PARAGON Album Review: “Metalation”

PARAGON
“Metalation”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Paragon are a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 1990, releasing thirteen studio albums to date across a glittering thirty plus year career which has seen the band tour the world (more than once), and perform at some of the biggest metal festivals such as Wacken Open Air, Hammerfest and Up The Hammers. The bands most recent album ‘Metalation’ was released in 2024…

…featuring ten songs and fifty minutes of incredibly infectious and immensely head bang-able heavy metal! Nothing less than what I’d expect from the German legends – yes readers, that’s right…legends! Paragon are right up there with the likes of Accept, Grave Digger, Helloween, Rage, Blind Guardian, Iron Savior and Primal Fear – ‘Metalation’ a nod back to the bands “old days” with a more melodic and versatile sound! And I should know what that sounds like, for I was in my mid twenties when Paragon released their debut album! Fuck me how time flies by, so let’s just move on quickly to the bands new album and the barnstorming opening salvo ‘Fighting The Fire’. And the classic sound of heavy come power come thrashy metal comes flooding forth as Paragon rattle along at full throttle banging the head hard of every single listener on the fucking planet! An absolute barnstormer of an opener, Paragon are back – and battering the senses harder than ever before!

And keeping both the pace and heaviness at extremely high levels, ‘Metalation’ roars on with added bite in the shape of ‘Slenderman’, the band shuddering the ground with incredible force. Yet ‘Slenderman’ has an increased melodious intent from the previous song, Paragon delivering an infectious yet raucous opening one-two, as ‘Battalions’ lurches forward with all the might of an army marching off to war! And as ‘Battalions’ settles into its stride, an air of the anthemic rises high in the air too, the band dropping a gear yet remaining firmly and squarely right in the heart of heavy metal territory – territory they’ve proudly occupied for over three decades! With intensity at maximum level, Paragon keep the hammer down and stomp furiously on with ‘Beyond The Horizon’ – the band straddling the epic and glory genres of metal for this one! The bombastic oomph emanating from ‘Beyond The Horizon’ is phenomenal, demolishing every “gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area”.

Electrifying pace lights up the album in the shape of the mighty ‘MarioNET’, the band accelerating down the autobahn in excess of the speed limit – the head of every metalhead everywhere rocking back and forth at an extremely high rate of knots! This is foot to the floor fast paced head bang-able heavy metal straight off the top shelf – and to be honest, ‘MarioNET’ would not be out of place appearing on a thrash metal album! And with no end in sight from the relentless barrage of metal, ‘Metalation’ storms on with the gruffest song heard so far, ‘The Haunted House’ maintaining the sensational heavy metal onslaught. Probably at its heaviest too, ‘The Haunted House’ spanning the genres of thrash and traditional “foot on the monitor” heavy metal – ‘Burn The Whore’ keeping the album very much at the heavier end of the heavy metal genre. Since the album began the heaviness has been out of this world, the band not letting up for a second, the chorus break here the most catchy and sing a long-able ‘Metalation’ has to offer!

For over two millennia, people have searched high and low for the holy grail – rumoured to be a “cup, dish, or stone that is said to have miraculous powers” – well methinks Paragon may have just redefined what the holy grail is by way of the albums title song ‘Metalation’, the band proclaiming “metal – our holy grail”. And who am I to disagree, I’ve been listening to metal for over forty years and firmly believe it has miraculous powers – heavy metal has been well documented as a form of catharsis, allowing listeners to express themselves and release emotions such as pain, love and rage. Not to mention helping people feel more confident and unstoppable, along with using metal music as a coping mechanism for managing the emotions of anger and despair. And don’t forget the adrenaline rush from just listening to heavy metal too, the sudden rush of excitement and energy via the release of the “feel-good” hormone dopamine! Hell yeah Paragon! And with an abrupt change in tempo and dynamic, ‘Metalation’ (the album) strolls into ballad territory with ‘My Asylum’, the band combining a hymn-like aura with balladry to create a spine tingling atmosphere full of chills and lighters held high in the air! The album is brought to a close with ‘Hellgore’ – a re-recording of the Paragon classic from the bands 2008 album ‘Screenslaves’. Now I’m not gonna compare the two versions here, I’m just gonna say ‘Hellgore’ (2024) fits perfectly with the tone, impetus and oomph of this album, the band delivering a thunderous cacophony of melodious heavy metal for ‘Metalation’s (the album) finale.

Overall, a fast paced and fairly ferocious heavy metal onslaught, Paragon deliver infectious head bang ability in abundance.

TRACKLIST

Fighting The Fire
Slenderman
Battalions
Beyond The Horizon
MarioNET
The Haunted House
Burn The Whore
Metalation
My Asylum
Hellgore (bonus)

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