Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Redemption
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release: 2016
Duration: 75:57
Rating: 4.5/5
After five years, American progressive metallers Redemption are back on the scene with a new album. »The Art of Loss« marks an interesting shift toward greater musicality and a stronger, more defined approach to composition, with tighter, more concise arrangements. The break of a few years did the band a massive favor, giving them time to hone the arrangements of the new songs down to the finest detail. The album once again boasts incredible variety and a gorgeous balance between demanding, progressively complex and more technically challenging passages on one side, and on the other, the melodic compactness of polished lead choruses, verses and main guitar phrases that keep things in check.
Not without tragedy during the making of it, though. Bernie Versailles, a former member of the immortal flagbearers of the American old-school speed metal scene Agent Steel, suffered a brain aneurysm, and although the Redemption guys still count him as a full-fledged member of the band, and he’s currently recovering, his return is pretty unlikely. For the new ideas and getting them down, Redemption invited a whole bunch of guest musicians into the studio, mostly guitarists, and world-renowned, highly respected ones at that, who contributed their solo spots. Among them are no fewer than three former Megadeth guitarists (Freedman, Broderick, Poland – the latter delivers most of the album’s solos alongside Van Dyk). Nick Van Dyk, well aware of how hard it is to replace the missing chemistry between his guitar and Versaillesʼ, has deftly sidestepped the rhetorical question of how to integrate a replacement for Versailles, pushing it off to a later date. At the same time, the guest guitarists are drawing more interest in the new album from critics. But it’s clear everyone just wants to see Bernie doing okay and getting back on his feet. More than the fact of the virtuoso solo acrobatics that Van Dyk delivers with his crew of guest companions, though, what really stands out is the realization that Redemption have managed to put together some extremely listenable tracks that stick quickly and are even catchy, given how much arranging tightness and even occasional pomp they pack (Slouching Towards Betlehem, especially Damaged and later the chorus of The Centre Of The Fire).
The influence of bands like Dream Theater and/or Fates Warning can’t be denied this time around either. Hence the restrained progressive edge of the typical American formatting. Redemption remain dramatic, even darkly brooding, with opening riffs flirting with the primordial legacy of old-school American speed metal. But the band exposes and loosens up those influences with neo-classical touches, and also weaves blankets of keyboards into the songs, which guarantee the high atmospheric level of the album’s whole drama theater. Despite the realization that this is once again the most musical and compositionally defined (and detailed) album in the band’s story, the band also put the longest composition of their career on the album. That’s the 22-minute epic progressive epic, or simply put, the progressive-metal epic suite At Day’s End, which is the most ambitious piece the band has created to date. This track too keeps the red thread of songwriting running throughout, meaning Redemption don’t steal a moment of the listener’s time with potential dryness or clumsy, half-baked compositional ideas. This progressive-metal epic suite is a masterpiece in every respect and the high point of the whole album, while Alder’s opening verse, in the musical form of its chosen vocal lines, evokes similarities with the musical solutions of Enchant.
The building of moods in the songs is front and center, and the key element in creating the drama theater that the band develops across the record. Ray Alder performs superbly in his vocal duties and is pushed even a notch further into the center of everything on the new material, especially in line with the aforementioned rise in musical tightness in the arrangements. His voice remains the band’s recognizable trademark. Just like with Fates Warning. A new masterful performance from this experienced vocalist, highly esteemed in the world of progressive metal.
Despite Versailles not being on the album, Redemption retain and maintain all the quality of musical excellence, which continues to be effectively nurtured and built upon compared with the band’s past works with the new album. The inclusion of a cover of The Who classic Love Reign o’er Me (Alder is fully replaced on vocals here by the Armoured Saint “sonic siren” John Bush), cut in the authentic Redemption recipe of musical rhetoric, seems, given the growing musicality in the band’s style, like a move that fires brilliantly on the album. »The Art Of Loss« is an excellent new album from Redemption. It keeps its creative freshness and is the imprint of the band’s genuine artistic maturing along the natural path of its evolution. An average music gourmet couldn’t wish for or demand anything more.
Redemption – The Art of Loss (official video):
Lineup
Ray Alder – vocals
Nick Van Dyk- guitar, keyboards
Greg Hosharian – keyboards
Sean Andrews – bass guitar
Chris Quirarte – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
John Bush – vocals on track no. 8.
Chris Poland – guitar on tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Simone Mularoni – guitar on tracks 1, 2, 9.
Marty Freedman – guitar on tracks no. 3 and 6.
Chris Broderick – guitar on track no. 6.
Production
Tommy Hansen
Tracklist
The tracklist of the album ‘The Art of Loss’ is as follows:
1. The Art of Loss
2. Slouching Towards Bethlehem
3. Damaged
4. Hope Dies Last
5. That Golden Light
6. Thirty Silver
7. The Center of the Fire
8. Love Reign o’er Me
9. At Day’s End
