Live Review: Paradise Lost - Shepherds Bush Empire, London
1st December 2023
Support: My Dying Bride
Words & Photos: Jacob Schwar
Tonight was to be special, a must for every Paradise Lost fan, for the first time ever we would be hearing the entirety of the Icon album in full and with it a selection of live debuts and much loved tracks returning to the live environment, having been cast aside since the original Icon tour in 1993-1994. This would be the first date of the Embers Of Europe tour which will see Paradise Lost playing a selection of dates across Europe in support of the recently re-recorded version of Icon, support for tonight came from gothic death-doom outfit My Dying Bride.
Kicking the night off in a truly sombre mood were My Dying Bride, fellow northerners and old school contemporaries within the death-doom genre, being 1/3 of the ‘Peaceville Three’ alongside Paradise Lost and Anathema. They began with an old track ‘The Thrash Of Naked Limbs’ which was surprising though very apt soon followed by the fan favourite ‘The Songless Bird’ with its eerie synthesized intro and crushing guitars, before transforming into a deeply romantic and calming waltz with poignant violins provided by Shaun MacGowan.
Some further set highlights included ‘Like Gods Of The Sun’ which no My Dying Bride set would be complete without as well as ‘The Cry of Mankind’, grandiose gothic doom at its finest with a distinctly English charm, it always comes across incredibly powerful in the live environment! It was also nice to hear the title track from ‘Turn Loose The Swans’ which is just pure depressive evil, I could feel the passion and anguish from lead singer Aaron Stainthorpe as he wailed through its intense lyrical content. They would round up their set with an old school classic ‘The Forever People’ which saw many a grey-haired concert-goer praise and cheer, with this song in particular originally from their debut As The Flowers Withers (1992), harking back to when the band was at its most raw and death metal-esque, a fitting end to a grand performance.
Up next and the performance we’ve all been waiting for, all the way from Halifax, the undisputed pioneers of gothic metal Paradise Lost.
Humbly, they walked out on stage to the sound of the opening keyboards of ‘Embers Fire’, along with a colossal roar from the crowd. Without further ado a massive doomy guitar chord ringed throughout the venue, ‘Embers Fire’ simply put is the perfect intro song for a metal band in my opinion. Following up with a melodic masterpiece ‘Remembrance’ which is ‘gothic doom-pop’ at its best, I couldn’t help but sing my heart out whilst simultaneously being in the photo pit taking snaps.
‘Forging Sympathy’ was next and I could see guitarist Aaron Aedy absolutely jubilant to be playing this catchy number since it was last performed live in 1994 on the original Icon tour! The crushing yet sorrowful ‘Joys Of The Emptiness’ was next and what a song to hear live, it’s a shame these chaps don’t play it anymore as its contains everything I love about this band, heavy guitars, soaring vocals and an eerie mood that’ll give you goose bumps.
Moving on we come to ‘Dying Freedom’, with its groovy, danceable rhythm throughout and of course ‘Widow’ which has this traversing almost impending vibe further instilled by Gregor Mackintosh’s piercing lead guitar for the melody. It was special to hear ‘Colossal Rains’ live, quite an odd yet unique track amongst the Paradise Lost discography which saw frontman Nick Holmes do a sort of spoken word alongside the grandiose instrumentation of his fellow bandmates.
I have to say Nick Holmes was on point this night, despite his northern gloom his singing capabilities were fabulous considering this material is 30 years old with a lot of ‘screaming and yelling’ he did not disappoint. Next up was a real treat for a Paradise Lost die-hard like myself and that was with the tracks ‘Weeping Words’ and ‘Poison’ both having their live debuts tonight, ‘Weeping Words’ is my favourite track on Icon so it was quite an emotional moment to hear this one in all its melodic glory.
One of the bands biggest anthems ‘True Belief’ followed suit which got many in the crowds raising fists and singing their hearts out, it was evident a lot of emotion was in the room for this number. The last couple tracks from Icon were ‘Shallow Seasons’ with its heavy breakdowns and belching vocals from Holmes which hadn’t been played since 1994 and last but not least the mysterious track ‘Christendom’ which it too would have its live debut tonight. ‘Christendom’ is a remarkable song which was a treat to hear live as it’s quite a difficult one to pull off, amusingly Nick Holmes announced a female guest singer to come on to the stage, he said that she’s very tiny so you might not see her, with this the whole crowd moved forward for a closer look only to find out there was no guest singer and he was taking the mick.
And with that, that was the entirety of the Icon album, originally released in 1993 and now re-recorded and performed for 2023, as always with an album set the encore consisted of some classic hits from the band such as ‘Pity The Sadness’ and ‘No Hope In Sight’ but most surprisingly with the song ‘Sweetness’ which featured on their Seals The Sense EP (1994) and is rarely heard live, bravo gents… bravo indeed!
All photo credits: Jacob Schwar
