Paradise Lost – Icon 30
Paradise Lost – Icon 30
Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 01/12/23
Running Time: 50:42
Review by Simon Black
8/10
So, the big question I had to ask when I first heard that this was coming was quite simply “why”?
For me “Icon” was my first exposure to the band, courtesy of a free vinyl copy from the folks at their old label Music For Nations not long after its release, when they were a recent addition to the roster. It completely blew me away at the time, and I’ve been a firm fan of both the band and what proved to be one of their strongest releases ever since and I still have the record.
OK, so the press release states that it’s been done “in celebration” of the 30th anniversary of its original release, but the usual game to be played on these occasions is to dust down the original masters and give them a thoroughly modern clean up and pump it out again, perhaps with a few unseen extras from the archives, because going to all the trouble and cost of re-recording a complete album in its entirety again is not an undertaking to done lightly.
I mean it’s not as if they’re not going through one of their prolific phases when it comes to new material either, with recent studio releases “Obsidian” (2020), “Medusa” (2017) and “The Plague Within” 2015 having been some of their finest of their entire career, and to have a string of three strikes in a row is little short of exceptional, and we are about due a new one. So, I have to question the motives for completely revamping this release.
A bit of research indicates that it is in fact a case of what is becoming widely known in the music industry as “The Swift Effect” (although in Metal circles the “Noise International Effect” has been more common, but that’s a different scenario). Swift, as most people are aware, has been in dispute with her label for quite some time and has been gradually recreating each and every one of her run of six original albums in order to re-exert her control and ownership of the material. For those not savvy on music industry publishing rules, a recording generally has publishing (music and lyrics) and mechanical (the actual recording) royalties associated with it. A bit of digging around on t’interweb indicates that actually Music For Nations (and therefore current parent company Sony) own the rights to the recording and cover lock stock and barrel, and Paradise Lost apparently have only ever received publishing royalties as a consequence for every anniversary reissue to date, so to deciding to redo the whole thing makes perfect sense.
The band are far from alone in this approach, with lots of artists on the former Noise roster doing the same thing, because it’s cheaper than trying to claw the rights back from whoever owns the back catalogue this week, because even hiring studios and producers for a month is cheaper than hiring lawyers for a matter of hours.
Is it fundamentally any different from the original release in 1993? Well, no. The arrangements are exactly the same, with the only noticeable differences being less cross-fade between tracks (giving us a whopping 9 second difference in run-time) and a much less reverb heavy sound, but the band are pretty much playing it note for note exactly the same, with the possible exception of the instrumental closer ‘Deus Misereatur’ (which I’ve always felt should have opened the album) which has completely different synth voices from the original. The one factor that I suspected might differ was Nick Holmes vocals, as the original was cut during the period when his style was very much in the vein of a Hetfield roar, and more so on the original version of this than it’s follow up “Draconian Times”. He hasn’t used that style before or since, yet here again for the first time in three decades it reappears.
But the problem for me is that this is an exercise in control, not in presentation. It recreates it, yes, but it’s missing the edge and zest of the original. The original “Icon” was a masterpiece, but in choosing to attempt to completely recreate it but with slightly more modern gear misses the opportunity to have revamped it for the modern age. The songs are still fantastic, and there’s nothing wrong with taking back ownership to an album that helped define the band to a wider post-Peaceville audience, but in avoiding the opportunity for an update, this does feel like a case of Opportunity Lost…
‘Widow’ 2023 Rerecorded Official Audio
TRACKLISTING:
01. Embers Fire
02. Remembrance
03. Forging Sympathy
04. Joys of the Emptiness
05. Dying Freedom
06. Widow
07. Colossal Rains
08. Weeping Words
09. Poison
10. True Belief
11. Shallow Seasons
12. Christendom
13. Deus Misereatur
LINE-UP:
Steve Edmondson – Bass
Greg Mackintosh – Guitars (lead), Keyboards
Aaron Aedy – Guitars (rhythm)
Nick Holmes – Vocals
Guido Zima Montanarini – Drums
LINKS:
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