i cant understand the negativity towards paradise lost; it's not THAT different from their previous work...a little more straight-forward than the previous two, but not much...and a little heavier than everything before, but again, not much.
the only reservations i had after my initial few listens were russell's vox. they seemed like they were a little 'much' at first, but it didnt take too long to get past that (and actually ended up thinking the vox were possibly better than ever)