Paragon (band)
Paragon is a speed 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, and 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 for the band's 25th anniversary. The album, "Hell Beyond Hell" came out in 2016. Band members. Former members. Vocals: Chris Barena (1990–1994) Kay Carstens (1994–1996) Guitar: Frank Hellweg (1990–1991) Marcus Cremer (1991–1993) Wolfgang "Woko" Köhler (1993–1994) Daniel Görner (1995–1996) Claudius Cremer (1996–2003) Günter Kruse (2003–2009) Wolfgang Tewes (2010–2015) Bass: Dirk Sturzbecher (1990–1995 ) Uwe Wessel - bass (1995–1996) Dirk Seifert (2007–2009) Drums: Kay Neuse (1990–1995) Markus Corby (1995–2005) Chris Gripp (2005–2013)