I was a huge PL fan from the release of Gothic, one of the first, if not the first goth album I ever owned. With their next two albums, Shades of God and Icon, the band kept getting better and better until they released Draconian Times, when we had a bit of a falling out. I hated it. It seemed like some Black Album sell out bullshit to me and I wanted nothing to do with it. (Even to this day, it’s an album I have no time for.) But it was huge, the band became tipped to be the European Metallica, and it really looked like they were going to be the next kings of metal. But PL ended up touring for four years (!) on the back of Times and by the end of it they were broken and hated what had become their signature sound. They thought they were done, so Greg, the songwriter, wandered off, bought some keyboards and a computer and came back with a whole new sound. The band’s new direction was a bit less metal and had electronics. And somehow didn’t alienate their fan base.
There was nothing new about the keyboards or harpsichord on the opening track. Both had been used in metal for decades at that point, but the electronic acid squelch? In something that wasn’t industrial? Now we’re doing something a bit different. I’ve seen this album described as Depeche Metal and it’s a perfect description. I’m not sure if this was the first album to try it, but it’s certainly the best to do it.
PL were always good with making their music catchy, but as they leaned into that Depeche Mode sound, suddenly there’s pop hooks in the music. These are songs you can hum, rather than morosely bang your head to. (Although that’s more than a bit unfair to the band’s older material).
That’s not to say that the album is just a Martin Gore love fest, Just Say Words is a big, stompy goth rock dancefloor filler, Disappear is a fragile, haunted, ghost of a song, but that DM sweet spot really works perfectly. Mercy is pretty much just Depeche Mode with the serial numbers filed off, and it’s one of the best DM songs Depeche Mode has never written.
This Cold Life is the album highlight for me, the gentle electronics combined with Nick’s clean singing lead you gently into the song before the huge guitars and electronics take hold. This song sounds like what Songs of Faith and Devotion would have sounded like if Dave Gahn had been obsessed with Paradise Lost instead of Jane’s Addiction. It’s so good.
I’ve heard this described as an attempt to jump on the mid 90’s industrial bandwagon, but I can’t imagine such an obstinate band chasing any trend. They followed One Second with Host, which almost completely got rid of the guitars and it cost them most of their fan base, myself included. (I was wrong btw Host is amazing) PL are a band that have always followed their own path, they’re credited with creating Death Doom, mastering Goth Metal and then with One Second embracing electronica in a way the bands that came after them would follow.
For me it was the perfect album and the perfect time, that goth / metal / electronic hybrid is still catnip for me. PL are still going, they’ve gone back to the metal sound they helped create and those new albums are really great, but this one will always have a special place in my heart.
https://lynkify.in/song/this-cold-life/m4v6PELj
The ways of exile 