Retro-Review: ‘Icon’ by Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost’s album Icon is one of the reasons you could say that 1993 is the year that doom metal became a genre of its own.

Why 1993?

Well, aside from Icon, we saw Cathedral release the Ethereal Mirror, diSEMBOWELMENT release Transcendence into the Peripheral and Type O Negative release Bloody Kisses. While doom metal was already established with the likes of St. Vitus and Sleep, these four bands took it in directions we have today. Cathedral would pave the way for what we think of as stoner doom, diSEMBOWELMENT would set the standard for death-doom and Type O Negative would establish that near commercial strain of gothic metal. Technically, many people consider Paradise Lost gothic metal, but, they are quite a bit different from Type O Negative who released their landmark album around the same time.

Whereas Type O Negative wrote catchy songs centered around Peter Steele’s smooth voice and memorable rhythms, Paradise Lost took a more epic-sounding approach. Icon contains elements that you can hear in the other three albums mentioned and combines them with symphonic sounds, creating a sound that would be picked up by many other bands afterward. You hear some sounds reminiscent of other doom bands that came before, such as St. Vitus, Witchfinder General and, of course, Black Sabbath.