Paragon was formed in 1982 in the form of a high school
garage cover band performing mostly songs written by
Rush and Led Zepplin . It didn't take long to realize
that the musical brotherhood shared by Sonny Reynolds
and Marc Crotts would lead to the creation of something
new and a bit different from what everyone else was
doing. After several years of musician and song writing
refinement accompanied by long song writing sessions
and rehearsals, Paragon began playing the local club
scene in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1988.
The band went through 3 member lineup changes through
the years, which we respectively called Paragon 1.0,
2.0, and 3.0. From conception to current, in chronological
order, Paragon members include Sonny Reynolds, Marc
Crotts, Wade Carpenter, Glen Blackburn, Scotti Montagnino,
John Griffin, Todd Hamby, and Shawn Love. Musically,
the band had many sides as each version of the band
created anywhere between 10 to 30 songs totaling somewhere
around a hundred tunes, if not more. The only official
releases that ever came to pass were "Sensation" and
"Can't stop the Violence" which were released on Metal
Mythos I, and Metal Mythos II - compilations which were
released by Mary London.
The band filmed and produced a full length video of
the song "Can't Stop the Violence", and 3 other songs,
which were set to be the release of an EP/DVD that never
came to pass. As the band moved into the 3.0 line up,
the music scene began to dramatically change. The band
changed and this challenged everything they knew, and
basically started all over again from scratch. With
the new addition of Shawn Love added to the song writing
circle, the band found a new common ground and the path
that they were destined to take was at hand. A press
release was filmed and the band had worked up an entirely
new set list and show of primarily all new material.
Pre-production and actual tracking of all of the project's
drums, which were then performed by Wade Carpenter,
had begun for the production of what they hoped would
help elevate them to the next level.
After only a few shows, unfortunate circumstances that
occur in life made it difficult for the band to continue
moving forward, and the machine that was Paragon was
forced to put things on hold.......that is until now...PARAGON
4.0.