Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Paradox
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2016
Length: 59:45
Rating: 4/5
Many thought that nothing but a beautiful memory was left of Charly Steinhauer and the cult German standard-bearers of Teutonic thrash metal, Paradox. When Paradox released the album »Tales of the Weird« at the end of 2012, which merely confirmed the extraordinary inspiration and expressive aggression they had been building up and pushing higher through a string of releases from »Electrify« (2008) onward, serious health problems kept Steinhauer away from the studio and the concert stage. It seemed obvious that the Paradox story was over for good.
Luckily, Charly thought otherwise. During the band’s »apparent hibernation« the man had piled up another dozen ideas, and after a successful recovery he decided to record one more Paradox album. In the meantime he’d also lost the bandmates who had helped shape the sound of the earlier albums. That went especially for the incredible Christian Muenzner, the guy everyone would want in their band, so at first the whole thing looked like mission impossible. How do you restore the whole specific character of the band’s sound and style? Well, Steinhauer found all the right answers for that too, proving once again that he personally is Paradox. He reshuffled the new Paradox lineup by calling up two Greeks and… a Slovenian. Yes, you read that right. Tilen Hudrap (Vicious Rumors) picked up the bass, while the rest of the lineup is now filled out by Greeks Gus Drax (guitar) and Kostas Milonas (drums).
Speaking of Teutonic metal of German origin, we can (loosely speaking) split it into two main currents. One is the generally recognized and far more famous one on the world metal map, headed by Sodom, Kreator and Destruction; the other has somehow been unfairly overlooked right up to today and, in the eyes of the critics, never got its due. Alongside bands like Vendetta, Deathrow, Protector and Assassin (and we can throw Mekong Delta in there too), that’s where »our« Paradox belong. It’s the current that brought a touch more melody into its songwriting, as well as more variety and complexity. That’s why the Bay Area influence is more noticeable. Think vocals that aren’t necessarily »raspy and rasping« or brutalized, but keep the musicality in by using clean vocal tones. Well, Charly’s is one such voice. It’s still exceptionally piercing in the high register, powerful, fierce, expressive. It carries a note of doom and occult gloom.
The album »Pangea« is another excellent achievement that fully lives up to the thrash metal legacy the name Paradox stands for. It’s hard to call it a masterpiece, since Steinhauer sticks to the tried-and-true formula that kicks in instantly and doesn’t stray from it by an inch. So the new album fits effectively and thoroughly credibly with the sound of the previous three. The one slight nitpick might be the length of the songs, which are mostly splendidly adorned with gradually building atmosphere in the intros as well as dramatic outros, but the spacing between the highlights is pretty similar, and the band could have said everything it had to say in, say, a good 40 minutes. Still, for all their occult gloom, Paradox remain exceptionally wicked. They’ve always flaunted that wickedness openly, alongside their generally raging production, and the main riff of Manhunt couldn’t embody it better.
The band’s playing is excellent. With Steinhauer holding on to his vocal strengths, he’s found in Gus Drax a superb partner for writing great transitional guitar embellishments that sit over the passages, including thirds, and the two guitarists mesh brilliantly when weaving solo duels. The rhythm section is relentless. The drums are full of incredibly explosive kinetics and variety, and the riffs are masterfully backed up in all the right places by torpedoing double bass pedals. Woven into all this is the metallic, grinding sound of the bass lines from our own Tilen Hudrap, who does his job with great distinction and slots into the tasks completely autonomously, that is, independently, without any suggestions from boss Steinhauer.
From head to toe, everything on this album sounds uniquely »Paradoxical«. The dynamics are excellent, the product of the record’s constant creative variety, and as a result the album also has a high “flow”. The title track, which is also one of the longest, is the centerpiece of the record, if not the cornerstone when it comes to the band’s stylistic and sonic identity. In quality and ideas, then, Paradox don’t slip even a smidge with the new album when we compare the new material with the band’s work from 2000 onward. That’s after the »dead nineties«, the year of the band’s fresh start.
With »Pangea« Paradox don’t surprise anymore, but it’s an immense pleasure to realize that Steinhauer, in his musical vision, keeps holding to the proven artistry of his own particular metal craft, exploring it, nurturing it, deepening it, while deftly maintaining the high musical quality the name Paradox stands for. »Pangea« is no exception in this respect, but another excellent studio album from a legendary band that, given all of Charly’s defiance, deserves a special kind of respect.
Paradox – Pangea:
Lineup
Charly Steinhauer – vocals, guitar
Tilen Hudrap – bass
Gus Drax – guitar
Kostas Milonas – drums
Production
Charly Steinhauer
Tracklist
01. Apophis
02. Raptor
03. The Raging Planet
04. Ballot Or Bullet
05. Manhunt
06. Cheat & Pretend
07. Pangea
08. Vale Of Tears
09. Alien Godz
10. El Muerte
