adg211288 Tales of the Weird is the sixth full-length album by German thrash metal act Paradox. The album was released in 2012. Tales of the Weird features a re-worked line-up compared to the group’s last album Riot Squad (2009), with Christian Muenzner (Obscura) and Daniel Buld (Hatred) joining the fold. With the new line-up the band has produced an album which is much better described as power-thrash rather than straight up thrash metal.

Or maybe that should be thrash-power. It’s still quite clear where Paradox’s allegiance lies when listening to the album despite the generally high sense of melody and use of power metal riffs as well as thrash ones. I guess power-thrash has a better ring to it than thrash-power though. This is definitely still a thrash metal album first and foremost. I’m not actually familiar with the previous work of Paradox but I must say that the sound the current incarnation of the band has come up with is a real winner. The flitting back and forth between thrashing away and the much tighter percussive riffs of power metal provides a good variation that albums that are a more pure example of each genre can struggling with achieving, and the sound has the aggression of thrash metal regardless of what side of their sound they’re doing at any particular time. There may well be a lot of power metal elements but there’s certainly no cheese here.

The band prove equally competent at the longer more complex songs like the opening title track and the more in your face style songs like Brutalized. While a couple of tracks on the album don’t strike me as being as good as the rest, Tales of the Weird maintains a very high quality level with several highlights including the aforementioned Brutalized, as well as Escalation, Brainwashed, and The Downward Spiral. Frontman Charly Steinhauer has a voice that is perfect for the music. Rough but not without a sense of melody, the lack of which has put me off even some of the most successful thrash metal bands going. As a bonus track the band also does a cool cover version of Rainbow’s A Light in the Black, which despite a different overall vibe fits into the album well and is definitely worth having.

Paradox have produce a real kick arse kind of album in Tales of the Weird. It’s heavy, fast and aggressive but melodic and definitely has a real sense of class about it. An exceptional grade rating is easily deserved.

92/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/paradox-tales-of-the-weird-t2881.html))