LIVE REVIEW: Paradise Lost @ The Marble Factory, Bristol

It’s taken far longer than any of us expected – and it’s nowhere near back to pre-2020 levels – but the world is finally starting to heal. For some, tonight marks their first live show of the year, for others since the pandemic wreaked havoc across the world; in any event, despite the chill in the air there’s a buzz around The Marble Factory for PARADISE LOST that makes things feel special, even more so than usual – that said, it’s far from sold out, a reminder that whilst things are beginning to improve, there’s a long way to go.

As everyone settles back into what was once a familiar environment – replete with overtly expensive beverages – MOONSPELL arrive on stage for what is, unbelievably, their first ever show in Bristol. Against a backdrop of spotlights and smoke, their gothic, brooding metal mixes well with both the lighting and the more barren confines of a venue that used to be a skate park before its conversion. They’re not taking the chance to perform in a new city lightly either, barraging through the likes of Breathe (Until We Are No More) and Alma Mater with gusto to a very warm response. The stage patter might be formulaic and the in-song interaction by the numbers, but it really works for the Portuguese quintet; the only downside is when Fernando ‘Langsuyar’ Ribeiro comes in with his vocals and upsets the sound balance; nothing that the sole original member can do of course, but when things are clear and then muddied, it’s very noticeable. That being said, you can’t fault MOONSPELL whatsoever; they’re in fine fettle.

Rating: 7/10

PARADISE LOST are a British institution, make no bones about it; their back catalogue and legacy within the goth sectors of rock and metal speak for themselves. At any other time the venue would have been packed to the rafters for them, but those in attendance make it sound like that regardless. However, it’s not in the form of a raucous, intense sea of bodies that don’t stop moving for the duration of the 90-minute set; this is a band that’s been around for well over three decades and, as such, there’s a diverse age range within the building from teenagers to senior citizens, many of whom don’t want to be crowdsurfing or pitting. Instead, the magnitude of the event comes from the collective captivation on the faces of all who are there, enjoying nothing more than a band who, nearly 35 years into their career, are sounding as tight as they’ve ever done without a hint of ageing about them.

Of their sixteen studio albums, a whopping eleven feature tonight and they don’t even open with a track from most recent record Obsidian, instead choosing Widow from 1993’s Icon and then following that up with the infectious groove of Forsaken. The sound gremlins are back again, but weirdly this doesn’t affect the overall show as much as it did MOONSPELL – if anything, having Nick Holmes slightly lower in the mix merely just adds to their well-known gothic aura. Naturally, there’s more of a focus on the latest album than anything else, but they still manage to hark back as far as 1991 for their material, in this case Eternal from sophomore release Gothic. There’s also just the one track from arguably their greatest album, Draconian Times, which comes in the form of The Last Time as their main set draws to a close. A four song encore of Darker Thoughts, So Much Is Lost, Beneath Broken Earth and Ghosts sends the punters home happy, albeit with haste to avoid the oncoming storms of Eunice and Franklin. Forget the weather though; PARADISE LOST have whipped up a maelstrom all of their own, tonight.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Megan Jenkins Photography here: