Redemption – “The Fullness of Time”
If you consider yourself a person that likes intelligent metal, then you should check this band out because the musicianship is so talented that, compared to this, 99% of metal just sounds mediocre or bad. Redemption features Fates Warning singer Ray A. in its ranks; the music itself is, if you must label it, complex-progressive thrash. One clarification: this does not sound like Fates Warning at all. For one thing, Redemption is quite a thrashy, very guitar-powered band, which simply has not been the case with Fates Warning since the late 1980’s. Personally, I was not sure that I could get into this because I find that a lot of prog metal people are wankers writing boring songs and that are more musically masturbating than anything, but I was wrong. This is pretty rocking, even though it’s prog. Of course, this music is pretty complex and skilled, but the songs do flow and are coherent. There are lots of technical guitar solos, but they are melodic. There are keyboards here, too, but unlike a band like Dream Theater, who often bore me, the keys serve the song and are not too upfront, though you can hear them clearly. Ray, on this album, sings, by today’s standards, in a very traditional metal way, very talented, and it probably sounds pretty high. Nevertheless, this is no where near as high as, say, “No Exit,” his debut with Fates Warning all those years ago. Ray sounds great on here. This album is about an hour long and it is excellent!