Review: Paradise Lost - Symphony for the Lost

Review: Paradise Lost - Symphony for the Lost

Today, I'm going to review a record of a band which accompanied me through my teenage years. Paradise Lost was one of the very first bands I listened too when I was 16 years old. Not necessarily because I saw the excellece in their music but because of the song "As I die". Pretty perfect song for my "everything is bad and I must hate the world" period. But that is how it starts very often. You like one song, play it over and over again and suddenly you are into a band and start to enjoy their other songs too. So I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted "Symphony for the Lost" in the shelves on the very same shopping tour I purchased Between the Buried and Me's Coma Ecliptic record. Before I go into more detail - let's check out the record.

Paradise Lost - Symphony for the Lost

Label: Century Media

Format: 2 x Black Vinyl, Gatefold, Limited Edition + DVD
Country: Germany

Released: Nov 20, 2015

Price: 19,90 € @Saturn

Side A:
01. Tragic Idol
02. Last Regret
03. Your own Reality
04. Over the Madness

Side B:
05. Joys of Emptiness
06. Victim of the Past
07. Soul Courageous
08. Gothic

Side C:
09. The Enemy
10. Erased
11. Isolate
12. Fatih divides us, Death unites us
13. As I die

Side D:
14. One Second
15. True Belief
16. Say just Words
17. The last Time

DVD:
- First Half (with orchestra)
- Second Half (without orchestra)
- Documentary

The album was recorded live at the Ancient Roman Theatre of Philipppopolis in Plodiv, Bulgaria on the 20th of September 2014 featuring the Orchestra of State Opera Plovdiv and Rodna Pesen Choir. So far so good. The gatefold is very thick. The cover is quite interesting. At first I saw only some surreal painting. When I looked closer it is actually people dancing. The whole gatefold depicts maybe something from greek mythology. Quite interesting to look at as you find more and more details like the severed arm. Nevertheless, what you see is up to your imagination.

The 16 page booklet contains pictures of the show - mostly closeups of the band. Again the quality is really great, nothing compared to the CD booklets I was used to. I feel there could have been done more. There are no lyrics or any other informations inside. Still nice to browse when listening. 

So, Symphony for the Lost is basically a Paradise Lost Best of Live record. What struck me as odd is the decision to issue the first part of the album with orchestra (LP one) and the second part (LP two) without the orchestra. I feel a lot of potential to make this a great record got wasted because of this decision. Interpreting classics like As I Die or the slow Faith Divides us, Death Unites us with an orchestra could have been epic.

If you have been to a Paradise Lost show the Live album is no surprise. Cut the talking and play music. And the music sounds amazing. The quality of the record is good. The audience is loud, the music is clear and the mastering was done perfectly. However this does not compensate for the obvious flaws of the album. To me, the orchestra part failed. As much as I tried to like tracks like Gothic or Tragic Idol I failed. Don't get me wrong, the orchestra is good but the reinterpretation of the songs is weak. It's definitely not on the same level as Metallica's S&M. If I'd been able to see this concert I would propably been blown away by the performance but it simply does not work on this record. It's not bad but I feel the potential was wasted.

The second part of the album on the other hand is epic. Pure Paradise Lost live. There's nothing else to say. So as you can see, I am quite torn here. The album is miles away from being good and miles away from being bad. I might update this review when I get a chance to upgrade my setup but for now I can only recommend this for die hard Paradise Lost fans.

Up next: My search for a vintage turntable.