Paradise Lost / Messa / Lacrimas Profundere
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Zagreb / Boogaloo / Croatia
The sixth visit of the great veterans and pioneers of doom-death metal, the British forefathers Paradise Lost, to Zagreb — this time as part of their latest European “Ascension” tour — landed on the must-see concert list like a gift on a silver platter! The writer of these lines had sorely missed the band. Ever since the last encounter, which dates back to a show more than 10 years ago — also in Zagreb. Back then, Paradise Lost played the considerably smaller venue Vintage Industrial Bar!
Given the excellence of the superb new studio album — already the seventeenth in a row, none other than “Ascension” — the urge to get out to a Paradise Lost show was all the stronger! The band, which has operated in what is essentially an unchanged lineup since the very beginning — apart from the occasional change on drums, most recently when Jeff Singer (who played with Paradise Lost back in 2007–2008) rejoined the team this year — keeps the studio sounding remarkably fresh. You’d expect a safe album from legends like these: solid quality, no question, but nothing to write home about. Yet with their latest effort, Paradise Lost have confirmed an exceptional artistic sharpness and drive that refuses to let them down even in their mature years, when many would say they could rightly take a well-earned rest.
Paradise Lost invited two interesting dark acts on the new tour, both stylistically well-suited to the legacy of these British icons of doom and death metal. They are German veterans Lacrimas Profundere, who opened the evening, and special guests, the Italian Messa, whose concerts literally and brilliantly conjure up the full weight of the band’s name.
Boogaloo, the legendary Zagreb club we always love coming back to, promised one big feast of dark metal congregation. It filled up nicely. The venue actually sold out on the day of the show (when I stepped out of the club a few hours in — to be precise, after the first three Paradise Lost songs — to drop my camera gear in the car, there was a crowd at the entrance ramp who couldn’t get in anymore, because the event had by then completely sold out).
The generationally colourful crowd put the cherry on top of this excellent event, kicked off by the Germans Lacrimas Profundere, who in a good half-hour took us through their blend of melodic doom-death metal — the sound they returned to on their last two albums, “How To Shroud Yourself With Night” (2023) and “Bleeding The Stars” (2019), from which most of the setlist was drawn. Given the current lineup featuring vocalist Julian Larre, who joined in 2018, a fairly logical move. Of the original members of the band, founded in 1993, only guitarist Oliver Nikolas Schmidt remains today, joined by Larre, drummer Dominik Scholz, and bassist Ilker Ersin. From the band’s dark rock era they delivered the title track “Ave End”, which gave the set a nice lift. A change of atmosphere always lands well, especially when you suddenly veer into gothic/dark territory and stay standing in the new shoes just fine. Otherwise, Lacrimas Profundere rounded off their symphonic doom-death excursion with the “Bleeding the Stars” single Father Of Fate, during which Julian practically crawled into the laps of the front row and managed to coax real reactions out of a crowd that had by this point filled the venue nicely — which was exactly what the vocalist was going for. A very well-executed warm-up from a cult act.
Next up were the Italians Messa. The band, based in the Italian city of Treviso, is on the rise and rapidly expanding their fanbase. Their fourth studio album “The Spin” can be called a transitional record compared to the first three, firmly rooted in eclectic, experimental doom metal, as the band spread their wings artistically and began flirting with gothic rock elements without losing an ounce of their own identity. That the band is well-regarded and already deeply lodged in the hearts of the hopeless melancholics who turned up that evening was signalled by a solid and at times very audible crowd response during their set. The band occasionally had to rely on backing tracks (keyboards), but that’s a secondary matter. Vocalist Sara Bianchin, standing bathed in a spotlight’s glare, practically motionless throughout the performance, channelling boundless grief in her vocal delivery and surrounded by the dark, mystical backdrop of the accompanying ensemble, truly conjures the feeling of being caught in the middle of a mass. Just as the band’s name commands. The feeling of being swallowed whole by the hopeless depths of the darkest ritual. In compositions that unfold slowly there is an enormous amount of space, which guitarist Alberto Piccolo filled skillfully with solos. The band distinguished themselves with precision and tight ensemble playing, and also very decent sound (for a support act). Messa largely presented their latest album “The Spin”, which came out this past spring, opening their set with the track Babalon from their debut “Belfry”. With a convincing performance and the artistic presence of true musical originals, the band almost certainly won over a few new fans that evening.
Paradise Lost are Paradise Lost. Nobody can take that away from them. When the lights went completely dark in Boogaloo, the crowd erupted. Expectations were sky-high. The band had finally returned to Zagreb and Boogaloo after eight years. In an hour and twenty minutes, the band practically toured the entire discography. It was a real journey through the band’s entire creative career. They covered every era of their career — though interestingly, they played just three new songs from the excellent “Ascension”. They could easily have added two more and extended the show by at least ten minutes; that is the only complaint: the set was simply too short.
Here is that menacing, elemental destructive force of four dark souls who have been brothers in good and evil since the founding in 1988, underpinned by the thunderous assault of Singer’s drumming — with Singer himself shielded behind plexiglass panels at Boogaloo. Holmes and his statue-like stage presence remain a band classic. Initially withdrawn from the front of the stage, the vocalist stood right by the drum riser — it has long been perfectly clear that photographers get on his nerves. Once they step back, he moves toward the crowd. A motionless figure, dark-eyed and brooding, as the band’s artistry demands. The vocalist was in excellent concert form and convincing both in his growls and his clean singing. He also remembered to warmly thank the crowd a few times. A Paradise Lost concert is, in any case, complete hypnosis. The elemental quality of those sinister, darkly devastating riffs building a massive wall of sound — punctuated by Mackintosh’s characteristic guitar flourishes — grabbed you with unstoppable force. Of course, the sound characteristics in the club that evening also called for some adaptation in terms of finding the right spot in the venue. Standing near the mixing desk did the trick — somewhere in the middle, but at the back of the club. Even all the tracks from the transitional period — which many a doom/death metal purist finds questionable (One Second, Nothing Sacred, and the musically elevated gothic-metal soarer Mouth, plus the essential hit Just Say Words played at the grand finale of the closing section) — slotted perfectly into the rest of the material, strictly devoted to the unholy communion of doom-death metal absolutism.
The feeling was extraordinary. It goes without saying that the performance was flawless. Craft, knowledge, power! The passion for live performance that drives this quintet is still very much alive. In the front rows you could spot girls around twenty years old — right in front of Greg Mackintosh — rattling off Paradise Lost lyrics from memory, regardless of what era they came from. Incredible. A sight that tells you the band’s catalogue has earned the status of timelessness. And necks were snapping with particular enthusiasm during the big classics: True Belief, Pitty The Sadness, and Once Solemn.
What followed was a rather surprising encore, free of the early-era doom/death metal classics. Bursts of spotlight beams lick the stage one last time as the band fires off the “Symbol of Life” classic No Celebration. This gothic requiem provides the perfect lead-in to the gothic continuation with Ghosts, taken from the previous “Obsidian” album — a track you could easily call the lost song that The Sisters Of Mercy forgot to write. And then the closing Silence Like the Grave from the latest album “Ascension”, which at one stroke embodies everything Paradise Lost are and, thankfully, continue to be! Brilliant. Direct. Mind-blowing! A band that grinds without brakes and a band that stands strong and unyielding on their own terms!
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Lacrimas Profundere – setlist:
1. Like Screams in Empty Halls
2. A Cloak Woven of Stars
3. To Disappear in You
4. The Kingdom Solicitude
5. An Invisible Beginning
6. Unseen Play
7. Ave End
8. Father of Fate
Messa – setlist:
1. Babalon
2. At Races
3. The Dress
5. Reveal
6. Thicker Blood
Paradise Lost – setlist:
1. Serpent on the Cross
2. Tragic Idol
3. True Belief
4. One Second
5. Once Solemn
6. Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us
7. Pity the Sadness
8. Beneath Broken Earth
9. Nothing Sacred
10. Tyrants Serenade
11. Requiem
12. Mouth
13. Say Just Words
—encore—
14. No Celebration
15. Ghosts
16. Silence Like the Grave
