both again across Europe... Across the globe.



Setlist Paradise Lost:

Don't Belong

Grey

True Belief

Erased

Redshift

Mystify

So Much Is Lost

Symbol Of Life

Hallowed Land

Accept The Pain

For All You Leave Behind

As I Die

Shine

Enchantment

Close Your Eyes

One Second

---

Forever After

Over The Madness

Last Time

  

  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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Paradise Lost
- Nov., 3rd 2002 - Cologne (D), Live Music Hall -





 

  


  

It's been a while since Paradise Lost toured and even no they are not really touring. In August they played at a festival held by their new album GUN Records / Supersonic which celebrated their 10th Anniversary and now they play this one show in Cologne during their promotion trip for their latest album Symbols Of Life.

A few hundred fans made their way on this cold and rainy Sunday to Cologne to see the Bradford five. Another good reason to go to the show was the ticket prize of 10,- Euro! And so it wasn't just me who was surprised that there were even a support act. The band In Vein from Essen had the chance to play a 30 minute set to heat up the audience for Paradise Lost. Actually I can't tell much about the quintet, coz this was my first contact with the sympathetic five-some. The band offered a kind of heavy Nickelback sound, even if that doesn't describe their sound at all. As far as I understood their current album is called Perfect Insect - I might got that wrong... More about the newcomers soon!

After a break the quintet from England entered the stage punctual at 9 p.m. and started with a new track. After the song singer Nick Holmes told the audience "My name is Nicklas and I'm your host tonight. I'll guide you." Then the first notes of Hallowed Ground came out of the P.A. and the fans went crazy. Followed by Say Just Words before they played the single from the last album Believe In Nothing which is called Mouth. The band of singer Nick Holmes and partner in crime Greg Mackintosh took the fans on a roller coaster ride through their history of changed and with Two Words they returned to their youngest history. In my opinion the current release Symbol Of Life is a good combination of the heavy guitar riffs the fans know from the releases like Draconian Times and One Second (also some keyboard parts remind me of the last mentioned) and the more modern, electronic pop sounds of Host and Believe In Nothing. Even if the album just hit the store about 10 days ago quite a few fans seemed to know the words of the new songs. One of my highlights was Forever Failure which is already a classic. Drummer Lee Morris covered all in red light was building the playground for the bass lines of Steve Edmondson and the guitar riffing of Aaron Aedy and Greg Mackintosh who were covered by blue lights and in the center of the stage Nick Holmes who easily put the fans under a spell. And in the better half of the set the boys from Yorkshire presented See Your Face, Mystify (from the new album), As I Die (their ultimate hit) and the title track Symbol Of Life. Even old track like As I Die changed through the years and so the sound isn't that different from nowadays. And so after 60 minutes the band left the band. It was obvious that the five-piece enjoyed the show and so did the band! It didn't took long until the band came back on stage for some more. With True Belief and One Second they traveled back in time. With the first notes of One Second smoke was flooding the stage and the blue spots created a blue fog which surrounded the musicians and add a certain atmosphere to the song. Only mainman Nick Holmes was spotted in red when he was ask the fans with a smile to take out the lighters and "pretend watching the Scorpions!" Another example for the humor of the British. Again they left the stage, but returned for 2 more songs! The stage flooded with white light from the floor cans which shows just the silhouettes of the five when they played the album opener Isolate which is a catchy modern and heavy electro pop tune, a good choice to get into the album by the way. And last, but not least they offered Last Time which was their last time on stage for tonight. But soon they will be back to tour around the world and in the meantime listen to the album and if you get the German music TV channel Viva then you have the chance to see this show on TV. If not, well... Then keep an eye on the tour dates and make sure that you won't miss them!
  
  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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