"As long as no one says we're a country and western band, I don't mind calling us metal or goth metal or whatever you like."

Vocalist and band co-founder Nicholas John Arthur Holmes, better known simply as Nick Holmes, discusses the British gothic metal godfathers Paradise Lost's new, 11th full-length studio album, "In Requiem", due to be released on May 21 in Europe via Century Media...

Vassil Varbanov: Mr, Nick Holmes, good morning! How are you?

Nick Holmes: Good morning, I'm fine. How are you?

V. V.: Fine. Are you nervous?

N. H.: No, ha-ha, not at all!

V. V.: Yeah, you've obviously been around for quite a while now and this is not your first release. However, although your new CD is ready, it will be officially released in a month. What kind of reactions are you getting so far?

N. H.: Very positive. There are just three tracks circling at the moment ("Beneath Black Skies", "Godless" and the title song off the maxi-single "The Enemy") and there's not much negativity. Everybody who heard it seems to like it, so we keep our fingers crossed and will see what happens.

V. V.: To what extent do you find "In Requiem" better than your previous effort, "Paradise Lost"?

N. H.: Evert album we do we try to make better than the previous one. We've got a bigger sound of the guitars and the drums, we didn't use ProTools as much as we had them in the past, and we kind of deliberately tried to make everything a lot heavier than on "Paradise Lost". I think the sound is a lot more live - we dropped a big part of the technology, so most of what you hear is what we've played.

V. V.: Basically, the main difference between the world of today, when you're releasing your 11th album, and the early 90's, when you had support by the likes of MTV, is that nowadays there are just magazines and independent radiostations likeВ ours supporting the scene. Does it make any difference to you?

N. H.: Of course. There's no output for heavy bands on media like MTV. I mean, there's some in England, but not in Germany, I believe. You have to adapt. Nowadays the Internet is a really good way of spreading the message of your music - via YouTube, MySpace and stuff. These are very useful things now, especially for underground bands.

V. V.: We know that in the UK it's quite different from what's in Germany and the rest of Europe. Are you more of a British band in terms of recognition or you'd say you have more fans in the rest of Europe?

N. H.: We definitely have more fans in the rest of Europe. Since our early days we've always done most of our concerts abroad. We do have a good following in England, but we've always kind of looked to mainland Europe... Basically, we wanna go everywhere.

V. V.: And what shold we say - is Paradise Lost a metal band or a goth metal band?

N. H.: We kind of raised goth metal, you know. That's a very liberal term nowadays and... Actually, I don't mind calling us either. As long as no one says we're a country and western band, I don't have a problem.

V. V.: Obviously, your band moniker came from John Milton's 17th century book "Paradise Lost", but what about nowadays - do you still have time to read?

N. H.: I like to read words that are not used anymore. As far as sitting for hours and reading goes - that's not really my style. That's more of a something I'd like to do rather than actually do.

V. V.: Two more questions to go. Less than two years ago you had your first show in Bulgaria. Do you keep any memories from it?

N. H.: Yeah, it was great and we're really looking forward to come back again. It's always good to play in places we've never been before, and Sofia was no exception.

V. V.: Last question: Paradise Lost are going on tour in the USA this autumn with Nightwish, and we were surprised to see that you'll be supporting them, although you're the older band...

N. H.: Yeah, we're established and we've been around for a very long time, but Nightwish are a very successful band right now. I mean, they can pull a crowd we could never even dream of pulling in America, so I think we're very fortunate to be on tour with them.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock