Gothic (album)

As Greg Mackintosh and Nick Holmes later recalled, during the creation of the Gothic Paradise Lost, they performed with death metal and grindcore bands like Carcass and Napalm Death , and they expected the band to perform such music - very fast and loud, while the musicians themselves sought to create a different sound - their compositions should have been extremely slow ^[5] . All members of the group at that time were fans of doom metal and teams such as Celtic Frost , and Nick Holmes was fascinated by the sound of the debut album of the legendary gothic rockers Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always ^[7] . The combination of these influences determined the final style of Gothic .

The disc was recorded at Academic Studios, where the musicians came with a bottle of bourbon . Most of the work on the musical material, according to Holmes, was “gluing the riffs together”, and the songs were mostly improvised - the band knew how the album should have sounded, and simply played what they thought was right in their mood ^{[8 ]} . The rhythm guitarist Aron Aady for a long time could not find the right instrument and tune it, so part of his parts was performed by Greg Mackintosh ^[8] .

The name of the album was chosen under the influence of Gothic literature and architecture . As Nick Holmes jokingly remarked, he “just always liked to look at the gargoyles ” ^[8] . The basis for the cover of the disc was a fragment of the general photograph of the band members - that part of the photo that depicted the pocket of Matt Archer's jacket and the hand of Greg Mackintosh; This fragment seemed interesting to Nick Holmes, so he simply cut it out, turned it upside down and enlarged it, resulting in a strange, dull image ^[9] . Subsequently, the musicians repeatedly received letters from fans with questions about what exactly is shown on the cover; fans most often assumed that this was a photograph taken inside some kind of grave.

Initially, the disc did not meet with a wide response - a small concert tour was organized in its support, but no more than fifty people came to each performance ^[6] . Immediately after the release, the album brought almost no profit to the group - however, it quickly dispersed and had a huge impact on the entire underground scene of that time, forcing many novice musicians to imitate the sound of Paradise Lost ^[9] . Among the groups obligated by the existence of Gothic was the subsequently famous My Dying Bride team, whose members decided to create a group after they attended one of the concerts in support of the album ^[6] .

As Nick Holmes later recalled, when creating the album, he wanted to slightly change his manner of singing, to make his voice a little cleaner and more melodic, to more accurately convey emotions; as a result, in some compositions, for example, in "Shattered", growling partially gave way to low clean vocals ^[9] . Another innovation introduced by the group and quickly attracted interest from other musicians was the use of keyboards and female vocals.

Albert Madrian, editor-in-chief of Decibel Magazine , described Gothic as a “monolithic metal plate” formed by a combination of “rough gravity of doom-death” and “icy grandeur of eighties Gothic rock” ^[10] .

Eduardo Rivadavia, a full-time critic of Allmusic.com , emphasized the innovative sounding of the album and praised the lyrics, calling them much deeper and more mature than the earlier verses written by the frontman. The critic, however, was not completely satisfied with the "extremely non-musical" vocals; however, to justify Nick Holmes, he noted that he did everything possible so that his voice could break through a wall of dense guitar sound ^[11] .

Words - Nick Holmes ; Music - Greg Mackintosh.

• Nick Holmes - vocals
• Gregor Macintosh - lead guitar
• Aaron Go - Rhythm Guitar
• Stephen Edmondson - Bass
• Matthew Archer - drums

Guest musicians

• The Raptured Symphony Orchestra - orchestration
• Sarah Marrion - female vocals

• Albert Mudrain Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces. - Da Capo Press, 2009 .-- P. 122. - 365 p. - ISBN 9780306818066 .

• Gothic on discogs.com