Review: Paragon Theorem - Bound By Gravity

Paragon Theorem is an interesting act that is releasing its new album on January 25th 2019, Bound By Gravity. No, it’s neither a prog metal band as the name and title would indicate, nor a technical death metal act with super hyper blasts and 800 bpm sweep arpeggios. Instead, Bound By Gravity plays an interesting mix of vintage post grunge influenced slight groove metal, somewhat thrash influenced metal, and hard rock that indicates a plethora of influences. This is a mix of influences that is extremely hard to get right, and I believe that Bound By Gravity nearly does, other than a few quibbles I’m sure they’ll hammer out. But let’s focus on the positives. 

The band teeters on the edge of radio ready and a sound that could cultivate a cult following, I’m more fond of the bands that cultivate a cult following, but the band could very well go in either direction.   The album starts out with the groovy and heavy Singularity, a mid paced catchy start to the album. This song definitely has that Post Grunge influence in spades, however, the vocal melodies go more in the direction of the originators of grunge itself rather than something like Creed. The guitars rip on very  metallic riffs that balance out the accessibility with some killer leads as well.

The second song The Bottom is a bit more subdued but no less heavy. The melodic, almost AIC style vocal harmonies bring this song to a higher level, as well as the creamy leads.

The third song, being the title track, is a bit more in the groove direction, almost if like Dimebag wrote a Toadies song. The supporting riffs though almost have an eighties or post metalcore style though. The contemplative, more intelligent and philosophical lyrics make the song even more appealing.

Buttanna is the fourth song and has an almost Metallica or Megadeth style clean guitar/heavy guitar interplay in the beginning and it goes into a more melodic slow thrasher. This might be the one that has the most Staley sounding vocals on the album, and that is nothing but a compliment. Probably also the best song so far with the best hooks. If they should pick a song to play on the radio, I would recommend this one. The Black Album style solo part is awesome as well.

Combustion is back to the grooviness of the earlier tracks. It’s a bit more radio modern rock sounding and goes a bit too much in that direction for my tastes. Something you would hear when putting on an Active Rock station too much.

The Heist is a nice little interlude with acoustic guitar and vocals.

A.P.B is back to the mid paced modern metal song, with some cool guitar arpeggios to boot. Not as memorable as earlier songs, but still a better song than say, Combustion.

Charade follows and almost has a slight sleaze metal tinge to it with the beginning riffs and solos but then it’s more of the same as earlier.

There is an acoustic song (and yes, the Alice In Chains comparison is extremely befitting at times with this song, as some of the haunting twists and turns in the song do recall them at their best). Definitely a welcome change of pace after a few songs that didn’t really do as much for me!

Marvel is kind of a power ballad as it mixes the acoustic parts with heavier arpeggiated parts. Not a bad song, but not as cool as the earlier acoustic ones.

The album concludes with Wanted, another acoustic track, that ends the album on a somber note.

Reminds me of layne staley meets james hetfield, almost with a touch of Cobain but not in a lame way like a lot of your average radio rock does. 

Something clicks better with these mix of influences that hooks the listener in a better way than those mixes of influences would necessarily indicate.

The vocals are a bit rough at times and definitely could use improvement, as some straining is present, however cool the tone is. That would be my main complaint is that they sound a bit underdeveloped. That doesn’t call for a new vocalist at all, as the vocals and melodies are something that stands out with this band more than others of similar ilk in a way- most of the time clean vocals in modern metal and even hard rock to me are among the worst elements to listen to. My other quibble is that some of the songs are a bit too formulaic. I realize in this subgenre of rock/metal that’s a common thing, but I would say having a little more variety would have made the album more on the mark or above. The band is certainly capable, and the middle  of the album seems stuck in a bit of a rut as a result of some of the sameyness.

I actually like the production, it really brings out the guitars and has a heavy stomp that is modern but not overly compressed or quantized sounding. Guitar tones are immensely heavy and dynamic, for example. The vocals are the weakest point with the production. They seem too pushed to the front in a dry way. This band is coming at a time, where much of the rock and metal world is in a state of retroactive flux. A lot of bands are picking particular eras to emulate, and they are no exception. 

Except with them, they seem to have influences from various eras, and in a way, this makes them fresher than a band just picking 70’s 80’s or 90’s.

Mixing grunge and almost post grunge modern rock influences with Metal turns out to be a lot better than it would sound.

Paragon Theorem have the ingredients to be a real standout band. They don’t sound like they’re out to reinvent the wheel, or to make up some kind of new incomprehensible genre. Yet, if they continue to develop their sound, they will definitely have success in the future.

  

Video Version of this review can be found below!

You can find more information on Paragon Theorem from the following links:

Website https://www.paragonthereom.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/paragontheorem
Bandcamp http://paragontheorem.bandcamp.com
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/paragontheorem
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/paragontheorem/
Twitter https://twitter.com/paragontheorem