Paradise Lost - Icon (Bloody Mary Red Vinyl) | National Album Day 2026

Icon is Paradise Lost's fourth studio album and a landmark in the development of gothic metal. Released in September 1993, it became one of the band's first major international chart successes, strengthening their worldwide reputation and preparing the ground for the commercial breakthrough of Draconian Times. For National Album Day 2026, Icon is pressed across two Bloody Mary red vinyl records.

The album refined the band's earlier doom metal weight into a more direct and memorable form. Heavy guitar riffs, sombre melodies and Nick Holmes' commanding vocal performance give tracks such as “Embers Fire”, “Remembrance”, “True Belief” and “Widow” their enduring force. The sequencing allows the record's atmosphere to develop across thirteen tracks, moving between tightly focused songs and broader, more dramatic arrangements. In 2018, Icon was inducted into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame.

Across the album, Paradise Lost creates a complete listening sequence rather than a simple collection of singles. The opening stretch establishes the record's character, while later tracks broaden its mood and bring the programme to a considered close. Key selections including Embers Fire, Remembrance, Forging Sympathy show the range of the set, and the original running order has been retained across this edition. It is an album suited to front-to-back listening, with the side breaks preserving the pacing of the vinyl format. That continuity is part of the record's lasting appeal: familiar highlights sit within a wider programme whose contrasts and transitions become clearer when the album is heard in full.

For a complete album experience, this limited National Album Day 2026 edition is pressed on bloody mary red vinyl and released by Sony Music on 17 October 2026. The package contains two LPs and the full original album tracklist. It is designed for listeners replacing a well-played copy, collectors looking for a distinctive colour pressing, and anyone discovering Icon on vinyl for the first time. Catalogue number 19958468501.