The most overrated Paradise Lost album...but still good.

Review Score: (6/10)
Many Paradise Lost fans look back to this album as the "good old days"-- and good they were, with emphasis on "good." Unfortunately, many of these same fans who don't like what the band has done with their sound more recently tend to inflate this album in their memories into some legendary piece of artwork, which it is not. It's a good album, the work of a band still progressing and doing some brilliantly unique things along the way, especially with guitars.
The guitars carry this album, although much of the music is excellent. Music writer and lead guitar player Greg Mackintosh has one sorrow-filled and beautiful riff after another on display here. He and rythmn guitarist Aaron Aedy work very well together and are a joy to listen to. The work these men have put down on this album has spawned many imitators, and that is a credit to Mackintosh and co-writer/vocalist Nick Holmes. Holmes brings a despairing growl to the music-- distinctive, but not over the top or a distraction from the musical work. But it is the splendid doom-laden guitars that resound throughout and give "Shades of God" its legacy. "Pity the Sadness", "When Mortals Watch the Day", and "Your Hand In Mine" are monuments in guitar driven dark music.
As good as the guitars are, however, they can't cover up several faults with the album. The foremost of these is that the album gets overbearing. Nearly every song is a seven minute slab of melodic, distorted drear. It is beautiful, but in the way a walk in heavy rain is beautiful-- for awhile it is a wonderful and refreshing experience, even in its inherently gloomy character, but after two or three miles down the road you're left soaked to the bone and needing a different setting. After five or so tracks, the album drags even in the best of circumstances. It doesn't help that the drumming is terrible-- a sort of half-hearted, amateurish effort by Matt Archer.
The song "As I Die" is one of their most popular songs to date, and stands out as an up-tempo and shorter variation on what is mostly a trudging sound for the whole album. It's a great song, and when compared with the rest on the album proves that even in the depression and gloom of goth metal, lengthier is not always better.

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