Gothic metal band Paradise Lost last night returned to St George’s Hall, Bradford for the first time in 28 years. The group, originally from Halifax, had not played at the West Yorkshire venue since 1995, with their return marking the 30th anniversary of the release of their critically acclaimed fourth studio album Icon.
The show at St George’s Hall formed part of the group’s ‘Embers of Europe’ tour, which kicked off at the o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on December 1 and will conclude at the Altice Arena in Lisbon tomorrow evening (December 16). The tour also saw Paradise Lost perform in four other European cities, including Istanbul, Sofia, Thessaloniki and Athens.
Thank you to everyone who came to see our Embers Of Europe show, celebrating 30 years of Icon, at St George’s Hall, Bradford last night pic.twitter.com/84rGljwn1X
— Paradise Lost (@OfficialPL) December 15, 2023
Lead vocalist Nick Holmes returned to St George’s Hall after telling the BBC about his prior experiences there, including seeing legendary metal band Metallica at the iconic Bradford venue. He stated, ‘I went to see Metallica playing there as a kid in 1986. There was a mosh pit going and I remember being a bit scared, I’d never experienced anything like that before. The more extreme end of music completely spoke to me on so many levels, I just fell in love with it.”
Watch the music video for “Say Just Words“, from the band’s sixth studio LP One Second, below:
Paradise Lost were formed in Halifax in 1988, with a line-up consisting of vocalist Nick Holmes, guitarists Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, bassist Steve Edmonson and drummer Matthew Archer. Each member bar the drummer has remained a constant in the group, with Guido Montanarini, the sixth drummer in the band’s history, taking up the role presently.
The band have amassed a strong cult following in the past three decades, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe, areas where heavy metal has traditionally flourished as a genre. Paradise Lost are also considered to be among the pioneers of the death-doom genre, and are regarded as the main influence for the rise in popularity of gothic metal. They have released a total of sixteen studio albums, with their first LP, Lost Paradise, coming in 1990 and their most recent original release, Obsidian, arriving in 2020.
Watch the music video for “Embers Fire“, from Icon, below:
The group also re-recorded their fourth studio album, Icon, re-releasing it as Icon 30 on December 1 2023, in a bid to gain full ownership of the original recording.
