“I thought, ‘I wonder if I can get away with putting sleigh bells on a doom-metal song?’” How Paradise Lost’s Greg Mackintosh is rewriting the gothic metal rulebook

Greg Mackintosh plays his 7-string Habas live onstage with Paradise Lost, on a stage lit in pale blue and green lights.

If Paradise Lost guitarist Gregor Mackintosh gets his wish, music fans might be adding the gloom-driven sounds of his band’s Ascension LP to their Christmas playlists this year, perhaps alongside Yuletide staples like Michael Bublé and Bing Crosby.

The throughline might not be readily apparent between those crooners and the U.K. metal veterans; few holly-jolly moments exist across the latter’s new album, where vocalist Nick Holmes uses death-growls and a gothic baritone to explore themes of war and the interminable struggle of life.