Law Of The Blade is already the fifth full length album of these German heavy metal warriors and although their previous effort, “Steelbound” got international acclaim, I must admit I had never heard of them before. The first thing you notice when you listen to this album is the quality of the heavy metal guitar riffs. The opening song “Abducted” and the second song “Palace Of Sin” simply compel you to start headbanging, there’s just no use in resisting, as powerful riffs drive the songs forwards.

Paragon plays typical old school heavy metal in the vein of Accept and Judas Priest but with a very refreshing touch to it. While the aforementioned songs are true heavy metal classics, the third song, “Armies Of The Tyrant”, is a whole different matter and with a slow evil and doom-like rhythm it crawls forward like the army of evil marching towards the battlefield. And when the army arrives? Well, Paragon explodes into the fourth song, the title track of the album, “Law Of The Blade”. It is fast, aggressive and as chaotic as a battlefield.

By now you might have guessed it right, this is a fantasy concept album. The story is fairly simple. You know the drill; the forces of good fight the forces of evil and no matter the setbacks, good is always victorious. Nevertheless it is the excellent dynamics of the music that make the whole concept interesting and I must admit Paragon has fully succeeded at that.

The slow march of the armies, the chaotic battle and the aftermath of destruction as depicted by the depressive fifth song “Across The Wastelands” are only a small part of the story. It continues from there and ends with the, of course predictable, end result: the victory of the forces of good.

At first the vocals of Andreas Babuschkin sound very weak and limited but as the album progresses Andreas seems to rise to the challenge and he absolutely shines during the slower songs like “Shadow World” and the aforementioned “Across The Wastelands”. Piet Sielck (Iron Savior) has produced the album, just like Paragon’s previous album Steelbound and I find the sound slightly too weak and hollow. The guitars and bass could have been mixed in a bit heavier although that might be a matter of personal taste.

Although Paragon’s music is nothing new, they have managed to convince me. Law Of The Blade features excellent dynamics and a very good balance between speed and melody wrapped in a powerful and compact package that is very diverse and doesn’t bore for one single second. You won’t find any bad songs on this album but the best songs are “Across The Wasteland”, “Back To Glory” and the excellent ballad “The Journey’s End”. The album ends with the well-played Saxon cover “To Hell And Back Again”.