The Art of Loss

Yes! It’s the album I’ve been waiting five years to hear—another for the list of “albums I thought I’d never see”—the lead composer, Nick van Dyk, taking a well deserved break following the cancer scare that comprised the core theme for his last work, This Mortal Coil. For those new to the artist, Redemption are a supergroup and they damn well know it. They’re the eternal reason Running Wild fans have to endure long periods of inactivity as frontman Ray Alder dedicates his time to the far more emotional and carefully annunciated vocal performance found here. Chris Quirarte returns once again to handle the drumming duties, and the long-term lead composer and shredder in van Dyk returns with Chris Poland filling in on lead guitar duties (regular guitarist Bernie Versailles [Agent Steel/Redemption] sadly is currently in hospital following a brain aneurysm), not to mention guests from almost every other notable Megadeth guitarist (Chris Broderick and Marty Friedman also lend their talents). After the dark and thick production of their last album, you’d be expecting this to hit harder and faster than ever before—and you’d be wrong.

What has always set Redemption apart from other super-groups—and indeed, many a Progressive Metal act—is their ability to compose. It’s never felt as though one artist is fighting another for dominance over a track, each given their moments to shine, demonstrating their own specific forté in creating a specific tone for the passage ahead. The production gives the album far more room to breathe—an issue I had looking back on previous releases—but far from sounding thin, the music becomes far more dense; rather than melodies blurring together they remain independent, intersecting and building on one another as required. Guitars will come in from every angle, and no aggressive passage goes without it’s obligatory shredded ‘background solo’ making the breaks for gentle piano melodies or simplistic guitar chords contrast all the more powerfully. It gives the album a glorious variance in tones; atmospheres can be set by thick bass lines or chaotic fretwork as much naked vocal or gentle piano melodies. 

Yet, I can’t help but think that with all the guest musicians that there is sometimes so much occurring at once that you begin to become numb to it. There is often complementary guitar lines running in the background, and whilst this makes it capable of enduring multiple listens, it doesn’t take long for fatigue to set in—especially given its 72-minute runtime—at best almost forgetting it’s there at all, but at its worst distracting you from the rest of the track. The old adage that ‘less is more’ often applies, and I couldn’t help but feel it could have benefited from a shift in focus, taking a closer look at the different elements, taking a step back and asking, “is this really contributing meaningfully?” Oddly enough, it’s the lengthier tracks that often feel the most accomplished. It’s as though they knew they had some extra time to work with and allowed things to flow naturally, rather than try to cram every idea into a short timeframe and have it play simultaneously. 

The album hits its most emotionally powerful and memorable heights when it relies on simplistic motifs in balance with the solo work; the sombre yet positive—almost religious—tone of “That Golden Light” or the despair-riddled “Hope Dies Last” and the manner it steadily builds up in intensity to the crescendo often say far more than any amount of technical fretwork and flying fingers ever could. Ultimately, it simply begins to stumble under its own weight. There’s a lot of content, which compounded with—Ray Alder’s vocals aside—the fact that they aren’t doing anything particularly original, sticking closely to the decades old Progressive Metal framework, results in it all too often sits pleasantly in the background. It’s far from a bad album, but neither does ever particularly impress. It often fails to draw your attention despite there being no shortage of things happening. One of the best Progressive Metal bands still going have returned with another stellar entry to their back catalog, lacking only in a little assertive energy or adventurous experimentation to push it into the upper echelons of the Prog genre.

Release date: 04-04-2016
Reviewer: Thomas Bawden
Score: 8