- Country: UK
- Style: Gothic metal / Doom metal
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Release date: 15 May 2020
Obsidian is Paradise Lost’s sixteenth studio album, and it is the one where the band’s gothic side gets more room again next to the doom. Jaime Gomez Arellano produced it, and it sounds huge without being smothered.
“Darker Thoughts” opens slow and mournful before the riff drops like a lead weight. “Fall From Grace” is classic slow-motion Paradise Lost, the lead guitar melody doing half the emotional work. Then “Ghosts” arrives with a bouncing, almost Sisters of Mercy-style gothic rock swing, and the vocals switch between clean croon and death growl with real ease. “Serenity” is all crushing doom, and “Ravenghast” closes things in pitch black.
Drummer Waltteri Väyrynen holds it all together without fuss. For a band this far into their career to sound this sharp is rare. One of their best since the nineties.
Best tracks:
Darker Thoughts
Fall From Grace
Ghosts
Serenity
Ravenghast
Author’s rating: 9.0/10
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