A classic album by one of the best doom metal bands, Icon sees Paradise Lost forging ahead with a new sound – leaving all traces of their death metal past at the door and adopting a subtle underlying gothic rock approach, most notably Sisters of Mercy. However, Icon is an album at a crossroads and the heavy crunch and sludgy doom are still dominant and still 100% metal. Gregor’s leads are nothing short of impressive – dynamic and memorable, utilizing the wah-wah pedal in ways that other doom bands never have attempted. As for Nick Holmes’ voice – it sounds a lot like James Hetfield from Metallica, but Nick has more pain in his vocals – a vocal style that has been dismissed not long after this release. The overall sound is just fucking heavy, unlike their British peers, the guitars override their music and in ways they have more in common with the traditional Black Sabbath form of doom then the gothic doom of My Dying Bride and such. The production is gritty and the flow of the album is smooth – every song has some distinct melody that gets stuck in the head. In my opinion Icon might be Paradise Lost at their most creative and definitely most catchy. The following album “Draconian Times” was amazing, but the clean gothic rock took too much precedence and the preceding album “Shades of God” was too complex for what the band would turn into. The band has since experimented with non metal stuff and the recent albums have been sort of a return to a heavier form, but they just will never get the magical “Icon” sound back.
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