This review is part of a series focusing on exceptional, and potentially overlooked, albums released during the last couple of years. These are being singled out to draw attention to releases that seem to have less frequent online discourse than they deserve. For an album to be reviewed in this segment, it must have been released 6 months to 3 years ago by an act that hasn't performed at Dark Force Fest (since we're based in the east and many of our readers likely attend the event).
I don't frequently expect to begin a review of a synth based goth album by touching on the history of death metal, but most synth based goth albums don't come from musicians whose origins lie within that scene, and who spent part of their career developing new subgenres out of the still fresh carcass that was British death metal of the late 80s. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, so let's start by going back in time to an era where 'Disintegration' was new, and the Sisters of Mercy were still a recording band.
In an attempt to not bury the lead any further, Host consists of the two most visible members of the erstwhile death metal act, Paradise Lost. Though their roots lay within that particular subgenre, they
would quickly outgrow it, and originate a few more subgenres in the process. While Host is not Paradise Lost, the project's existance is completely entwined with the metal act, so it may be fairly important to
quitely skip though the relevant points of Paradise Lost's history in order to understand why Host exists.
Beginning with their second album, 'Gothic', Paradise Lost defined the emerging style of "death-doom", along with their cohorts My Dying Bride and Anathema. While they proved to be highly influential in this regard, that album pulled double duty by spawning the second sub-genre of their creation, the one contained in the title of the album itself, and the one that is particularly relevant to our story today; "Gothic Metal". Jumping ahead once again by a few years, any semblance of death metal had been fully excised from their sound by the time of their fifth album, 'Draconian Times', choosing instead to dwell within lush guitar and keyboard textures, and a certain accessabilty that was absent in much of their earlier work. Gregor MacKintosh, the guitarist and future Host member, has spoken at length about how he had been particularly involved within the Leeds goth scene in the 80s, and it's on
'Draconian Times' where that influence is on full display (specifically that of the Sisters of Mercy; Progenitors of all music).
While there is a bit more history to cover before we reach the review proper, I promise that the period of time that we'll focus on next is the most important era in regard to Host. Paradise Lost's next two
albums, 'One Second' and 'Host', would see them reinvent themselves and reach their most goth, and least metal, moments. The Sisters worship also substantually takes a backseat to Depeche Mode, of all groups, at this point. These two albums make heavy use of synths as their lead instrumentation, with the album 'Host' in particularly being almost completely lacking in obvious guitars (though Greg claims that much of it is actually heavily modified guitar recordings, rather than actual synth). These albums also show Nick Holmes, their vocalist, leave his heaviliy thrash inspired gruff vocals behind, developing further into a melodic powerhouse, full of morose melancholy. They would continue to evolve and change with each album beyond this 2 album era in the late 90s, though they would come to define their sound by their attempt to recapture or reinterpret the themes presented in Draconian Times beginning in the mid 2000s. While this was widely believed to be an improvement by the most ardent followers of the Halifax Five (a nickname never used to describe Paradise Lost and which I will promptly never use again), both Nick and Greg always maintained that they would like to return to the style presented on 'One Second' and 'Host' at some point in the future, since the music that had inspired those albums was still quite important to them. With the history lesson having now reached its end, we can finally investigate the album that is the reason we are here in the first place. At the tail end of 2022, the pair announced a new side project, Host, which intended to fully return to and modernize their late 90s sound and aural aesthetic. They released the single "Tomorrow's Sky" along side the announcement of their first album, 'IX'. While I would say that they were sucessful in reinterpreting the era, I'd also classify the sound as somewhere between the two referenced PL albums; it isn't quite as rock or metal oriented as 'One Second', but those elements are definitely more notable than the album 'Host'. Before 'IX' would eventually see the light of day in early 2023, we would not only see another single in "Hiding From Tomorrow", but the long fabled Gost-Host Connection coalesced into this reality in the form of a remix of "Tomorrow's Sky".
I'll be the first to admit that I am far from an unbiased listener, but I was thoroughly hooked by the time the album dropped. It was made available on both CD and vinyl (and maybe cassette, I'm not sure. I don't have time for magnets), while I myself had preordered the deluxe edition of the album which included a bonus record with a cover of 'I Ran' by A Flock of Seagulls, the previously mentioned Gost remix, and an additional remix. As much as I love this additional material, I really only want to focus on the core album for this review.
Beginning with the Tomorrow Duology was a great idea for the prerelease singles. "Tomorrow's Sky" is a punchy, upbeat track with an infectious chorus and equal influences from the band's namesake album, as well as modern dancey, retro-electro goth tracks. "Hiding From Tomorrow" musically borrows more
from 'One Second', though the tried and true Sisters of Mercy worship rears its head in the form of the same opening drum pattern used on "Lucrecia My Reflection". It's also this song that pulls the most
emotional weight on this allbum. It's an unexpected gutpunch of sorrow and wistful determination. It paints a picture of struggling to face the future and move beyond moments of reality that seem to have no sense or purpose. The inescapable, negative moments that define one's character, while ackowledging a personal end rapidly approaching. Moving on with the album, "Divine Emotion" and "A
Troubled Mind" provide appropriate counterpoints when sandwiching "Hiding From Tomorrow". They are both a bit more low energy in an introspective, resolute manner. Resolute introspection. Come to
think of it, that is perhaps the perfect description of the tone of the album as a whole. "My Only Escape" brings some more guitar back into the mix, but otherwise keeps the same mid-tempo of the preceding track. This one feels somewhat strange, though, and certainly one of the tracks that has grown on me the most since release. it feels like a near perfect blend of the track "In All Honesty" from the band's namesake album, and "The Hours", a non-album track also of a late 90s vintage. "Inquisition" brings in some light NIN leitmotifs merged with some soulful Dave Gahan-esque crooning. The album then ends on "Instinct", a brooding piece with an uneasy vibe leaving you with feelings of hopelessness. A perfect ending.
Over all, this album is absolutely worth the time of anyone who unfortunately may not have been aware of it due to its metal pedigree. If you enjoy Depeche Mode but always wished that they were more hopeless, then this is an album for you. If you don't feel like listening to a full album right away, I'd recommend starting with the two early singles, "Tomorrow's Sky" and "Hiding From Tomorrow", along with "Divine Emotion", "My Only Escape", and "Inquisition". The rest of the album is more than worth your time, but those five will be enough if you only have 24 minutes and absolutely must listen to
something.
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