Paragon (band)

Paragon
Origin	Hamburg, Germany
Genres	Heavy metal Speed metal Power metal
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Napalm Records Massacre Records Remedy Records
Members	Andreas Babuschkin Martin Christian Jan Bertram Jan Bünning Sören Teckenburg
Past members	see below
Website	paragon-metal.com

Paragon is a speed metal/power metal band from Hamburg, Germany.

Biography

Paragon was founded by guitarist Martin Christian (who in many of the band's album booklets is written as Martin Wöbcke when it comes to songwriting-credits). After releasing some demo tapes and a mini-CD, they were able to release an album in 1994, the debut World of Sin. Shortly after this, their record company Blue Merle went bankrupt, and Martin decided to put the band on hiatus.

About two years later, Martin found four new members (Andreas, Jan, Markus, & Claudius) and recorded the album The Final Command. In 1999, Chalice of Steel was released. In 2001, Paragon released Steelbound, engineered and produced by Piet Sielck of Iron Savior. Piet has worked with the band on every album since then.

After the recording of Forgotten Prophecies in early 2007, the band's longtime bass player Jan Bünning quit the band because of "musical differences." Shortly after the band had found a replacement in Dirk Seifert.

In late 2007 the band changed labels to Massacre Records and released Screenslaves in 2008.

In the mid to ending months of 2009, Paragon took a break. During this time they lost two members. Guitarist Günny Kruse who had played on their three studio albums between 2005–2008, and also bassist Dirk Seifert who only played on "Screenslaves".

In 2012 the album "Force Of Destruction" was released.

On November 4, 2014, Paragon announced a new album will be released in 2016 on the bands 25th anniversary.

Band members

Current members

• Andreas Babuschkin - Lead Vocals (1997–present)
• Jan Bertram - Guitar / Backing Vocals (2012–present)
• Martin Christian - Guitar / Backing Vocals (1990–present)
• Jan Bünning - Bass / Backing Vocals (1996–2007, 2009–present)
• Sören Teckenburg - Drums (2014–present)

Former members

Vocals:
Chris Barena (1990–1994)
Kay Carstens (1994–1996)

Guitar:
Frank Hellweg (1990–1991)
Marcus Cremer (and Bass) (1991–1993)
Wolfgang "Woko" Köhler (1993–1994)
Tommy Eichstädt (1995–1996)
Daniel Görner (1995–1996)
Claudius Cremer (1996–2003)
Günny Kruse (2003–2009)
Wolfgang Tewes (2010-2015)

Bass:
Dirk Sturzbecher (1990–1995)
Uwe Wessel (1995–1996)
Kay Blanke (1996)

Dirk Seifert (2007–2009)

Drums:
Kay Neuse (1990–1995)
Markus Corby (1995–2005) Chris Gripp (2005-2014)

Discography

Albums

• World of Sin (1995)
• The Final Command (1998)
• Chalice of Steel (1999)
• Steelbound (2001)
• Law of the Blade (2002)
• The Dark Legacy (2003)
• Revenge (2005)
• Forgotten Prophecies (2007)
• Screenslaves (2008)
• Force of Destruction (2012)
• Hell Beyond Hell (2016)

Other releases

• Into the Black [EP] (1994)
• 2000 Promo CD [Demo] (2000)
• Eye Of The Storm [Single] (2003)
• Larger Than Life [EP] (2008)

Compilation appearances

• "Metal Invader" on a Helloween tribute released by Arise Records
• "Two Faced" on "A Tribute to Tankard" (included as a bonus disc on the AFM Records 2007 Tankard release "Best Case Scenario: 25 Years In Beers")

External links

• Official homepage
• Paragon @ Myspace
• Paragon discography at MusicBrainz