Drown in Darkness - The Early Demos

While I’ll clearly call myself a Paradise Lost fan, Drown in Darkness - The Early Demos wasn’t something I was necessarily looking forward to. Lost Paradise still ranks as the worst album out of the band’s early five records and needless to say, my first impression of this compilation wasn’t extremely positive either. Some years later (and wiser, of course) I had decided to re-try it because, well, many things are worth trying more than once...right?!

I'm glad that I did. For starters, basically all the songs sound fairly better produced than what you’ve come across on Lost Paradise and that’s an obvious advantage. Sure, ‘’Morbid Existence’’ is a clear exception, which does sound like a typical poor demo quality-wise, but with some actual (rotten) meat attached to the guitars, Greg and Aaron’s riffs hit far more effective than they did on the debut. Like beasts sneaking upon their prey at a full moon night, the guitars crawl onward with malice, while the faster riffs display a variety of influences. The rousing tremolos of ‘’Our Savior’’ would have fit perfectly fine on Death’s Leprosy and ‘’Nuclear Abomination’’ gets surprisingly close to Bolt Thrower’s early (meaning: 80’s) era, thanks to its blistering riffing and…wait for it - blastbeats sections! ‘’Paradise Lost’’ grooves onward thanks to those crushing power chords, not unlike that of early Celtic Frost, while the ghastly doom/death combo of ‘’Frozen Illusion’’ feels like I’ve entered a Halloween party where Death, Black Sabbath and Cathedral would jam together to scare away the weak...who knew morbidity could sound so appealing?

Although this compilation highlights Paradise Lost’s death metal roots, the mood already feels uncanny. Nick Holmes sounds absolutely monstrous on these studio tunes and relies on thick, deep grunts that are unlike the recognizable growls we’ve got to hear on the first two records. Greg himself wasn't exactly the guitar wizard he'd be in the years ahead, yet with a minimum amount of skills to rely on, even he manages to add some black magic to these compositions. Hearing the band’s self-titled track couldn’t be a better example of an actual improved version when compared to the debut version - here it evokes a strong feeling of impending doom, as it sounds like Greg tried to recapture the essence of his favorite horror movies through some eerie bended riffing and evocative leads. The lyrics also work and the line ''not knowing this place as the darkness falls above’’ sums up the general mood of this album quite well.

The live tracks that also appear on studio albums aren’t that different, even if Nick Holmes sounds pretty comical in between; like when it sounds as if he’s about to swallow the microphone before ‘’Our Saviour’’ starts, or once he claims that that playing fast metal is for wimps. ‘’Plains of Desolation’’ and ‘’Nuclear Abomination’’ have never appeared on any studio recordings and I think it’s too bad as far as the latter is concerned. As I had already mentioned, it’s basically Paradise Lost channeling Bolt Thrower – certainly worth hearing for any early death metal fan if you’d ask me.

Fans who got to love Paradise Lost for their melancholic beauty will probably find this too crude and raw for its own good, but personally I find Drown in Darkness - The Early Demos to be surprisingly enjoyable and that's good enough for me.

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

You could say a few things about when a band releases all of their long out of print recordings on CD. One could easily say that they just devalued everything prior to their first release. In the same breath however it could be said that they didn't because a true collector will always seek out the originals regardless of what repackaging has taken place. In any event, this is a great opportunity for newer fans, or even older ones that weren't around in the bands formative years, to hear how their idols started out. The inside of the four panel/poster pullout has some liner notes from the bands singer Nick. He simply states how these are embarrassing to the band since they're so rough and that they are best listened to whilst getting drunk. This, though insulting to the fans, is perhaps the most he talks about the recordings. The bulk of the two page soliloquy is about his days as a tape trader. Not exactly what one expects to read about when it says "liner notes about the recording by the bands singer" on the outside of the packaging. Never the less, its still a worth while purchase.

According to the packaging, the songs in question were remastered, having only heard the latter of the three recordings on this CD in its original format, its safe to say that they did to some extent. Right off the bat is must be stated that all twelve songs are very raw and sloppy. The first three, from the 'Paradise Lost' demo, are the "worst" of the bunch and are easily more Death than Doom with the band perhaps throwing in a few slow parts here and there. Two of the three songs were never put to any album after the demos were released. Those two are 'Drown in Darkness' & 'Morbid Existence'. Both songs are excellent, for primitive Doomdeath Metal and its a shame that they didn't make it on to the bands first proper release. 'Internal Torment' is mostly the same with a few noticeable differences in the middle of the song. These are cool and its interesting to hear a different version of this song alongside the rarer gems. Nicks vocals are possibly the best they'd ever be on this recording.

In the notes, Nick mentions that the second demo 'Frozen Illusion' is where you can start to hear the beginnings of the bands style form. This is very true as the songs are vicious and intense. They are better sounding than the versions heard on 'Lost Paradise'. The distortion is thicker and the playing isn't as sloppy as on the first demo. Everything is, in essence, taken up a level in terms of over all quality. With that being said the last song is a little quieter than the others.

The last demo of the group is the 'Plains Of Desolation' live bootleg. In its original format its nearly impossible to discern what is being played because the recording quality is beyond subpar and its very quiet. The remaster (if it can so be called) does turn the instruments up a little and the vocals up a lot. This is very annoying as Nick has a tendency to practically drown out the others through out much of the recording. Once again, this is very good aside from the aforementioned issue. You can hear the crowed cheer and laugh at Nick's random and amusing diatribes between songs. He growls everything in between songs, but if you're familiar with his voice its easy to make out what he's saying. He pays tribute to 'Metalduck' (this elicits laughter from the crowd) as well as a friend of theirs calling him a wimp. He also reminds the crowd that they're "Not Glam, its for wimps and we're not wimps". In retrospect his personality hasn't changed a bit.

All in all the songs are heavier with thicker distortion and better vocals than anything the band has ever done. Its also great to hear four new songs; Drown In Darkness, Morbid Existence, Plains Of Desolation & Nuclear Abomination. Its really a shame that these never got properly released as any fan of old school Doomdeath would really dig these. This is worth getting for anyone into this style, not just diehard fans. There is a lot of good here with only a few drawbacks.