The history of Sieges Even is long and really interesting. One of the most important elements in it is the ability of the members to bring back the audience’s respect after a suffered reverse, and to create better albums than the previous ones as a result of the musicians’ professional qualities. “Paramount” is a ripe record. It is good that the brothers Holzwarth did not forget the good old progressive to which they devoted in the middle of the 80’s, and although participating in Rhapsody of Fire and Blind Guardian, their job for the new songs of Sieges Even is beyond reproach. It is true that the people under this name are not the most productive, but they record new material only when it is absolutely perfect. The most attractive thing in this disc is its positive message. There is the ideal proportion between the instrumental virtuosity and the vocals. Behind the microphone Arno Menses is calm and with his voice succeeds to switch the listeners on the right frequency. We have an amazing start with “When Alpha and Omega Collide”, followed by the melodic hymn “Tidal”. Then it becomes senseless to know the exact number of the other songs, because they pass unnoticeably as one. The homogeneity is the reason for the hard finding of favorite songs in spite of the great qualities of the mentioned ones and the astringent feeling that stays after “Mounting Castles in the Blood Red Sky”, where we hear authentic parts from the most famous speech of Martin Luther King, “I have a dream…”. The current work of Sieges Even is comparable to the freshness of the last records of Threshold, which is definitely a sign that there is hope for the veterans on this stage. The Germans receive my encouraging “very good” rating with the belief that they will continue the great job to “excellent”.