Band:	Paradise Lost
Album:	Reflection
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	1998
Guest review by:	Gorey

01. Say Just Words
02. Hallowed Land
03. True Belief
04. Pity The Sadness
05. Eternal
06. Forever Failure [Remix version]
07. Gothic
08. One Second
09. Rotting Misery [Remix version]
10. Last Time
11. Mercy
12. Widow
13. Embers Fire
14. As I Die
15. Soul Courageous [live]
16. Blood Of Another [live]
17. As I Die [live]

Must we consider Paradise Lost as pioneers? At first sight, they don't seem different from many other bands, with the exception that a certain melodic evolution seems to have braked the pure gothic metal intentions of the band. This is no criticism. Paradise Lost has evolved, full stop. Maybe because of time, maybe consciously according to the wishes of the two leaders Greg Mackintosh and Nick Holmes, Paradise Lost has taken another path that since has created lots of clones, but unlike these followers, they have kept their honesty and their authenticity. In other words, they play the music they would like to hear.

It must be said that from their first album 'Lost Paradise' until the wonderful 'Draconian Times' the evolution has been soft, without hurry. In this point of view, the 1998 best-of 'Reflection' is a real confirmation that the band has never ever denied its origins, its first felings, whereas the aspect of their music became more complex, more melodic. So here is a summary of their alredy long career of six albums. The old standards are here, of course, like 'As I Die', the monument 'True Belief', and also tracks from the good 'Gothic', with the title track and 'Eternal'. Some other songs sound like unforgettable hymns even if they are more recent, like 'Hallowed Land', 'The Last Time' and 'Say Just Words'.

Thus 'Reflection' shows an unusual vision of Paradise Lost, emphasizing as well the old songs as the new. Mixing the periods, the band is not afraid to link the magnificent 'Forever Failure' with the tribal 'Gothic'. We find with pleasure songs like 'Pity The Sadness'and its powerful guitar riffs, or the dark and gloomy atmosphere of 'As I Die' and 'True Belief'. Even if the tracks are not always perfectly linked [it sometimes sounds like organized mess], they have the merit to represent the obscure and mysterious image of these five men.

In the end, I must say Paradise Lost has added three good live bonus-tracks, 'Blood Of Another' and 'Soul Courageous' from the album 'One Second', and a dynamite version of 'As I Die'. To sum up, this best of is an astonishing mix, but also as its name says a reflecting mirror that tries to found the real identity of the band throughout its musical sensibility.