Icon

Icon came out on Music for Nations in September 1993 as CDMFN 152. Simon Efemey produced it, the recording was made at Jacobs Studios in June that year, Pete Coleman and Efemey mixed it, Geoff Pesche mastered it at The Town House, and Andrew Holdsworth guests on keyboards. Marquee, the band's Japanese label in later years, names it in its artist profile as one of the records that made Paradise Lost known as an icon of gothic metal, a decisive album after which their popularity rose quickly. It was the last album with the founding drummer Matthew Archer, and in February 2018 Decibel inducted it into its Hall of Fame as a record that shaped the gothic metal subgenre. In 2023 the band re-recorded the album for its thirtieth anniversary and released the new version, Icon 30, on 1 December 2023. The Japanese edition came out on 21 October 1993 as PCCY-00476 with the same thirteen tracks, and the player on this page carries those thirteen as well.