Paradise Lost Ascension Review
Paradise Lost
Ascension
Nuclear Blast Records
2025
There’s something poetic about Paradise Lost continuing to evolve this late in their career while still sounding like the same miserable bastards that helped to define an entire genre. “Ascension” sounds gloomy, elegant, and heavier than a confession.
From the opening moments, the record radiates that grand, Gothic melancholy the band practically invented. But it isn’t just nostalgia. There’s a darker pulse here, a kind of spiritual exhaustion wrapped in shimmering melody and crushing despair. The guitars carry that familiar down tuned weight, but there’s more nuance in the production, textures that bleed between Doom, Death, and Modern Gothic Metal. Nick Holmes sounds possessed, his voice alternating between ancient thunder and weary clergyman.
The songwriting takes a more cinematic shape this time around. Tracks like “Serpent On The Cross” and “Lay A Wreath Upon The World” unfold like a funeral procession trudging along in a heavy fog, it’s deliberate and pointed. Greg Mackintosh’s lead work is pure atmosphere; his guitar lines drip sorrow like wax from a candle, while the rhythm section stays grounded.
What’s striking is how Ascension manages to feel spiritual without being uplifting. It’s an album about reaching upward knowing damn well there’s no salvation waiting. The title itself feels almost ironic, “ascension” here means dragging the weight of one’s sins into the light, not escaping them. Paradise Lost has mastered that duality: sacred and damned, human and hollow.
“Ascension is not the heaviest album Paradise Lost has made, nor is it the most immediate, but it is one of their most cohesive efforts in years. This album stands as a reminder that Paradise Lost are still the High Priests of Doom & Gloom, and the sermon isn’t over just yet.
Standout Tracks – “Serpent On The Cross”, “Lay Your Wreath Upon the World”, “The Precipice” and “Tyrants Serenade”.