Paragon – Force Of Destruction

Hamburg’s ‘Paragon’ are back with their tenth studio album, four years after their last release called ‘Screenslaves’. German power metallers have been in the music industry since 1994 and their sound is a blend of bands like ‘Grave Digger’, ‘Helloween’ and ‘Accept’.

There have been some line-up changes in ‘Paragon’ since their last album, with the addition of ‘Wolfgang Tewes’ and ‘Jan Bertram’ on guitars and the return of ‘Jan Bünning’ on bass. ‘Force Of Destruction’ was produced by ‘Piet Sielck’, the well known producer and leader of ‘Iron Savior’ at Powerhouse in Hamburg, Germany, who made a tremendous job with the sound of the album. The metal cover artwork was created by ‘Dirk Illing’. The limited edition of ‘Force Of Destruction’ has two bonus tracks, ‘Son Of A Bitch’ which is an Accept cover and one of the Accept classics and a remix version of the track ‘Blood & Iron’ with Andreas Babuschkin and Kai Hansen on vocals.

‘Force Of Destruction’ is typical power speed metal when it comes to music. It begins with an intro called ‘Last Day On Earth’ that opens for the track ‘Iron Will’ that has some great double bass, hard riffs, fast guitar solos and sing along chorus that reminds a lot of Grave Digger. Same goes for the next track called ‘Tornado’ that has some fast double bass drumming and heavy riffing. The voice of Andreas Babuschkin reminds of ‘Udo Dirkschneider’ and ‘Chris Boltendahl’ and i really liked how it matched with the chorus-like backing vocals. ‘Gods Of Thunder’ is a heavy metal song with some serious riffs. ‘Bulletstorm’ up kicks the speed a little more to welcome ‘Blood & Iron’ the biggest track of the album, a true epic eight minute song that features ‘Kai Hansen’ and ‘Piet Sielck’. ‘

Wolfgang Tewes’ and ‘Jan Bertram’ have played some great riffs and technical solos on guitars while Jan Bünning bass is killer, filling the sound even more. ‘Blades Of Hell’ is yet another heavy power metal song while ‘Dynasty’ is a slower heavy metal track that also has great chorus and a melodic guitar solo and some keyboard parts that add a different tone in the song. ‘Chris Gripp’ has also played some furious drum parts making the songs sound tight and powerful. ‘Rising From The Black’ raises the tempo once more with some fast drumming, great riffs and some amazing guitar solos, while ‘Demon’s Lair’ is slower epic heavy track that makes way for the last track of the album called ‘Secrecy’ that has some fast riffing, double bass drumming and catchy chorus.

Paragon’s new effort may not be the album that will make the difference among many other releases but it’s the best album they’ve written in years, and if you are looking for pure German heavy power metal, ‘Force Of Destruction’ is your choice.