Death in Paradise

Following 2007's In Requiem, the renowned Yorkshire gothic metal outfit return with their 12th studio album, Faith Divides Us Death Unites Us; its title stemming from vocalist Nick Holmes's views on the futility of war in the name of religion. Opting to work this time with Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia) instead of long-term producer Rhys Fulber, Paradise Lost have picked up the heavier parts of the last album and run with them, resulting in a set of downtuned, seven-stringed, crushingly weighty, yet melodic and atmospheric tracks that hark back to their doom metal roots.

Paradise Lost's career trajectory comes virtually full circle on 2009's Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us, an album that sees the British metal veterans resuming virtually the exact same accessible goth doom style that characterized their most commercially and critically successful albums, in essence making it sound like the would-be successor to 1995's Draconian Times. Of course, in the real world, that successor was 1997's One Second, which initiated the group's often still remarkable but widely underrated voyage into a decade's worth of electro-goth rock experiments before the start of its metallic "rehabilitation" via a tentative eponymous set in 2005 and its far more focused follow-up, In Requiem, a couple of years later…

ACRONYM Ensemble - Paradise: Instrumental Sonatas of Antonio Bertali (2014) {Olde Focus Recordings Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (newfocusrecordings.com) -> 349 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb | Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Olde Focus Recordings / New Focus Recordings | FCR901
Classical / Baroque / Chamber Music

ACRONYM is pleased to present the first recordings here of six sonatas by Antonio Bertali, and the first recordings in their present orchestrations of several more. Antonio Bertali was born in 1605 in Verona. In 1624 he moved to Vienna, where he was hired as a violinist and composer at the Habsburg Court and eventually served as Supremus Musices Praefectus of the Imperial orchestra. Following the death of Giovanni Valentini in 1649, King Ferdinand III appointed Bertali Kappellmeister—then the highest musical position in German-speaking lands—a post which he held until his death in 1669.

In the scope of Paradise Lost's career, their eponymous release from 2005 represented the act of Hell freezing over, for it witnessed these founders of the British doom movement finally deigning to revive the sonic blueprint that made them famous in the first place, nearly a decade after seemingly abandoning it forever. Still, the general consensus was that its songs didn't quite match the band's good intentions, and so it fell to its 2007 successor, the aptly named In Requiem, to make amends and come just a few steps closer to resurrecting Paradise Lost's post-death/doom, goth-inflected middle period (marked by the classic Shades of God, Icon and Draconian Times albums)…

Live recording of the show on November 3rd 2013 at the Camden Roundhouse, London UK, as part of their 25th anniversary 'Tragic Illusion' tour.

British band Paradise Lost has a knack for producing dark and moody, yet very accessible metal. And that's exactly what they do on Believe in Nothing, serving up a bunch of tracks that could appeal to a wide range of music fans. Tight and melodic, "Mouth" is an excellent example of how to write a chart-topping rock song. In fact, almost exactly the same thing could be said about "Fader" and "Illumination." "Look at Me Now" is also a noteworthy tune, but probably a little too easy on the ear and thus lacking staying power. The suitably sullen "Never Again," on the other hand, gets better with each spin. In the end, Believe in Nothing doesn't quite scale the same heights as a couple of the band's previous releases, such as Shades of God and One Second…