Paradise Lost — Shades of God

intothewellsabyss
Jul 14, 2023
4 min read

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

31 years ago today, “Mortals Watched the Day”!

On this day (July 14) in 1992, Paradise Lost released their third full-length studio album, “Shades of God” via Music For Nations.

Background:

Paradise Lost left Peaceville Records and were signed to the Music for Nations label and released “Shades of God” in July 1992. The band's musical approach continued to evolve with this album as evidenced by the addition of quieter passages in the song's compositions, the softening of vocalist Nick Holmes's death grunt, and Gregor Mackintosh's incorporation of acoustic guitar to his sound. The album contained the song "As I Die", later released as a single/EP. Music videos were filmed for the songs, “As I Die” and “Pity the Sadness”.

“Shades of God” retains the heavy instrumentation and growled vocal characteristics of the band's previous Death-Doom efforts, and also shows the beginning of the band's transition to a more melodic, Gothic Metal sound heard on the follow-up album “Icon”.

Talking to CrypticRock.com about “Shades of God”, Nick Holmes says;

“Even by the time we had done the first couple of albums, I had been listening to Death Metal a long time. I remember being a school boy getting into Venom. I was into Motörhead, but that is different. By the time we got to “Shades of God”, I wanted to slightly change the voice; I didn’t want to be just the pure Death voice. You can do different things with your voice then.”

“Shades of God” was a turning point in the Paradise Lost sound. Whereas “Gothic” and “Lost Paradise” were more traditional Doom-Death Metal, due much in part to the hefty Death growls of frontman Nick Holmes, “Shades of God” pushed the band more into the Doom arena, songs like, “As I Die” and “Pity the Sadness” containing more of the Doom elements and songs like “Mortals Watch The Day” and “Daylight Torn” carrying more of the bands past Gothic tones.

Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh talked to Music Radar about “Shades of God”, saying;

"Me personally, I think it's our most unsung album, because it fell between “Gothic” and “Icon”, which were both very revered, I guess. And “Shades Of God”, it's more quirky. It's not instant but there's some really interesting parts on it for me. It's fun to play and it's also one I don't think we could recreate. I think we could recreate most of the other records again, but I think we'd have trouble with “Shades Of God”, because it was definitely a time in our lives where it just summed up something in that year. I don't know what it was."

Talking about the groove-laden tracks like “Daylight Torn”, Gregor commented;

“I think that record we were probably more into the Trouble and Sabbath side of things than anything else. The Goth thing kind of went a bit by the wayside for that record, I think. It was a much more musical record in terms of playing – there's a lot of stuff going on. We really developed as a band I think, playing-wise. But it's weird that the song “As I Die” doesn't fit into that record, really."

Talking about the song “As I Die” Gregor says;

“I was the only one who liked “As I Die”. It's at the end because the rest of the band didn't like the song. I was the only one who liked it and it was left off the first pressing of the vinyl. And then I remember, I think it was a guy on Metal Hammer, Germany, called Robert Mueller who heard the song “As I Die” and he said, “That's amazing”. Then the rest of the band said, “Go on then, you can put it on the album”.

"So they stuck it on the end. And then it became a single and it became the song of the album. And basically, it was like a “told you so” point for me where I said, 'Okay, well, that's where we're going from here'. That was the that was kind of the bridge into Icon and Draconian Times and where we are now, almost. That song kind of took us forward."

Paradise Lost managed to include gentler, clean guitars in with their sound as well as some very catchy, and memorable riffs. It was music you headbang to and that you could hum the melodies of. The sound of the album was also depressing, with the most haunting guitar intros I had heard at that point.

Talking about the acoustic guitar “As I Die” and on songs like “No Forgiveness”. Gregor responded;

"I guess that was a combination of experimenting and Aaron had got an acoustic guitar. He had all these acoustic lines that he liked. And I didn't like any of them apart from two. And I said, 'Well, maybe we can stick some of them in somewhere, maybe one in the middle and one on the start of something 'and that's why they're in there. And it works great."

The sounds of “Shades of God” showed their development as a whole unit, progressing as they have with every release. Unlike many, I appreciate every release that they have put forth, with Paradise Lost ultimately being my favorite of the Peaceville three. — E.N. Wells

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

▶ Listen to “Shades of God” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/shades-of-god/211398513

▶ Listen to “Shades of God” via Spotify: Shades Of God https://open.spotify.com/album/5yEBJhC6Xld5eQmJWAmDAB

▶ Watch the official music video for “As I Die”: https://youtu.be/cteWHg_hR-w

▶ Watch the official music video for “Pity the Sadness”: https://youtu.be/hAJ_D5hukSo

▶ Follow Paradise Lost on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paradiselostofficial/

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Paradise Lost — Shades of God

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