PARADISE LOST's GREGOR MACKINTOSH: 'I'm A Complete Hermit. I Love Solitude.'

In a new interview with Headbangers Australia, PARADISE LOST guitarist Gregor Mackintosh was asked how he unwinds from the road when he is not busy touring with his bandmates. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's kind of boring. But I live kind of very rurally, so kind of middle of nowhere. I live alone. I'm a complete hermit. I love solitude. I never thought I'd be saying this even about five years ago, but I like kind of just doing things in the garden, reading books. I enjoy boredom sometimes. It's something that's missing in today's world, I think, where you can just sit. Like [in the old days], when you were on a train, you just stared out the window and thought about things. And, yeah, I don't think there's much downtime these days because every spare second you just pick up a phone or look on the computer. But I really do try to just ... Well, I don't have to try, really, because I get… I've never been on social media — I'm not interested in it. I don't particularly like socializing, so why would I virtually do it? So, yeah, it's all about the silence, I guess, the quiet. And then you can go out at the weekend and it's all buzzing again. You're running around airports. You're driving here and there in these different countries and meeting different people and doing gigs, and it's very hectic. And then you come back again, and I do the same thing again. I mean, I'm a creature of habit, but it's nice to have that calm."

PARADISE LOST's seventeenth studio album, "Ascension", came out in September 2025.

The band's first LP in five years, following 2020's critically acclaimed "Obsidian", "Ascension" was produced by Mackintosh and mixed/mastered by Lawrence Mackrory.

Nearly four decades into their career, and with over two million albums sold, PARADISE LOST remain the undisputed kings of metal's dark side. Formed in Halifax in 1988, the band quickly became noted as the pioneers of gothic metal through their early groundbreaking albums like 1991's aptly titled "Gothic", a mixture of heaviness intertwined with shadowy melody and atmosphere.

Never a group to remain creatively static, across their career they've explored a myriad of avenues of dark music, from sludgy doom-death roots, to conquering the metal mainstream with the enormous, lush sounds of 1995's "Draconian Times", to more experimental, electronic leanings, leaving an influence on a trail of artists as varied as CRADLE OF FILTH, HIM, GATECREEPER and CHELSEA WOLFE.

PARADISE LOST's current lineup consists of Nick Holmes (vocals),Gregor Mackintosh (lead guitar/keyboards),Aaron Aedy (rhythm guitar),Stephen Edmondson (bass) and Jeff Singer (drums).

Photo credit: Artur Tarczewski (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)