Decibrity Playlist: Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), Part 2

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To celebrate Tuesday’s release of Tragic Idol, we asked Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh to a pick a non-PL record that related in some way to each of his band’s thirteen full-length records that he’s played on over nearly a quarter century (i.e. all of them). Last week, Greg’s entries took us from 1990′s Lost Paradise up through and including 1997′s One Second. Now, we present the second half of his picks, which we’ve compiled into a Spotify playlist. Given the wide parameters—where his head was at musically, something that he was really into at the time or represents the period for him—we think that some of his selections will continue to surprise.
Be sure to check out more of our Tragic Idol celebration, including Chris Dick’s awesome cover story and a stream of the quintet’s new record!

Host (1999) :: Recoil’s Unsound Methods
Unsound Methods is a very quirky record with lots of experimentation going on. When I listened to this album, it was like I could feel the musical freedom. Records like this led to Host. I was kind of tired of fitting into a mold and wanted to branch out. Host shocked a lot of people. If I had had it totally my way, it would have been way more avant-garde and probably unlistenable to most.

Believe In Nothing (2001) :: Dead Can Dance’s Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun
I had loved this record for many years, and I remember playing it a lot at this time. Not for inspiration, although maybe I should have, but for comfort. After Host we lacked direction, and there were lots of problems within the band, and too much compromise going on between us and the label.

Symbol Of Life (2002) :: Schindler’s List OST
The recording of this album was an immensely sad time due to various personal issues within the band. This soundtrack was kind of representative of this. The music on the album has nothing to do with that and came out surprisingly well, considering how medicated we were.

Paradise Lost (2005) :: Tapping The Vein’s The Damage
During the touring cycle for Symbol, we toured the states with Opeth and Tapping The Vein. During this tour, I met my wife Heather, who is the vocalist for Tapping The Vein. I loved this album and its bittersweetness, especially the track “Butterfly”. I guess records such as this made our self-titled album a bit more dreamy than its predecessor. Although during the recording, I did an impromptu solo on the end of a song called “Over the Madness”, and this act alone led to me falling back in love with my guitar.

In Requiem (2007) :: Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion
The time had arrived where I could finally come back to my musical roots. To Mega Therion is a beast of a record, and it helped fuel my desire to let the guitar do the talking. We had a blast recording In Requiem and had a lot of fun in Vancouver.

Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us (2009) :: The Omen OST
I had cravings for evil-sounding music, and this was just one of them. I had a great time creating all the evil orchestral sections on Faith. The recording took place in a freezing winter in Sweden, which just enhanced the coldness of the record.

Tragic Idol (2012) :: Candlemass’ Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
One of my all time favorite records. Ace production, crushing riffs and weeping leads. Having taken the orchestral theme as far as I wanted on Faith and having exorcised my demons with my side project Vallenfyre, it was time to strip things back to the core sound of Paradise Lost.