UMUR "Draconian Times" is the 5th full-length studio album by UK doom/goth metal act Paradise Lost. The album was released through Music for Nations in June 1995. Since the release of "Icon (1993)" there´s been one lineup change as drummer Matthew Archer was asked to leave after the tour supporting the album. The band didn´t feel Archer had grown as a musician with the same speed as the rest of the band, and they felt he held them back. New drummer on "Draconian Times" is Lee Morris who came from a stint with British heavy/power metal act Marshall Law.

Stylistically "Draconian Times" is very much a sibling album to "Icon (1993)". Paradise Lost enjoyed great success with "Icon (1993)" and "Draconian Times" feels a bit like the band didn´t want to deviate too much from that successful formula. So it´s basically doom metal with goth rock leanings. Heavy sustained chords with soaring lead themes on top and a heavy- to mid-paced rhythm section backing it up. Piano/keyboards are used a bit more on this album compared to earlier releases. Nick Holmes have obviously become a bit more confident singing instead of just shouting in key, as he predominantly did on "Icon (1993)", so the vocal department of "Draconian Times" is slightly more varied than on the predecessor. The goth rock influence is overall also much stronger on "Draconian Times" than it was on "Icon (1993)". "The Last Time" even fully crosses into goth rock/metal territory.

The material on the 12 track, 48:55 minutes long album are generally well written, although not all tracks stand out equally much. To my ears highlights include "Hallowed Land", "The Last Time", "Forever Failure" (which features some pretty eerie voice samples of Charles Manson), and "Shadowkings". "Draconian Times" features a melancholic atmosphere, which is one of the great assets of the band´s sound, and Paradise Lost successfully combine the heavy gloomy tracks with slightly more uplifting and hard rocking up-tempo tracks like "The Last Time" and "Once Solemn".

The sound production is powerful, clear, and detailed. A little less heavy than the sound on the predecessor, but still pretty heavy. Upon conclusion "Draconian Times" is a quality release by Paradise Lost, which feels like a natural successor to "Icon (1993)". The band haven´t taken longer steps than they were ready to, but have still developed their sound in a slightly less heavy and more rock oriented direction. I wouldn´t call "Draconian Times" a perfect release as there are simply too many unremarkable tracks featured on the album, but that´s no different from the material featured on "Icon (1993)", so no surprises there. It´s still a good quality release through and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

adg211288 With their first four albums representing a clear evolution from their beginnings as a pure death-doom metal act to a gothic metal act, Paradise Lost's fifth full-length album sees them delivering something as close to what could be considered their standard fare. Not that they really have one, as subsequent albums would go on to prove. Titled Draconian Times (1995), the album is probably the UK band's best known and well regarded release as is considered a seminal album of the gothic metal genre.

It's really got hard to hear why. Gothic metal can take a number of different forms and Paradise Lost's style is one that remains closest to its roots in doom and traditional heavy metal. As on Icon (1993), frontman Nick Holmes has now left behind any traces of growling vocals in the band's style and sings cleanly in a style that is actually not that unlike that of Metallica's James Hetfield. I've seen some describe the band as being like a meeting of that band with Black Sabbath. That's kind of accurate but only the bare bones of what they and Draconian Times actually sound like. This album has a quite polished and melodic sound but it's also dark and melancholy. There's still an element of the doom metal roots, but it'll be a long while again before Paradise Lost could be considered an actual doom metal band.

The songs themselves tend toward being catchy, memorable numbers that all easily number among the best that Paradise Lost has ever recorded. There are some clear highlights such as Hallowed Land, which features excellent use of piano and Forever Failure, which includes some spoken word samples from Charles Manson. They've a very good band at making their individual songs stand out as unique entities instead of just being part of a greater whole and Draconian Times is undeniably the best collection they ever put together, each one of them having claims to being a standout in its own right. I think it is maybe fair to say that the songs on the first half of the album have become a bit more well known, but the quality in the second half really isn't that different.

Although I've listened to gothic metal on and off for years and even had a couple of other Paradise Lost albums a bit longer than this one, it was Draconian Times that really sold me on the kind of quality that the genre has to offer when the band is a cut above the rest of the pack. Draconian Times is the kind of album that not only lives up to its hype. But also converted this previously sceptical listener into both a fan of the band and someone who now wants to active investigate other gothic metal bands.

Warthur Just like their fellow British death/doom pioneers My Dying Bride had on their The Angel and the Dark River, Paradise Lost's 1995 release sees them locked in on a Goth-doom trajectory, with sonorously intoned vocals and crunchy riffs. Paradise Lost retain a bit more of the death metal sound of their earlier albums this time, whereas at this point My Dying Bride had more or less completely abandoned sludgy death guitar, but otherwise if you like the one band's experiments in mingling the atmosphere of gothic rock with the techniques of doom metal you'll like the other's.

Between this one and Icon, I think I mildly prefer this one. Neither got me particularly enthusiastic on early listens, but with the passage of time and a little loosening of my expectations (and in particular, stepping away from the constant temptation to compare this to Lost Paradise or Gothic) really helped me see the virtues of both albums, and now I consider them to be exemplary gothic metal releases.