Paradise Lost, Detonation - Fuck it, let's play!

Some members from Metalrage.com advised me to go and see Paradise Lost, because I would definitely dig it. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to one of their shows with HIM, but luckily enough they returned a month later to The Netherlands for a headlining show. Together with Mindsaver and Sledgehammer Messiah I witnessed an one-and-a-half-hour show of Paradise Lost with the Dutch band Detonation as their support act.

The late-announced supporting act for this Paradise Lost date was Detonation, who were probably asked because they are from Utrecht - the city to play tonight. Detonation consists of some excellent musicians who act in the regions of melodic death metal. What this band needs is a decent sound, and that's what they were missing in the beginning. Fortunately the blurry guitar sound improved after a couple of songs, but it never became an impressing show. There wasn't much interaction with the audience, since there weren't a lot of Detonation fans present tonight. I also think that they're not really a live band. Unless brutal and up tempo parts including furious blastbeats etcetera, it's not really moshable stuff. Their sympathetic frontman is not really capable to encourage the crowd to get loose. All in all a sufficient gig, but not much more than that.

A couple days after the show I read some interesting news on the web, namely that Detonation went through their first line-up change since their foundation 10 years ago. They added Danny Tunker (also in Fuelblooded) to their ranks as guitar player, while frontman Koen Romijn will stop playing guitars and that he will be focussing on the vocals only from now on. Curious how that will work out! (Mindsaver)

In the ‘90s Paradise Lost was part of the “Big Three” in the Doom/Death-genre, together with My Dying Bride and Anathema. This band from Halifax, England is also considered to be one of the bands responsible for the Gothic Metal genre as well. Before tonight I had heard of My Dying Bride and Anathema, but music wise I had never heard of Paradise Lost. After seeing their concert I must say I’m a bit ashamed. The music these guys make is just unbelievable. I’m totally into this and blame myself for never listening to this band before. The venue wasn’t fully packed, but it was crowded enough not to get cold. The music was good, the sound was good and when the lights were on they were good also. In the middle of their show the whole lightening system didn’t have power, so they had to finish one song in the dark and after a short while, just at the moment frontman Nick Holmes said: “fuck it, let’s play!” the lights went back on. Luckily enough the problem with the lights was the only negative point about this whole concert. These five guys created a perfect atmosphere and especially by closing your eyes you could feel the vibe at its best! (Gilles)

Setlist:

The Enemy
Ash And Debris

Mystify
No Celebration

True Belief

As I Die
Praise Lamented Shade

Enchantment

Requiem

Unreachable

Gothic

Embers Fine

One Second

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Never For The Damned