Paragon - Hell Beyond Hell (2017)

Track List:
Rising Forces
Hypnotized
Hell Beyond Hell
Heart Of Black
Stand Your Ground
Meat Train
Buried In Black
Devil’s Waiting Room

How in my 30 years as a metal fan I have missed this band in my “education” of metal is quite mind boggling! Yeah, I’m looking at YOU, friends! I know a few of my friends are aware of this band and I hold you personally responsible for leaving Paragon out of my radar all these years! Paragon formed in 1990. I was listening to Thrash and Metal back then! How did I miss this?!?!??! I am so pissed! LOL
It took 1200 miles, a mid- life crisis and fate to drop this amazing band in my lap and introduce me to a new friend and Bassist in Jan Bunning. I sat down to give Paragon’s 11th (HOLY SHIT! ELEVEN! I have a lot of albums to go listen to now!) full length release a listen and rekindle my career as a music reviewer for Metal Underground. I couldn’t be happier with my selection I made for the return of my life back into the one thing I love more than anything, METAL!!

Paragon is everything I love about Power Metal. Clean vocals, heavy riffs, and smashing solos. The Themes we all know about...Fantasy; Majesty; Honor; Unity. Vocals are screamed out by Andreas Babuschkin. I love his range and his sound. Not falsetto like many of the Power metal singers but throaty and crunchy too. The Rhythm section is made up of Jan Bunning on Bass and Soren Teckenberg on skins. They are instrumental (see what I did here? Lmao) in driving me fist pumping through each and every track. I have to admit, I was air drumming and stomping my feet! I am not a musician….i loved the drumming on this album! A LOT! Which brings me to our shredders: Founding member Martin Christian and Jan Bertram on guitars. Hell Beyond Hell has classic shredding solos in every song. From Bluesy and haunting in Devil’s Waiting Room, to the classic harmonic dueling in Rising Forces and the title track.
I wanted 3 more tracks to be honest. This album is laid out amazing. By the time the last track stops I want more. I put the album on shuffle and that helped tremendously. “Rising Forces” is a classic metal anthem and a great way to introduce this epic album! Song after song, I am thrashing through “Hell Beyond Hell” and wondering how I am going to get a hold of 10 more albums and 4 more EP’s! You tube is loaded and videos ready! My favorite track that ends this disc is actually The final cut in “Devil’s Waiting Room”. It’s a darker song that I am interpreting as a song about the final journey on the river Styx to death, perhaps. I loved the song and the blues feel in the guitar work. The other surprise stand out for me was “Hypnotized” which had a fantastic NWOBHM vibe and a killer guitar solo. “Stand Your Ground” was also a great anthem about our unity as metal brethren.

All things being said, and to be redundant; Paragon is what I love about Metal. Its true and real and honest. True musicians playing their art (and doing it well) and sharing it with those of us who love it too. To Quote the opening track Rising Forces, “This is a sacred moment in time” and from the title track , “Aint a secret what may be, and you’re a part of me”; Metal reaches us as a family of people and unites us in ways we can’t possibly explain. Hell Beyond Hell covers all of those ideas in its tracks. The fight of good vs evil, not only with those who would manipulate us (hypnotized), but within ourselves or perhaps with the idea of death itself. “ Stand Your Ground, For our Reign we’ll fight!” Metal Forever!

Thanks for reading! Hell Beyond Hell is available for purchase! Go GET IT!