The Dark Legacy

Though not the most well-known speed metal act to come out of the German scene, Paragon was definitely one of the pivotal players in keeping said style alive during the musical wasteland of the mid-1990s. Taking some heavy cues from the likes of Grave Digger, Accept and Judas Priest, they became something of a curious next generation bastion of power metal conservatism alongside acts made up of veteran players such as Primal Fear, Iron Savior and the former of their principle influences (who experienced something of a resurgence at around the same time this act formed). But while their early works were not wanting in either the heaviness or memorability department, it wasn't until the collaboration with producer/engineer/Iron Savior front man Piet Sielck that this band's popularity really started to increase as their sound became a bit more refined and stylized. Many have often pointed to the third album during said collaboration The Dark Legacy as the strongest effort of said era, and there is definitely a consistent logic behind this sentiment.

Perhaps the best way to describe this collection of songs is as a darker, leaner and meaner version of the speedy and nimble metallic assaults that were Steelbound and The Law Of The Blade. The obligatory token ballad that normally adorns their albums as been forgone in favor of a greater concentration of fury and power, though still playing off that simple and catchy formula that this style held onto from the early 80s heavy metal roots courtesy of Screaming For Vengeance and Breaker. The opening cruiser and probably the most memorable anthem found on here "The Legacy" plays off a similar melodic prelude and buildup approach that typified The Hellion/Electric Eye, though naturally in the faster and heavier vein of 90s Grave Digger. Similarly fast and hard-hitting numbers like "Mirror Of Fate", "Maze Of Dread" and "Back From Hell" are about as memorable, chock full of raspy, growling vocals out of Andreas Babuschkin (and a massive chorus backdrop provided by Piet Sielck) and shred-happy guitar solos after the Tipton/Downing approach, though combined into one player in Martin Christian.

Naturally this band has never exclusively dealt in orthodox speed metal and tend to mix it up a bit more than bands like Exciter, and a rather pleasing assortment of slower numbers and a rather surprising stylistic departure of sorts. "Breaking Glass" takes on that sort of slow-paced crusher sound that dominated Accept's Balls To The Wall, and has a fairly close commonality with a number of Primal Fear emulations of this approach in terms of riff work, though Babuschkin's vocals are naturally a far cry from Ralf Scheepers' glass-shattering (see what I did there?) wails. There is even a not so subtle nod to the archaic days of Black Sabbath in the doom-drenched stomp of "The Afterlife", almost to the point of being a direct outtake from Dehumanizer. Then again, the biggest surprise to come out of this solid array of speed metal comes in the form of what can be best described as a full out thrash assault in "Black Hole", which is somewhat reminiscent of those bruising afterburners heard out of Iron Savior occasionally (think "Seek And Destroy" off Dark Assault), but with a riff set more in line with 80s Overkill.

At the time that this was released, it was kind of hard to see how these guys would top this, but in retrospect it comes off as just a tad bit less spectacular than this band's coup de grace Revenge. This isn't to say that there isn't a solid case to be made for this album being the greatest of the Sielck era or the band's lengthy career, particularly if one prefers the more straight-line Grave Digger emulations that permeate most of their albums as opposed to the occasionally folksy character that came in with the Running Wild influences used on the album that followed this one. The Dark Legacy is essentially as close as Paragon ever got to Painkiller worship in terms of flash and pacing, but the flavoring is definitely more along the lines of Heavy Metal Breakdown and Screaming For Vengeance, a fitting legacy for a band that has made a career of continuing an existing one that reaches back to two decades prior.

Paragon is one of the leaders in the German-bone breaking heavy metal in my opinion, but still it doesn’t seem like they get the fame that they deserves. This is their 6th full-length album, and it’s not maybe as awesome as 2005's "Revenge", but it's for sure tight behind.

The album starts with “The Legacy”, a nice intro, great verses, cool chorus, and great solo. And I just love the part between 3:28 – 4:01 mark, evil and aggressive riffing, that part is heavy metal my friends. 2nd song is the fast “Mirror Of Fate” which has cool riffing in it, and is a pretty typical Paragon song with the usual “shout along” chorus, I love it. The guitar solos are also great. The third song is one of my all time Paragon-faves, “Breaking Glass”. A Mid-tempo crusher which has it all, heavy verses, a AWESOME chorus, the guitar solo is excellent, but man. You just must listen to the chorus. 4th song is the somewhat aggressive and fast “Black Hole”. Great riffs and once again crushing verse, but pretty lame chorus though, and of course the guitar solos are great. It follows by the slow mid-tempo “Eye Of The Storm” a real heavy one, I really like the verses on this one with a kind of mid-tempo feeling over it, and yet another “shout along” chorus. And yes, the guitar solos are awesome. 6th song up is the speedier “Maze Of Dread”, driven by the bass in the verses, explodes with breaking pre-chorus and a great chorus. You’re just bound to sing along in this chorus hehe. After that is the weakest on the album, “The Afterlife” a slow song, it’s actually too slow. It has boring verses & choruses. Not even the guitar solo is anything special =P Then we have a faster song again, “Green Hell”. Nice and heavy verses, and a killer chorus. I’m shouting “FORGOTTEN REALMS, FORGOTTEN TIMES” every time I listen to it , yeah ! 9th song is “Back From Hell” which is OK, but not great. A up-tempo song, with some nice riffing but general boring verses and chorus. The guitar solo kicks though. And if you have the Digi-pack version you will have the song “Into The Black” as bonus track, a cool mid-tempo song in the typical Paragon style. I have heard the riffs many times before, but that the hell. It still rocks, the chorus isn’t great but it definitely works !

The production on this album is very similar to the “Law of the Blade” production although I think this one is a little bit heavier. And a huge plus also for the backing vocals in the choruses, Piet Sielck’s voice isn’t as clear & high on them as they were on the two earlier albums, and that’s good since it sounded a bit too much Iron Savior on the choruses before. The cool and wicked cover is also worth mentioning, with the greenish feeling it gets a bit unusual, that’s great, I like the booklet too..simple, but it’s cool. And of course, listen a little bit more on the guitar solos on the album, they’re just so damn good (as you maybe noticed earlier ;-) If it only had the same sound/production as “Revenge” I’ve would been even more satisfied. But it’s a great album, highly recommended to all of you guys that love German heavy metal.

Still more of the same, one could say without me raising any objection, but here's where Paragon's formula is really pushed to the extreme in order to achieve maximum effectiveness - this is about as good as it could possibly get while still sounding as the same ol' Paragon that we all (?) know. I mean, forming a metal band that offers ABSOLUTELY NOTHING new to the scene (I mean, even Primal Fear had some semi-original moments on 'Black Sun'; this album has NOTHING of that and it's their SIXTH full-length) usually locks yourself away from receiving those REALLY high scores (at least 85+) - that is to be taken into account when considering the rating of 80. There are exceptions, like when an album is just too damn enjoyable and contains too damn many ass-kicking songs to receive anything less than 90 even if most of it's been heard before (read: PRIMAL FEAR), but this album just misses out on being THAT good.

So once again little new ground is covered, but instead, there's a good deal of SOLIDITY on here to be admired. Both of the previous albums had their share of uninspired filler material - this one has maybe a couple of moments on the whole album and just MOMENTS and not whole SONGS. This is by far their most consistent Remedy release (those are the ones I own; they had three albums out before that era) and one that I REALLY recommend for fans of the genre - though the extreme unoriginality factor is still to be considered before purchase - this is PARAGON we're talking about here and if you've heard albums like, say 'Excalibur', 'Black Hand Inn', 'Battalions of Fear', 'Powerplant' and 'Walls of Jericho', there's nothing on here that you haven't heard already. But really, just look at it this way: this is a SOLID FUCKING METAL ALBUM, end of story. ENJOY what this band is doing and don't go nitpicking on how many other bands they sound exactly like. Approach this album with that attitude and you should be well off.

The production on the last album was quite good and Piet's (still the same dude) work here doesn't disappoint either. Every instrument appears to sound a tiny bit more polished than on the last album and the guitar tone may also have lost a bit of it's Painkiller edge, but at the same time it's also a lot tighter and heavier which arguably makes the band sound even better than before. Once again, this album is structurally similar to the last album, just as that album ('Law of the Blade') was similar to the one before ('Steelbound') in that area. A fast and stand-out opening track...check. Groove stuff at number three...check. Slow song at number 5...check. And by the way, there are no ballads to be found here and as a result this album has only 9 songs instead of 10 (not counting any digi-bonuses), like on the two previous.

While some songs on here are more spectacular than others, almost every song has something really great stuck to it; be it a good riff, a memorable chorus or some other cool vocal/guitar melody. The opening song may be the album's highlight as it has all of that: an awesome intro that totally reminds of "The Hellion" (but this one's still good in it's own right!), an excellent chorus and also a heavy slow-down passage in the middle.

"Black Hole" is a short and sweet speed trip that has this really thrashy mid-paced section in the middle that perhaps could be passed off as a "thrash break" - this is actually the same riff as the main one, but playing it with a mid-paced drum pattern seems to change it quite a bit. And watch out for that nod to Blind Guardian at 3.01! "No way to stoooooop!!!" "Breaking Glass" is another highlight - damn, Paragon just can't seem to do any wrong when playing mid-paced! There's a riff in the middle of it that is half "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and oh yeah, if you pick up the digi version there's "Into the Black" for you so that you have TWO great mid-paced numbers!

Two songs, "Eye of the Storm" and "The Afterlife", are of the slower variety, but still FAR better than either slow number on the two previous albums ("Don't Wake the Dead" and "Across the Wastelands"). The first has a VERY memorable and epic-as-hell chorus and the second, while admittedly tending to really drag in places (The Afterlife...................this is the afterlife...................), still has a very strong pre-chorus. "Mirror of Fate", "Maze of Dread", "Green Hell" and "Back From Hell" are all just plain SOLID speedy numbers, with "Mirror" and "Maze" having strong choruses and "Green Hell" containing some catchy riffs (including the "Palace of Sin" riff, ahem:p) and as for "Back", I might even stretch myself to say that it has a strong solo, to make up for not standing out all that much otherwise.

All in all, a very nice little power/speed metal trip. Nothing particularly special, mind-blowing or genius - but still something that makes you wanna come back for more. I have yet to hear any of the three first Paragon albums, but out of their three latest (a new one is well on it's way too), this is definitely the one to get - it's the most consistent, heaviest and most musically grown. You like Grave Digger? Blind Guardian? Running Wild? Primal Fear? Chances are that you'll like this album.