Chalice of Steel

Towards the close of the 1990s Paragon began to get a handle on their entire situation, particularly the kind of sound that they wished to put forward, although they would still bounce through a few more recording labels. “Chalice of Steel” represents the closest thing sound wise to what most of their current fan base know them for; a heavier, speed metal version of the power metal genre that was less common than it’s epic cousin which was spearheaded by Blind Guardian’s “Nightfall on Middle Earth” and Rhapsody’s first two albums. While Paragon essentially has similar epic warrior tales in the same vain as their epic counterparts, they are far less reliant on keyboards than Rhapsody.

Andreas Babuschkin’s voice has become a good deal more melodic, probably owing to the fact that he did not record the album with a cold as he did on “The Final Command”, as Martin Christian revealed after the fact. He still maintains the Peter Wagner approach of dirty mid-ranged growling to complement the melodic singing, but his high range is a good deal more indicative of a power metal singer, thus the thrash-like elements of their previous work stands diminished in that regard, though it also has been scaled back in the music in favor of a more melodic, chord progression approach to their choruses.

“Chalice of Steel” is structured as if it were two EPs, strung together by two very different instrumental preludes. The first half is lead off with a very epic sounding keyboard instrumental “Awakening of the Beast”, which is followed by 5 songs in the newer, knights of metal and dragons style that Paragon began to mix in with their already established sound. “Dark Tale” is also keyboard dominated, but is far more reminiscent of the evil, spooky approach that was established on “World of Sin”, as is the bulk of what comes after it. Although production wise the entire listen is consistent, the stylistic variations coupled with the differing lyrical subjects make it sound like two completely separate albums.

Although musically this is far more accessible to fans of modern power metal, in the production department there are some flaws that hold this release back a little and make it an inferior product to “World of Sin”. The main issue is the drum sound, which is pretty flat sounding in its entirety, but particularly loses ground with that popping sound that the snare makes when it’s tuned too high. If Markus Corby had stuck with the same drum sound that he had on “The Final Command” then this would have been the best of their early material. Some may prefer this drum sound to the bigger boom that a reverb rich and lower tuned snare would produce, but I’m not one of them.

There is not a bad song on here, nor is there anything that I would necessarily call weak, but certain songs sum up the 2 halves of this album rather nicely. “Dragon’s Flight” and the title track are classic speed metal in the Painkiller fashion, the latter having an almost melodeath sounding main riff harmony, but otherwise is pretty standard. “Burn at the Stake” is a solid eviler sounding speed metal variation that is pretty close to the sound on World of Sin. “A.D. 2000” is another one of those eerie sounding clean guitar ballads that blends creepy and quiet intros with heavy slow riffs reminiscent of mid-80s Accept.

The 2005 re-master, which is sold as a double CD along with “World of Sin”, is definitely a worthy purchase if you like the darker side of power metal. It’s not quite as well produced and consistent as the album it comes with, but it is a solid, heavier variation on the stainless steel and glory that Hammerfall exemplifies. Picture Conan the Destroyer battling for the magical horn and you’ll have a good visual of the first half of this album, then picture Conan the Barbarian beheading the mystic leader of the cult of Seth and you’ll have an accurate illustration of the second.