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Music For NatioNs, 1993

Paradise Lost’s first three albums established them as top dogs of the British underground metal scene, but they had no interest in stopping to congratulate themselves on what they’d helped build.

The band’s fourth album in three years was their greatest leap forward yet. The change in approach was most apparent in Nick Holmes’s vocals, which swapped dank growls for crisp, James Hetfield-esque power, but it was there in other ways too: the taut, razor-wire hum of the twin guitars, the gothic swirl of Forging Sympathy and Joys Of The Emptiness. For Paradise Lost, the future was so black they had to wear shades.