著名英国金属摇滚乐队，曾经是英国歌特三巨头之一的Paradise Lost，一张经典专辑Gothic，将女声和弦乐运用到金属乐中，成为gothic metal的先驱!
乐队介绍：
PARADISE LOST于1988年诞生在英国的Halifax，在他们录制了第一个小样之后，很快便与独立厂牌Peaceville签约，并在1990年发行了第一张专辑Lost Paradise（失落的天堂）。虽然这只是一张标准的死亡金属专辑，但还是获得了一定的好评，销量也还不错。从此，这个高产而富有创新精神的乐队开始了他们不断变化的音乐历程。
1991年三月，乐队发行了那张极具影响力的经典专辑Gothic（歌特）。这张专辑的最好评价正是它的名字--歌特。富于变化的弦乐，浓厚和谐的吉他，高亢唯美的女声和黑暗的主音吉他，PARADISE LOST在这张专辑中创造了一种独特崭新的声音，也使得他们似乎脱离了死亡金属的范畴，开始迈入新的领域。
1992年P.L.为寻求更大发展，离开了Peaceville，与大公司Music For Nations签了三年的合同。乐队在新专辑的录制过程中请来了新的制作人Simon Efemy。1992年7月，Shades of God（神的阴影）如期发行，这或许是P.L.最好的专辑了。里面充满了奇妙的和弦和原声吉他演奏，专辑体现出的音乐创作方向也与以前很不一样。这张专辑的音乐已经不能再被称之为死亡金属了，那种死亡金属的暴力与速度只是偶尔闪现。
在成功结束他们的巡演之后，乐队直接进入Longhome录音室，借助Simon Efemy的制作和Dave McKean的美工，1992年10月发行的EPAs I Die（我弥留之际）取得了更大范围内的认可。EP主题曲甚至被欧洲MTV反复播放，并且被评为当周最佳金属单曲。
1993年七月，PARADISE LOST发行了他们第四张专辑Icon（肖像），仍由Simon Efemy制作。“Icon”获得了巨大成功，被誉为歌特金属的惊人杰作，在这张专辑中，P.L.找到了与主流金属的结合点。同时，它也宣告P.L.早期受死亡金属影响的风格到此为止。
接下来又是一张EPSeals the Sense（禁锢意识），这使得乐队在1994年夏天忙于在一系列的音乐节上进行演出。其中在德国Nornberg的Rock in the Ring音乐节上面对70,000名疯狂尖叫歌迷的那次演出是乐队有史以来规模最大的演唱会了。接着乐队又继续在欧洲其他的大型音乐节上露面，最后以八月发行的首盘全长音乐录影带Harmony Breaks（和谐的破坏）作为这个夏天的结束。
1994年末，鼓手Matt Archer被Lee Morris替换，他对乐队失去兴趣被认为是他离队的原因。尽管成员发生变化，Lee并没有给乐队下张专辑带来很大影响，因为Draconian Times（严峻时代）中大多数歌曲都已经创作甚至录制好了。
在1995年发行的这张“Draconian Times中，PARADISE LOST戏剧化地改进了他们的歌曲创作能力。专辑了充满了黑暗的旋律，沉重的节奏，震撼的鼓声，富有想象力的歌词和几乎完美无瑕的嗓音。从第一首歌“Enchantment”开始，P.L.的音乐中的那种情绪和氛围就能激发起你的想象力，鼓舞你的精神，引发你的思考，这与90年代那种典型的无脑垃圾般的偶像音乐有着天壤之别。接下来PARADISE LOST进行了大型的全球巡演来促销专辑。Draconian Times全球范围内售了一百多万张，这对于一个这种半地下的乐队来说是前所未闻的。
1997年P.L.发行了第六张专辑One Second（一秒），这是一张令P.L.歌迷大为困惑的专辑。机鼓，Techno的节奏，电子音乐成分甚至超过了吉他，而且还有不少非主流的成分。PARADISE LOST似乎想做出一张旋律更为美妙，更容易入耳的专辑来争取新的歌迷。也许真的能象METALLICA那样在改变风格之后赢得了更多的歌迷，但更有可能失去那些真正最好的歌迷--或许我就是其中之一。
1998年，P.L.凭借庞大的专辑销量，得以与主流唱片公司EMI签约，并于1999年发行了最新专辑Host（主人），这张专辑中P.L.已经彻底变成一支电子／工业乐队，这令众多金属迷感到爽然若失。
PARADISE LOST对死亡音乐界的影响是无法估量的，在Gothic之后很多死亡金属乐队都开始尝试弦乐，女声和原音吉他在死亡音乐中的可能性。这里面包括了最有名的AMORPHIS，SENTENCED，THERION等，就这个意义上来说，PARADISE LOST无疑是最伟大的死亡/歌特金属乐队之一了。
John Milton, a poet and political commenter of the English Bourgeois Revolution, is the most sublime and most lonely figure in English literature, whose importance is acknowledged all over the world. He is the last rearguard of the Renaissance and the primary promoter of Enlightenment. The love of every form of human culture and the steadfast devotion to duty as the highest object in human life have shaped his entire career.
Of all his great works, Paradise Lost is the most complicated and most profound one, which wins him endless honor. It is indeed the only generally recognized epic in English literature since Beowulf and a heroic poem in Renaissance style. It deals with revolt from God, with sin and fall, and with the possible salvation. It presents the author’s views in an allegoric religious form, and readers will easily discern its basic idea—exposure of the ways of Satan and justification of the ways of God to men. It is the reflection of the reactionary forces of Milton’s time and the passionate appeal for freedom.
As the main character of Paradise Lost, Satan is definitely impressive and powerful, whose ambivalence catches all critics’ eyes and leads to centuries’ disputes. Those commenters can be classified into three groups. The first group mainly consists of revolutionists. They traditionally read this epic with strong political inclination, putting Satan at the place of protagonist and considering him a symbol of revolution, which must be influenced greatly by those western romantic poets such as William Blake and Percy B. Shelley (Fowler 45). They are generally called pro-Satanists.
Short Comment on Satan in Paradise Lost
since Apollo’s divine word “to understand yourself”, the western literature has been always fulfilling such pursuit and being in continuous self-questioning. Like Puluomixius’ rejection to divinity, 亚哈’s to nature, Satan’s fighting against God also ended up with failure. They are showing people with the limitation of mankind, reminding people o...
“Paradise Lost” is Minton’s masterpiece .It is a long epic in 12 books,
written in blank verse. The story were taken from the Old Testament: the creation
of the earth and Adam and Eve, the fallen angels in hell plotting against God, Satan’s temptation of Eve, and the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden .Satan and his followers are banished from heaven and driven into hell, but even here in hell, mist flames and poisonous fumes, Satan and his adherents are not discouraged. The poem ,as we are told at the outset, was “to justify the ways of God to man”,ie to advocate submission to the Almighty.
The epic shows the writer’s misery after the Restoration, and his determination for revolution. The style of the epic is grand, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.
