MAKING OF THE ALBUM: Paradise Lost – Draconian Times

By the mid-1990s Paradise Lost had already begun to move away from their doom metal roots and had ventured further into Metallica territory with their 1993 classic Icon. Formed in Halifax, Yorkshire in the late 1980s, the band had been one of the pioneers of Britain’s doom metal scene alongside My Dying Brude and Anathema but had begun to experiment with their sound after the release of their second album, 1991′s Gothic, alienating much of their earlier fanbase. Icon had marked a transition in the band, which had first begun with the track As I Die the previous year and would become further apparant with their signature tune Embers Fire. Following the release of Icon Paradise Lost had toured extensively, at one point supporting Brazilian thrash metallers Sepultura who were promoting their album Chaos A.D.

Adopting a more commercial sound had not been a conscious decision for Paradise Lost, who had continued to perform material from their earlier albums during their shows. Whilst gothic metal had begun to gain momentum during the mid-1990s through bands such as Type O Negative, Paradise Lost had no interest in following trends and had simply evolved as both songwriters and musicians since the release of their debut, Lost Paradise, almost half a decade earlier. The core of the group had always been singer Nick Holmes and guitarist Greg Mackintosh, who had written the majority of the band’s material over the years. With drummer Matthew Archer having left the band in 1994 after six years they were forced to search for a replacement and, as a way to hold auditions, requested that each applicant performed a new song they had composed entitled Once Solemn. Eventually they settled on Lee Morris, who had performed with Birmingham-based Marshall Law for several years, as well as unsuccessfully auditioning for Little Angels. Morris would remain with the band until being replaced by Jeff Singer in 2004.

Sessions for Paradise Lost‘s fifth album, Draconian Times, took place between January and March 1995 at at Great Linford Manor near Milton Keynes and Ridge Farm Studios in Rusper, Sussex. Once again the album was produced by Simon Efemey, who had worked on the band’s previous two albums and Wolfsbane‘s eponymous 1994 album. One of the tracks recorded during the sessions, Forever Failure, would cause issues for the group after they decided to sample an interview of notorious serial killer Charles Manson, resulting in Paradise Lost having to pay the families of the victims in exchange for use of the audio. With many of the songs featuring piano, the band brought in keyboardist Andrew Holdsworth during the Ridge Farm sessions. This would start an association with metal for Holdsworth, who would also record with Napalm Death and The Exploited.

Draconian Times was released on June 12th 1995 by Music for Nations, an independent label based in London who had also released their last two albums, as well as such acts as Metallica, Poison and Tigertailz in the UK. To promote the album the band shot a video for The Last Time, which would prove to be their highest grossing single, and Enchantment, which was shot by their US label Relativity over Christmas 1995. Following the success of Draconian Times, Paradise Lost would shock their fans even further by returning two years later with One Second, which would see them abandoning their metal roots in favour of synthesisers and clean pop production. The band would later consider performing Draconian Times in its entirety although this has yet to come to fruition.