REDEMPTION: New Album Update

[Wyvern]

REDEMPTION's primary songwriter and guitarist/keyboardist Nicolas van Dyk has issued the following update on the progress of the recording sessions for the band's new album, entitled "The Origins of Ruin":

"We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're just about finished tracking, with only a few vocal parts, a couple of guitar solos and a bit of orchestration remaining to be finished. We hope to be done in the next two weeks...and then we need to schedule mixing in Germany with Tommy [Newton; UFO, CONCEPTION, HELLOWEEN, ARK, ELEGY]. In the meantime, we'll be working again with Travis Smith on some artwork.

"We don't have a finished track listing, but the songs are as follows:

01. The Suffocating Silence
02. Bleed Me Dry
03. The Death of Faith & Reason
04. Memory
05. The Origins of Ruin
06. Man of Glass
07. Blinded
08. Used to Be
09. Fall on You

"In addition, we have two covers which will find their way as bonus tracks: UFO's 'Love to Love', and TORI AMOS' 'Precious Things', which features the outstanding vocalist Anna Kristina, a well-known performer from San Francisco with a broad list of session and live credits."

REDEMPTION is:

Ray Alder - Vocals
Nick van Dyk - Guitar and Keys
Bernie Versailles - Guitar
Sean Andrews - Bass
Chris Quirarte - Drums

REDEMPTION's sophomore album, "The Fullness of Time", which also featured FATES WARNING frontman Ray Alder, was released last June via Sensory Records. Alder was a guest musician for one track on REDEMPTION's 2003 self-titled debut (Sensory), and he joined the group on-stage at Atlanta's ProgPower festival in September of that year to perform this song. Alder and van Dyk also collaborated previously on a track on the first ENGINE CD.

NP: Beholder - 'Bleeding Town'

 

[Kenneth R.]

Sounds good. As long as they don't do another sappy 'Sapphire' or 9/11 'Parkers Eyes' it looks promising. I still lament that Redemption is essentially in sound like Fates Warning 2.0. But I guess that's not too bad since FW is excellent...

 

[TheWhisper]

Can't wait for this one. 'Fullness' was a flawless album, imo.

 

[TheWhisper]

Sounds good. As long as they don't do another sappy 'Sapphire' or 9/11 'Parkers Eyes' it looks promising. I still lament that Redemption is essentially in sound like Fates Warning 2.0. But I guess that's not too bad since FW is excellent...

There's one line that mentions 9/11...nine words - that's it.

 

[Hawk]

Can't wait for this one. 'Fullness' was a flawless album, imo.

Yep I agree. I love that album. I used to dislike Alders singing very much, but his vocal style on "The Fullness of Time" is simply fantastic!

 

[Walter_Langkowski]

Sounds good. As long as they don't do another sappy 'Sapphire'

Aww come on Ken, it wasn't that bad. I actually thought some of those lyrics were kind of touching. Just admit you really liked it. It's okay to bring out the bitch in you once in a while.

'Parkers Eyes' it looks promising. I still lament that Redemption is essentially in sound like Fates Warning 2.0. But I guess that's not too bad since FW is excellent...

Completely agree.

 

[Kenneth R.]

no, for real i cringed through the entire song

the new titles look good though

 

[Soul of Ice]

Yep I agree. I love that album. I used to dislike Alders singing very much, but his vocal style on "The Fullness of Time" is simply fantastic!

Don't like Alder's vocals? Man. The old stuff or the relatively newer stuff? Due to my love of his voice, it is hard for me to imagine anyone not liking his singing style.

Fullness of Time is quite a good album with excellent songwriting and singing. I am highly excited at the prospect of another album.

 

[wdiv]

I was actually a little disappointed by Fullness. Adler seemed at times to be forcing his voice to suit the music tempo, which wasn't always successful.

 

[Wyvern]

I like both albums. I never was a fan of Alder (and ergo FW) but I believed the Redemption album delivered, so I'm going for the third one too.

 

[Wheezer]

I was actually a little disappointed by Fullness. Adler seemed at times to be forcing his voice to suit the music tempo, which wasn't always successful.

I'd tend to agree with that. Van Dyke did all the writing so maybe if Ray could write the lyrics that might get fixed up a bit. Overall, though, it was one of my tops from last year.

 

[Wheezer]

no, for real i cringed through the entire song

You'll soften a bit when you get older. I liked the song quite a bit just because of the perspective of the lyrics. It was an interesting take.

 

[Kenneth R.]

the songwriting from the first album... plus Ray from the second... now that'd be something hot

 

[Hawk]

Don't like Alder's vocals? Man. The old stuff or the relatively newer stuff? Due to my love of his voice, it is hard for me to imagine anyone not liking his singing style.

Fullness of Time is quite a good album with excellent songwriting and singing. I am highly excited at the prospect of another album.

I can of course understand that. I remember how shocked I was when John Arch left Fates Warning. So when Alder stepped in he had to fill some big shoes, in my view anyway. My disliking him had two reasons:

1) For me he could never replace John Arch

2) When he sang with his high voice I could not bring myself to like it.

Since then I started to like him a bit more especially when he stays within the lower regions of his voice. In fact one of the reasons why I liked "The Fullness of Time" so much was because of Alders vocal.

 

[Bryant]

Sounds good. As long as they don't do another sappy 'Sapphire' or 9/11 'Parkers Eyes' it looks promising. I still lament that Redemption is essentially in sound like Fates Warning 2.0. But I guess that's not too bad since FW is excellent...

I hate to say it, but Redemption does FW better than FW. Although I love "No Exit" - "Inside Out" as far as Alder era, I don't care for much cover to cover after that. APSOG received rave reviews, but it never grabbed me and the one after that was so poor (by their standards,) I can't even recall the title. FWX was solid, but not spectacular.
The Redemption is fantastic though. It's funny though how it sounds LIKE FW, not just a band with FW's singer. Even the lyrics are all that deep introspective stuff like Matheos tends to write.

Yep I agree. I love that album. I used to dislike Alders singing very much, but his vocal style on "The Fullness of Time" is simply fantastic!

I think the last song on the FoT, "Transcendence" is Alder's greatest work. Ray really shows uber passion in that one. It is a great song. Ray seems to have gotten better with age. Of course, he doesn't hit those notes like on "Silent Cries" anymore, but one advantage I think Ray has in Redemption over FW, is the keys he gets to sing in.
Matheos writes some weird chord progressions to have to sing to and I think that often made Alder sound less capable than he is. That stuff is great for those really intense proggers, but it started to wear on me a bit. I never wanted Matheos to write a three chord rock song by any means, but many times, he wasn't being very fair to his vocalist much like Romeo does to Allen.... but that's a different story.


Bryant

 

[Kenneth R.]

FWX was a homerun to me. "Wish" alone could have sold me the album, but then there's every other track on it (sure sequence #7 is hardly a song... but that is 1 exception)

 

[Walter_Langkowski]

I was actually a little disappointed by Fullness. Adler seemed at times to be forcing his voice to suit the music tempo, which wasn't always successful.

I'd tend to agree with that. Van Dyke did all the writing so maybe if Ray could write the lyrics that might get fixed up a bit. Overall, though, it was one of my tops from last year.

I thought Ray was forcing it a bit as well when I first heard it. Personally, I'd rather Ray have less lyrics at hand when singing because he really could stretch out a three-word vocal phrase and make it sound heartbreakingly good.

That's where I agree with what Wheezer said. I understand a really long Prog song as much as the next guy, but some of those lyrical stretches were really pushing it as far as 1 song goes.

Still I thought it was a very good album overall, and I'm sure #2 will be even better.