Year: 2021
Total Time: 1:15:03
Label: AFM Records
“Heresy II – The End Of A Legend” is the continuation of the classic “Heresy”, which was released 32 years ago. Things were clearly different back then, with all the risks that can be involved in a venture to connect then and now. I should mention here that PARADOX already had a few years behind them, being one of the most respected and authentic German speed/thrash metal bands. Their debut album “Product Of Imagination”, was even distinguished by the German Metal Hammer as the best German debut album after HELLOWEEN’s “Walls Of Jericho”.
PARADOX had some ups and downs in their long history, and maybe that explains why they didn’t escape from the underground and couldn’t make it successful, even though they released few great albums. Here, however, we find them with a promising line-up, tailor-made for their ambitious project. The band’s frontman Charly Steinhauer called up Christian Münzner and Olly Keller (guitar and bass respectively) after an album break, while on drums we have the group’s co-founder Alex Blaha, who had last played on “Heresy”. In addition, the lyrics were handled by Peter Vogt, who had edited the lyrics of the band’s first two albums.
Well, to cut a long story short, the album is a real treasure. Dark, mellow and imposing, “Heresy II – The End Of A Legend” is highly addictive and indeed accomplishes its initial purpose. Take a listen to the super-powered “Priestly Vows”, “Escape From The Burning”, “The Visitors”, “The Great Denial”, Incessant aggressive riffing, thunderous mostly rhythm, noisy but modern in terms of production speed/thrash metal, which is not flat, but interspersed with beautiful melodic heavy elements. And the solos of the album are a real highlight… In general, it is obvious from the very first listen that the guitars are the ones that are on the forefront and mark the sound direction of the album.
The darker and more atmospheric “Journey Into Fear” and “A Meeting Of Minds” are my favorites, because of their pluralism, their nostalgic character and the fact that they “break” the aggressiveness of the album in an excellent way. 75 minutes of duration is a lot, and although there is no dip, some of the tracks are quite long. Perhaps the album would gain more if it would have been more compact.
I’m sure that fans of the sound of the early period of BLIND GUARDIAN, METALLICA, TESTAMENT, will be thrilled with the new PARADOX album. In a time when metal music has been “digitized” to an extreme degree, listening to the Bavarian’s new album will make people nostalgic for the nice, old and warm 90s sound, when speed/thrash was a real threat and heavy metal came out of the romantic human soul.
Rating: 7,5/10
Editor: Kostas Kafritsas
Related Link: PARADOX – Facebook Page
