Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise (2015)

Don't be fooled by that average-looking front cover (with some additional, eco-messages saved on), please… Released as early as in 1970 (and still relatively unknown) the only Lost Nation LP included a powerfull dose of the very British influenced progressive rock, reminiscent of still non-existent Beggars Opera (also in vocal department) - with strong influences of early Deep Purple. This very underrated but truly great album was dominated by fairly extensive, 6-7-minute compositions based on the sound of Hammond organ, some tasteful Blackmore-ish guitar parts and very busy drumming. In a sense it's quite unique record because in 1970 not so many US bands played uncompromising and freshly sounding progressive rock!

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)…

If ever we needed a solution to the self consciously stylised over-hyped "art-pop-rock" being peddled in the so-called mainstream music industry, ladies and gentlemen, we have Stone Machine…