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After a long slump, Paragon struck back furiously with the excellent Force of Destruction back in 2012, signaling a return to form. That disc set a high bar for them to match, and this one come damned close to managing it.

I could tell this was a Piet Sielck production job without even looking. The guitars sound heavy and crunchy, and the vocals benefit greatly from his sure hand at the mixing board, as there is probably no one in metal who can track and mix backing vocals as well. The riffs are the chugging, hammering metal joy I expect from Paragon, and the songwriting as a whole is good.

If I have a caveat, it's that the choruses are not quite as good as they could have been. The songs are great fun while they chug along, but many of them lack a real first-rate chorus to hang their hats on, and thus the album is not as memorable as it should have been. I mean, check out the fantastic, head-crushing riffs on "Heart of the Black" and then the chorus that just does not...really hit. So it remains a good song, when it could have been amazing.

So this is definitely a solid album in Paragon's comeback, and even though I don't think it is as good as Force of Destruction, I still have hopes that they can pull off another Law of the Blade before they are done.