Recording just one demo they were approached by, and signed to Peaceville Records. The debut album Lost Paradise was released in February 1990 and received strong critical acclaim. The album showed the band's originality within the growing Death Metal scene and established a large fan base on which to build.
Lost Paradise was swiftly followed by the 12" single In Dub which featured remixes of Rotting Misery and Breeding Fear.
In Dub was awarded Single of the Week in NME (28th April 1990) and consequently sold steadily. The rest of 1990 was spent touring and building on their growing fan base - especially in Europe.
The second album, called Gothic, was the album to set the band apart from all other bands in their genre. Gothic was released in March 1991 and featured sweeping orchestral passages and haunting female backing vocals perfectly complimenting the band's now distinctive sound. Gothic was hailed a classic by both critics and fans and this was converted into healthy sales figures all over Europe. The band supported the album with the March of the Cross European tour which firmly stamped the band's identity into the UK and European press - yet again raising their profile.
Following this success, it was a time of change for Paradise Lost. 1992 brought established management in "Far North Music" (now "Northern Music"), and a new record label in "Music For Nations". Once the three album deal was signed, the band entered Longhome Studios in Northamptonshire with producer Simon Efemey (Wildhearts, Pantera, etc...). The band recorded arguably the best 11 tracks they have ever written and upon the release of Shades of God in June 1992, Paradise Lost were seen to "come of age". Stunning artwork was provided by Dave McKean, a cult comic artist. This helped the band in leaning even further away from the restrictive "Death Metal" tag and underlined their more mainstream classic heavy metal sound. The new direction included acoustic guitar breaks and a quantity of songwriting unheard before on a Paradise Lost record. Paradise Lost now concentrated on touring the album and a huge European trek soon followed. The band found their live fan base had grown agqin and were now playing to a wider audience - not just the death metal fans who had championed the band from the first demo. Sold out shows were commonplace and the tour climaxed with festivals in Germany and Poland with Sepultura anmd a stunning set at the Dynamo Festival at Eindhoven, Holland in front of 30,000 metal fans. These shows set the seals on the band's most successful tour to date. On their return to the U.K. the band went straight back to Longhome Studios, again with the successful formula of S mon Efemey and artwork by Dave McKean. The result was the As I Die EP released in October 1992. It gained more acclaim including a Single of the Week from Metallica on MTV Europe where the title track gained heavy rotation. Another tour was embarked upon - this time playing more diverse territories such as Israel, Greece, Poland, Slovenia and Czechoslovakia. The As I Die Tour included a full U.K. leg culminating in a triumphant Marquee show.
After a period of songwriting and recording, the band took to the States for the first time as support to Kreator and Morbid Angel. The six-week trek introduced the band to previously uncharted waters and they emerged much older and wiser - with a legion of U.S. fans eager for new Paradise Lost material, as the records had been fairly hard to get hold of in the shops until that point.
Paradise Lost recorded their fourth album in June 1993 at Jacob's Studio with Simon Efemey once again producing. The resultant album titled Icon is a stunning masterpiece of gothic metal and is regarded by many as a cementing of Paradise Lost's position in the mainstream metal arena.
A European support tour with Sepultura and follow-up headline tour coincided with the LP's release. An EP was again the band's next release, namely the Seals the Sense EP which carried the band through their festival dates of the summer of 1994. Among these was the band's biggest show ever, in front of 70,000 screaming fans at the Rock in the Ring show in Nuberg, Germany. The band then proceeded to play the rest of Europe's biggest festivals and ended the summer with their first long-form video release, Harmony Breaks, in August. This was a live concert shot in Germany in 1993 with the band's promo clips, one of which, Ember's Fire, was voted Best Video by viewers of MTVs headbanger's Ball and presented at the first Kerrang!/Headbanger's Ball Awards Ceremony.
Foundations Forum in Los Angeles in September of 1994 was their very last show on the Icon campaign.
The end of 1994 saw the band's first line-up change with Matt Archer being replaced by Lee Morris and upon hearing Draconian Times, it is obvious that this LP will take the band further into the mainstream.
The recording of the album took place at Great Linford and Ridge Farm Studios between January and March 1995, with a single, The Last Time, due for release on May 8th and the album to follow in June. The single will contain three other tracks not featured on the new album, and is available on CD, 12" and cassette.
Thanks to Music For Nations and Wild Promotions for the biography above.
The thing is, I recently recieved mail from a chap called Dan Lawrance, who says he had two demos by Paradise Lost, not one as mentioned in the biog. Oh, dear! Anyway, he also relays this list of interesting trivia:
If you're interested in chatting about The Lost to Dan, he's emailable at Dan.Lawrance@newcastle.ac.uk.
Mad Moshers Music Page index
Mad Moshers Home Page
Mail me (mosher@bigfoot.com)