Paradise Lost
Draconian Times

When I heard it in 1995, I thought: "This is Icon Vol.2". I didn't like "Icon", so I didn't pay any attention. It took two decades for me to get back to it and to delve into this album as well as into "Host" and "Believe in nothing". Amazing music, excellent production. Love Greg's Mackintosh solos. Favorite is the closing solo in "Forever Failure". The other remarkable for me are in "Hallowed Land" and "The Last Time". Another cool detail for me in this album are drums and everything related to it - the drummer's (Lee Morris) musicianship, the way they recorded, the panning, attention to all the details, performed by Lee Morris. Very cool album!

Different albums - different styles - still a confusing metal profile - but hey - an absolute robust metal album

This album is certainly one of the best in the work of Paradise Lost, however, despite this, it turned out to be somewhat ambiguous. It was at the Draconian Times that the group caught the very unique sound that makes it like that. But I got such an impression that the group seemed to consciously add a small fly in the ointment to the album. It is unclear how amid the really Very Strong atmospheric things like Enchantment, Forever Failure, Yearn For Change, Elusive Cure, funny and cheerful, almost completely dummy The Last Time, Once Solemn, Hallowed Land ... It honestly sounds a little strange, and if it were not for the original sound of the album and the work of Gregor, it would be a clear minus. And so the band even managed to organically weave such seemingly inappropriate things into the spirit of the album, and as a result, everything is heard whole and relaxed. The big minus of the album is the blurry ending. If before the song Yearn For Change the album is listened in one breath, then after this song the album becomes sharply boring. It’s not even that faint songs go on, no, the songs are generally quite good. It seems to me that the essence is that Yearn For Change, being one of the strongest songs on the album, is simply in its spirit its logical conclusion, after such a strong song the following are no longer perceived properly. So, this is not a claim to the material, but rather to the layout of the album.

Old but still rocks. Probably the best Paradise Lost album of all times. These veterans still have their place in metal world!

Paradise Lost' Draconian Times is among their best records. This is great doom metal, with less death metal influences than earlier works.

Masterpiece. Here Paradise lost reached the perfect Equilibrium between gothic-catchy approach to songs and Majestic inspiration, both in lyrics and music. Reprises are pure rapture. Nick's voice at great level. This album is equally distant from the last doom-death-gothic flavour of these years and from the "famous" pop-period of the band. A mileston in their career. Perfect if listened with "Icon"

Beachtenswertes Album, welches Paradise Lost gelungen ist. Gehört in jede Sammlung.