Redemption's third album is truly their greatest.
"The Origins of Ruin" represents all one would crave and desire from a metal minded progressive release. The songs are sharp and accessible yet very technical at their core. Its a labyrinth of instrumental excellence written by band member Nicolas van Dyk who also provides guitars and keys for the band. The quality of the music is stunning, its emotional twists and profound turns are food for the mind and thought for the soul. The disc spans across a wide field of genre types, exploring numbing speed, aggressive thrash, big melodies, delicate harmonies and powerful plays on human nature. All of this is tied up neatly by Ray Adler's expressive voice, as the former
Fates Warning crooner projects all these dark feelings of insecurity, self-doubt and deep rooted angered depression with a fevered flair.
The disc could easily be split into two parts. The first half is spirited, challenging music that takes time and patience to pull apart and leaves you dwelling on the darkness that it deals. Complex and technical, it keeps the music fast, tight and heavy, allowing only slight diversions of softness to peer in occasionally. The second half plays its hand with simpler structures and a focus that is turned away from technicalities and zooms in on melody. Here we see the band struggle slightly to keep the songs flowing without drowning them by repetitive themes. The highs on
"Ruin" are so extreme that its easy to forgive and overlook a few places where the tightly woven structures come slightly unraveled.
"The Death of Faith and Reason" is wrought with technical savageness, guitars that growl like wildcats while forming electric crisscrossing webs and thundering percussion that attempts to drive a nail through your skull by way of sheer pounding force. Warped effects bend and twist the music up like a crumpled soul. Alder's performance is the processed voice of reason tying it together by looming above the music as it surges violently underneath his cold, spectral presence. The guitar solo comes on quick and furious, ringing with razor tones that cut cleanly across the surging dark sonic waves crashing beneath it.
If you have been following the band, you will be able to see
"Memory" for all that it is - a sequel to the epic "Sapphire" from their previous disc "The Fullness of Time". The song in turn, has its own shades of blue, softer than the brilliant blaze blue of before, but reminisces with the listener by use of various textures. Wind effects and that melodic guitar harmony that was part of the very heart beat from that former tune are used to spread familiarity. This is another worthy progressive length epic that shifts moods on a dime and takes care with the slower, sprawling moments where Ray's voice just shines.
"Origins of Ruin" is the very opposite. So light, so delicate, like a spider caressing its web under cover protection of the blackness in night. There is a quiet sorrow here, like gazing over a ghost town or the ruins of a lost civilization. Nothing left but the fading shadows playing across the landscape. Alder's voice is full, rich and poised for melancholy reflection.
"Man of Glass" leads you into a track that is complex, rich and fulfilling, and not nearly as fragile as the title might suggest. There is a drive here very much like
Fates Warning's heavier material, such as the chugging guitars from "Monument", yet doesn't reach such epic moments. This keeps the harsh progressive labyrinthine twists intact, a complicated puzzle that remains heavy throughout.
The album is not entirely composed of negativity, pessimism and hopelessness, trapped in heavy barred cages. The finale,
"Fall On You" leaves a glimmer of positive energy in its undercurrents. It's a long, winding song, taking Middle Eastern influenced roads, strong but overly repetitive harmonies, and acoustic guitar to cool the warm breezes that flutter the pacing throughout.
"Blind My Eyes" is balladesque, the vocals like drops of blood spilling from a splintered soul as a relationship crumbles apart. But somewhere, amongst all that is heartbroken, seems to be a sliver of peacefulness. The acceptance of the ending becomes clearer, less cloudy from those consuming depths of despair. Sunlight is not shining through yet, but as the song closes, you are left lingering on the breath that it just might shine on someday.
Redemption's name is ironically prophetic. With this superb entry into the progressive metal genre, they are indeed helping to redeem the good name of prog metal which has been festering like a sesspool for far too long. Thoughtful, complex, heavy - this is a harsh metallic disc that isn't afraid to show emotional scars, and uses these glimpses into darker souls and tattered psyches, like jagged weapons. It stabs to the heart and slices the soul, leaving you spinning from the effects for days afterward. As great prog metal albums have the power to do, it creates thoughts, inspires feelings and forces you to look not only at the fragility of humanity's nature, but to also look back at yourself in a cross examining light. Not at all an uplifting album, but one that is incredibly insightful and harkens back to the glory days of prog metal.
Written by
Alanna Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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