Poor Paradise Lost. Having been around for some 12 years now, they have suffered from being that most difficult of things: a British Goth Metal band post 1989. Whilst their American cousins can bask in the cool which is God-given simply by birthplace, Halifax, in the north of England, just isn't going to cut it in the same way.
Whilst US rock acts such as Amen and A Perfect Circle gain notoriety and critical acclaim, Paradise Lost (like other British old hands Pitchshifter), have to be content with a steady fanbase (and it's quite large- their website is verging on 500,000 hits) and moderate (top 30) record sales. Even their press release states that the fickle British music scene is "poisonous" for the five piece.
'Believe In Nothing' sees them treading relatively familiar ground, expanding on the more electronic influences hinted at on 1999's 'Host', whilst the doom-laden lyrical content of their most assured album, 'Draconian Times' is still present.
Unfortunately it all seems a bit laboured, although there are moments where it comes together, such as the chorus of the otherwise quite comical 'Something Real' and dramatic album closer 'World Pretending'. There just aren't enough of these moments.
Maybe Paradise Lost can find a place in the heart of a whole new generation of rock kids, tired of the shock-rock tactics of Slipknot and the current crop of "nu-metal". But, as Paradise Lost would readily admit, it's a poisonous world out there, and the record-buying public are fickle folk.
