| CD REVIEW Paragon |
 |
|
Band : Paragon When being confronted by having to review this Hamburg based band’s latest full-length album, I somehow had a familiar feeling about the band’s name, like I must’ve had done reviews of the band’s previous albums at some time, or at least had some of their material in my collection…but imagine my surprise when fact showed that I had none of the band’s previous material in my collection…nor had in any way ever been in contact with their music before! Pretty incredible to me, as the band (which was formed in 1990 by guitarist Martin Christian) already has a couple of mini-CDs (1994’s Into The Black, and the recent Larger Than Life – actually a “teaser” for Screenslaves, issued on July 25 this year, and including the titme track songs for both the EP and upcoming album, as well as a cover of Slayer’s “Die By The Sword” and two live tracks) and 8 previous full-length albums [1995‘s World Of Sin, 1998’s The Final Command (which was current singer Andreas Babuschkin’s debut with the band), 1999’s Chalice Of Steel, 2001’s Spellbound, 2002’s Law Of The Blade, 2003’s The Dark Legacy (which saw the introduction of current second guitarist Günny “Luigi” Kruse), 2005’s Revenge (the introductory album for drummer Christian Gripp, and last year’s Forgotten Prophecies (after the recordings of which current bassist Dirk Seifert entered the Paragon fold). The first full-length was released through a label which went bankrupt, after which Martin put the band on hold to return with a new outfit in 1998, at which point also a deal was signed with B.O. Records. In 2001 the band struck a deal with Remedy Records, with whom they stayed for the next 5 albums] to its name. Well, perhaps my unfamiliarity with the band ain’t that amazing anyway, as Paragon already dabbled in the True Metal scene before that sub-genre was “invented”. These days, the band plays an up-tempo Power Metal with clear Thrash Metal influences. Nothing quite unique about the formula, but things are brought pretty well and with proficiency in both songwriting/ arrangements as in playing! Furthermore, Babuschkin has a truly weird voice which one might recognize quite easily through its signature hoarseness (imagine an Udo Dirkschneider at a lower octave range), but the clean backings he gets compensate the whole thing to a specific…dare I use the word unique after all?…tonality which becomes the band’s very own! At the moment, I’ve found no way on the Internet for you to listen to any new material of the band, but there’s plenty of comparable older material at myspace.com/paragonlegions (5 full-length songs and two videos…oh wait a minute, “Larger Than Life” IS of course off the new album!) and last.fm/Paragon. Oh gee…before I forget: the band has added a somewhat weird bonus track to the album with an Italian version (which sounds so “clean” I wonder whether Babuschkin even sang on it…say wait, would anything by any chance be in connection with that Italian surname of the second guitarist…hum?) of “The Legacy” (album opening track of 2003 album The Dark Legacy), making the now 11-track CD finish at just under 50 minutes of playing time! 84/100 Tony. |