By: Tordah

Posted: Apr 16, 2007

"The Origins Of Ruin" is the third studio album by US progressive metal act Redemption, led by guitarist and composer Nick van Dyk. The band now also features Ray Alder of Fates Warning fame on vocals since their last album "The Fullness Of Time". I must admit that I'm not that familiar with Fates Warning so I won't compare Alder's vocals there with his performance on "The Origins Of Ruin". It's clear though that the man has plenty of experience behind the mic and knows how to sing convincingly with confidence and feeling. It's a good thing that he has such a clear and controlled voice when the music is so intense and complex as it is here. Even when my concentration started to slip on the music I could always grab hold of Alder's vocal-lines easily. That's truly a clear sign of a great vocalist, if you ask me.

It's obvious that Redemption is a very talented band when it comes to instrumental proficiency. Fortunately "The Origins Of Ruin" never turns into a full shred-fest ala Dream Theater. Yes, there are plenty of guitar and keyboard-solos, even some bass-solos – but they're always well within the frames of the songs. This is progressive metal after all so I would be surprised if there wasn't a healthy dose of technicality involved. The song-writing is very good and the songs have a good flow that makes the lines between "solo-section" and "vocal-section" seem very natural. The only annoyance I would like to point out is that many songs don't really have a clear intro or outro part. They just kind of start out of nowhere and then just end abruptly. I often found myself going "oh" when I noticed I was 1 min into the next track already. "The Origins Of Ruin" also has the strange quality that it draws you back again and again even though the music isn't really catchy at all, at least not to my ears. I don't know how to explain this phenomena but I hope I'm not the only who has felt this way about an album before. I just feel like playing this album often so that must mean that the music is good - great, even.

This is undeniably an album that takes many spins before it fully sinks in. The music is very complex and demands full attention from the listener or you might as well turn it off right away and listen to something else. If you're not already a fan of progressive metal I doubt this album will do much to change that opinion. This actually reminds me quite a bit of the Finnish band Silent Voices the way the music is constructed and built up. It's like a thick wall of sound that shifts focus from one instrument to another without ever losing intensity. This makes the album very difficult to get into but very rewarding once you do. The production is quite dense but good. Sometimes it feels like there's a bit too much going on at the same time but overall the album is a pleasure to listen to. You can even hear the bass clearly which is awesome.

After playing this album many times I'm very impressed by what Redemption has achieved here. Intriguing and complex music that manages to lure you back time upon time. The music is well-written, well-performed and on top of that they have a top-notch vocalist in Ray Alder. Nick van Dyk proves himself to be an excellent composer and musician once again. This is one of those albums you grow to like a lot just because you are hard-pressed to find any flaws or areas that felt like they could be improved upon. I'm sure this will be in my top 10 progressive albums once this year is over. Definitely a must-have if you liked Redemption's previous albums.

Rating: 8,5/10

Redemption website

Review of "The Fulleness OF Time"

Redemption interview 2005

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