REDEMPTION

Redemption is the brainchild of guitarist/ bassist/ keyboardist Nicolas Van Dyk. There are quite a few prolific progressive metal musicians playing on the album though and I´m tempted to call this an all-star cast. Rick Mythiasin (Pantera, New Eden, Taraxacum, Steel Prophet) is the lead vocalist, Jason Rullo (Symphony X) plays the drums and Bernie Versailles (Agent Steel, Engine, Fates Warning) plays lead guitars. In addition to that we have Ray Alder (Fates Warning, Engine) guesting on lead vocals on song 2 "Desperation Part II", Mark Zonder (Fates Warning, Slaviour) guesting on drums on song 7 "As I Lay Dying" and Michael Romeo (Symphony X) who contributes with orchestration on song 1 "Desperation Part I" and song 4 "Desperation Part IV".

The music on the album is progressive metal. Heavy riffs, keyboards and high pitched vocals. High quality compositions and musicianship but really nothing unusual for the genre. There are 8 tracks on the album. The first 4 tracks "Desperation I-IV" make up a lyrical concept and they seque into each other. The last song is a 24:00 minute long track so the music is pretty challenging. While the music and the musicianship is of high quality the production really drags the album down. The sound is thin and lacks bass. The only time I hear the bass is in the song "Window To Space" where it has a kind of lead part. On the rest of the album the bass is not audible at all. There´s also something wrong with how the keyboards are placed in the mix. Sometimes they´re not very audible. I can hear that they are there but I can´t hear what they are playing. A really bad production this one.

Now when I see all the names mentioned above I expect something extraordinaire but I think this is a pretty "run of the mill" progressive metal album. No surprises and a bad production really don´t do anything positive for the album. There´s nothing wrong with the musicianship or the compositions as such, The compositions could however have been written by almost any progressive metal act. I think Redemption seriously lack an original sound on this album. When those complaints have been voiced "Redemption" is still a pretty good progressive metal album and a 3 star rating is deserved.

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