Paradise Lost’s new full-length album »Ascension« out now via Nuclear Blast Records; watch lyric video for »Lay A Wreath Upon The World«!
UK gothic/doom metal legends Paradise Lost celebrate the release of their new full-length album »Ascension« with a lyric video for »Lay A Wreath Upon The World«. Featuring additional vocals by Heather Thompson.
»Ascension« was just released this Friday, September 19th, 2025 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Tracklist:
01. Serpent On The Cross
02. Tyrants Serenade
03. Salvation
04. Silence Like The Grave
05. Lay A Wreath Upon The World
06. Diluvium
07. Savage Days
08. Sirens
09. Deceivers
10. The Precipice
11. This Stark Town (Bonus Track)
12. A Life Unknown (Bonus Track)
Courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records:
Paradise Lost comments: “The Ascension is here. Our new album is out now – 10 hymns of sorrow and defiance, finally released into the world!
It took us nearly 40 years to get here but we’re still tuning our instruments to the key of despair! Please enjoy!
The lyric video for the fan-chosen focus track »Lay A Wreath Upon The World« is premiering on YouTube.”
More than three decades into their career, and with over two million albums sold, Paradise Lost remain the undisputed kings of metal’s dark side.
Formed in Halifax in 1988, the band quickly became noted as the pioneers of gothic metal through their early groundbreaking albums like 1991’s aptly-titled »Gothic«, a mixture of heaviness intertwined with shadowy melody and atmosphere.
Never a group to remain creatively static, across their career they’ve explored a myriad of avenues of dark music, from sludgy doom-death roots, to conquering the metal mainstream with the enormous, lush sounds of 1995’s »Draconian Times«, to more experimental, electronic leanings, leaving an influence on a trail of artists as varied as Cradle Of Filth, HIM, Gatecreeper and Chelsea Wolfe.
Now, in 2025, the Yorkshire quintet return with their staggering 17th album, »Ascension«, a record that sees their crown continue to gleam as it underlines just how they attained their position. Produced by guitarist Gregor Mackintosh at Black Planet studios in East Yorkshire, with drums and vocals captured at NBS and Wasteland studios in Sweden, its 10 tracks traverse the multitude of sounds in the band’s arsenal, from full-bore heavy metal to sky-high melody, all the while keeping a minor-key melancholy that remains irresistible.
Photo by Ville Jurrikkala
“People should expect us to get more miserable,” jokes frontman Nick Holmes when asked what fans might anticipate from Paradise Lost in 2025. Explaining the album’s title and the lyrics, however, it’s clear that they remain masters of their art when it comes to delivering on such things.
“The album title is taken from the belief in rising to the better place, in fiction from Earth to heaven, and all the requirements that go with that,” he elaborates. “In real life, people are often striving to get to a better place from birth, trying to be a better person, regardless of the fact that the only reward is death.”
“The lyrics deal with everything that life throws at us,” he continues. “It’s never predictable, and within that it can also be terrifying. How people deal with death, the crutches they turn to, and how the mental state is affected by life changing situations is always intriguing.”
As is the music itself. Album opener »Serpent On The Cross« begins with a gloriously doomy riff, before halfway through shifting gears into thundering classic metal, powered by double bass drumming and an almost Metallica-ish riff. On »Silence Like The Grave«, Nick sings “about the pointlessness of war, point scoring for the sake of humankind” over a perfect flourish of gothic metal.
»Tyrant’s Serenade«, meanwhile, shows the band’s engrained expertise with making simplicity sound enormous, topped by Gregor’s signature haunting guitar leads, while »Lay A Wreath Upon The World« starts as a quiet elegy before building to a mournful climax, and closer »The Precipice« leads with piano lines before drawing things to a stately conclusion.
It all masterfully shows the breadth of what Paradise Lost have done and can do, in a manner that still no other band can make work quite the same.
“After 35 years, everything is conscious,” says Nick. “It’s difficult not to be 100% sure of where everything is coming from having such a vast varied back catalogue, but ultimately it simply comes down to if we like the music we are creating or not. If we do, it stays! That hasn’t changed since we were teenagers.”
»Ascension« stands proud in Paradise Lost’s canon. The misery never stops but, says Nick, that’s how they like it. “Ironically,” he laughs, “miserable music is always the most enjoyable to listen to, and write I guess.”
Order »Ascension« HERE.
In celebration of the new album, Paradise Lost has also announced a handful of intimate signing sessions and a record release show in Leeds, UK. Tickets are available now at tix.to/ascension.
Sep 20 – Sheffield, UK @ Bear Tree (4PM BST) – Signing Session
Sep 21 – Birmingham, UK @ HMV (2PM BST) – Signing Session
Sep 22 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club (7PM BST) – Record Release Show
Sep 24 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East (12PM BST) – Signing Session
Paradise Lost Tour Dates:
Oct 9 – Manchester, UK – New Century Hall
Oct 10 – Wolverhampton, UK – KK’s Steel Mill
Oct 11 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK – Newcastle University
Oct 12 – Glasgow, UK – Glasgow Garage
Oct 14 – Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
Oct 15 – Bristol, UK – Electric
Oct 16 – Southampton, UK – The 1865
Oct 17 – London, UK – Islington Assembly Hall
Oct 19 – Oignies, FR – Tyrant Fest 2025
Oct 20 – Paris, FR – Élysée Montmartre
Oct 21 – Lyon, FR – La Rayonne
Oct 23 – Köln, DE – Live Music Hall
Oct 24 – Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU – Rockhal
Oct 25 – Dornbirn, AT – Conrad Sohm
Oct 26 – Padova, IT – Hall
Oct 28 – Munich, DE – Backstage Werk
Oct 29 – Prague, CZ – Palc Akropolis
Oct 30 – Zagreb, HR – Boogaloo Zagreb
Oct 31 – Vienna, AT – Simm City
Nov 1 – Budapest, HU – Dürer Kert
Nov 3 – Geneva, CH – PTR/L’Usine
Nov 4 – Nürnberg, DE – Z-Bau Biergarten
Nov 5 – Utrecht, NL – Pandora
Nov 6 – Antwerpen, BE – Trix Hall
Dec 13 – Bradford, UK – Bradford Live
Tickets available at paradiselost.co.uk/tour-dates
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well