Giunto ad un anno e poco più di distanza dal precedente GOTHIC, il terzo lavoro dei Paradise Lost presenta notevoli differenze con l'illustre predecessore. Se Gothic era un capolavoro Doom Metal, lento oscuro e opprimente con un sound che non lasciava spazio alla speranza, qui fin dalla prima traccia MORTALS WATCH THE DAY viene messa in luce la capacità del gruppo di non fossilizzarsi su un genere e saper alternare brillantemente assalti Death a brani lenti e decadenti come la successiva CRYING FOR ETERNITY che si segnala per l'ottimo assolo finale di chitarra. EMBRACED ci mostra come questo disco sia pervaso di una rabbia distruttiva esaltata da una straordinaria prova vocale di Nick Holmes qui forse al suo apice come cantante.

Dopo la lunga DAYLIGHT TORN è il turno della fenomenale PITY THE SADNESS cavalcata elettrica che si distingue per lo stupendo testo e per il senso di struggente disperazione che la pervade. Segue la strutturata NO FORGIVENESS e la inquietante YOUR HAND IN MINE, introdotta da un coro di voci alquanto spettrali.
Ma è l'ultimo brano a rappresentare l'apice del disco. AS I DIE, quella canzone destinata ad essere l'inno dei Paradise Lost, forse non il loro brano migliore ma quello che per la rabbia, le emozioni e l'intensità che sprigiona è la chiave per capire il significato non solo di questo disco ma di tutta la carriera del gruppo Inglese.

" TAKING A CHANCE / AND TAKE WHAT YOU GAIN / MY SOUL IT HAS NO PRICE / TOTAL RELEASE IS OUT OF HARMS WAY UNTIL I CAN DECIDE / YOU PUNISH ME / CAN'T YOU SEE / I'M NOT REAL / TEARS ARE FLOWING FREE / PASSING BY / AS I DIE "

Elenco tracce testi e video

01   Mortals Watch the Day (05:12)

Plead forgiveness father
All my troubles fade from view
Pale the four walls surround
Have I madness in my eyes?

While mortals watch the day
Our fear will pave the way
Hidden until the end

See a room of crimson
Nothing I have seen before
Coldness wrapped around me
Struggle not for hell is here

While tyrants close the doors
Each one will know the score
Sorrow takes it all

Saved the sick of life's bliss
Charity of utmost guilt
Fear the blinded temper
It has lied it's way to you...

While mortals watch the day
And light has turned to grey
What lies up ahead

Light shines into your eyes
That I'm blinded by, your eyes
Mortal throughout the days
Until we're saved (...we're saved)

Turning to black
I can't see through this
No option from turning away
We will see another day
(Turning away... will we see another day)

02   Crying for Eternity (07:04)

03   Embraced (04:29)

Pain... is what we are waiting for
Lying deep in comfort, I awake now
I cannot believe this tale
I cannot believe the echoes... or your petty lies

Take away our world, thrown into the stars
Take away our world, worship all that's ours

Cry at echoes in your heart
Lying in the ocean until the end of time
Solitude embracing us
Suicide our hearts embrace
Life and death become the race

Take away the world, hold it to the sky
Take away the world, pity your demise

Array of fear, controls me now
And I cry - in dark despair

Take me away
Take away our world
Take me away
Take away our world

04   Daylight Torn (07:52)

05   Pity the Sadness (05:05)

Sadness lives after we die
The pains of life increased outright
Contempt and sins priorities...
To crush good fortune to its knees
Morning...

Morning's calm, inside I cry
This painful live has raped my mind
Take me down, slow release
From sorrow's penetration
Morning...

Life is there for me
Hell is there for me

Sunlight greets my open wounds
Morning's light reflects the doom
My soul is free, it lives again
To roam alone in darkness
Morning...

I've cried for god
And I've cried for you
I pray that in the end your sense will break though

Sadness lives after we die
The pains of life increased outright
Contest my sins priorities
Crushed my spirit to its knees

06   No Forgiveness (07:36)

07   Your Hand in Mine (07:08)

08   The Word Made Flesh (04:40)

09   As I Die (03:46)

As I die

Stare as eyes uphold me
And wait to see right through
And curse me... The love has crippled you

Shadows haunt the night
Burning my disguise

As I die

Reaping through the truth
Life becomes untrue

Sin the last diversion
My fate will be untouched
Dismissed now, the anger of a fool

Shadows haunt the night
Forgive me as I die

Taking a chance
And take what you gain
My soul it has no price
Total release is out of harms way until I can decide
You punish me, can't you see, I'm not real

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