PARADISE LOST's GREG MACKINTOSH On 'The Plague Within': We Wanted It To Sound Like No One Else In Metal

British gothic metal pioneers PARADISE LOST will release their 14th studio album, "The Plague Within", on June 2 (one day earlier internationally) via Century Media. The CD was recorded at Orgone Studios (GHOST, ULVER, CATHEDRAL, ANGEL WITCH) in London with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano.

Regarding the musical direction of "The Plague Within", PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh told U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine: "It could be a bit of a Marmite album. Sometimes it's nice to do albums that are expected, in a way, but for a career like ours, it's important to do certain records and songs where you try something else.

"A certain track, like 'Flesh From Bone', is probably the fastest song we've done tempo-wise," he revealed, "while 'Beneath Broken Earth' is quite possibly the slowest.

"We weren't shying away from any period," he continued. "But it also had to be cohesive."

Greg added: "As it came together, the death metal elements became more prevalent, so the album ended up with more of those elements than we'd first anticipated. But it's got a good ebb and flow to it.

"We deliberately went down a different route, where we want it to sound like no one else in metal. Whether we've achieved that, I have no idea until everyone hears it."

The cover for "The Plague Within" was created by Polish artist, illustrator and architect Zbigniew M. Bielak, best known in the musical realm for his record cover illustrations, which, among others, include meticulously handcrafted artworks of WATAIN, GHOST and ENTOMBED A.D. albums.

PARADISE LOST's last release, "Tragic Illusion 25 (The Rarities)" , came out in October 2013 in Europe (digitally in North America). All tracks found on the compilation were previously released rarities — except the new track "Loneliness Remains", and newly recorded "Gothic 2013" and "Our Saviour 2013".