"It's going very well for us right now," says guitarist and co-founder Greg Mackintosh. "The last albums have all gone well and we have slowly worked our way up the festival line-ups again. But I mean it more in the sense of being relaxed and satisfied. This is a very good time to be part of PARADISE LOST."

After their formation in 1988 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, PARADISE LOST did not necessarily appear like metal heroes, as they crawled out of the shadows and infiltrated the London underground. But then, after laying the foundation of an entire subgenre with their early death/doom masterpiece "Gothic" and conquering the metal mainstream with the raw power of 1995's "Draconian Times", they began to continuously and skillfully blur genre boundaries, masterfully moving away from the pitch-black art of the 90s alt-rock classics "One Second" and "Host" to hard, but also to develop the fine style of the 2009 "Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us" and "Tragic Idol" (2012). The band's last two albums – "The Plague Within" (2015) and "Medusa" (2017) – were praised above all for their successful return to a brutal old-school approach, two colossal works of slow death and spiritual defeat. Hailed as one of the most charismatic live bands ever, PARADISE LOST kick off this new decade as veterans, legends and icons for several generations of dark metalheads. In the tradition of never delivering what others expect, 2020 will see the release of one of the band's most diverse and darkest works to date.

"When we first started writing this album, we just sat down, thought about it, and said, 'Let's see what comes out of it!'" Greg says. "We've never gone through signing with a big label and then being under constant pressure. The only pressure came from ourselves. I just wanted it to sound a bit smoother than the last album and a bit less like caveman in the rhythm department! (laughs) I think those were really the only targets we set ourselves. On "Medusa" this slow, rough vibe ran through the entire album, so I'd be bored like everyone else to do it again. So this time it will be much more varied."

The sixteenth PARADISE LOST studio album, "Obsidian" eschews the eerie, short-sighted approach of its immediate predecessor and instead chooses a richer and more dynamic range of blacks. From the deceptive elegance of opener 'Darker Thoughts' to the crushing, baroque doom of the final song, 'Ravenghast', 'Obsidian' features a band that masterfully controls and masters a gigantic breadth of vivid ideas. Most strikingly, the album contains several songs that seem to draw their inspiration directly from the beloved, cabbage-smeared heyday of '80s gothic rock: especially the brand new PL anthem 'Ghosts' is a clear guarantee for a full dance floor for any good gothic nightclub.