On their thirteenth full-length album, Metalation, Germany's Paragon do what Germany's Paragon have always done, namely release an album crammed full of Teutonic heavy/power metal. If you are at all familiar with this band, you know what to expect, from the double-kick speedsters to the moody, pensive ballads and everything that lies between. Singer Andreas Babuschkin's melodic, gravelly voice sounds like Udo Dirkschneider's on those early '80s Accept albums and the opening acoustic guitars on "My Asylum" had me thinking of Scorpions classic "Holiday." Nothing on Metalation strays far from the core Paragon sound with tracks like "Slenderman" and "MarioNET" sure to be comfortingly familiar to Paragon fans. It's a well-played, classic Paragon release making it a safe purchase for fans of Germanic heavy/power metal and a solid addition to the band's catalog. If you dig Paragon's earlier albums along with '80s Accept, Wizard, Grave Digger, Stormwarrior, et al., Metalation should be right up your alley.
