Review Summary: If life gives you lemons, let Chris Poland make you lemonade.
If there is a band that embodies resiliency, it is Redemption. It seems like every time life presents a shitty situation, the band come back even stronger than ever. Redemption started as a fairly stereotypical progressive metal band, but with a substandard vocalist. Instead of persevering in obscurity, they enlisted the vocal talents of Ray Alder (Fates Warning) while forming their own little niche based off progressive arrangements, intricate musicianship, and an undercurrent of Bay Area thrash. Then Nick van Dyk was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a form of blood cancer that is generally considered incurable. Instead of throwing in the towel, Nick beat the incurable cancer and came back with the heaviest album of their career,
This Mortal Coil.
Unfortunately, the band weren’t able to bounce back for too long. Before they could release a follow-up, their guitarist Bernie Versailles suffered an aneurysm, and has been in recovery ever since. At this point, nobody would have blamed the band for considering themselves cursed and moving on to safer endeavors. Instead, Redemption has taken another leap forward. The appropriately titled
The Art of Loss takes the heaviness of
This Mortal Coil and blends it with the more traditional progressive direction found on
The Origins of Ruin – and they even have a little help from some friends. The terrible predicament of temporarily losing their lead guitarist opened the band to a pretty cool opportunity. In their search for a temporary replacement, they somehow managed to enlist the services of Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth, ex-Damn the Machine) and his signature style is all over
The Art of Loss. As if that wasn’t enough, the band also managed to snag Marty Friedman and Chris Broderick for a few songs; turning
The Art of Loss into a sort of gathering for wayward Megadeth guitarists.
I know how recording studios work and I understand the three guitarists probably never even saw each other, but there’s still something cool about hearing them trade solos on ‘Thirty Silver’. The same thing could be said about the duet between John Bush (ex-Anthrax, Armored Saint) and Ray Alder on the cover song ‘Love Reign o’er Me’. I understand John Bush probably recorded his vocals at a home studio and e-mailed them to the band, but the end result still isn’t diminished by that fact. Also, has it been made clear the band features Chris Poland for the majority of the album? He’s so much a part of
The Art of Loss’ sound that he is even featured on their first music video. Anyone familiar with his Damn the Machine project will immediately recognize his tone and style, especially during the guitar solos. The band even manages to incorporate a few jazzy breakdowns during ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’. Of course, the rest of Redemption are still firing on all cylinders. Ray Alder’s vocals fit the songs perfectly and never wander anywhere near the high-pitched squeal of your traditional prog vocalist. Nick van Dyk’s riffs can still go from balls-heavy to classy progressive metal in an instant and their rhythm section can capably handle any direction thrown at them.
Someone once said that Redemption does what Dream Theater seems incapable of doing. They can write classy progressive metal tracks that are full of heavy riffs and technically proficient solos while still keeping their focus on the actual songs. Redemption also has a vocalist that is a benefit to the band, and on
The Art of Loss all of those things have come together to create another excellent album. The fact they somehow managed to pull a myriad of awesome guest musicians, including Chris Poland, onto the recording only goes to show how much this band is respected.
The Art of Loss is an album that had plenty going against it, but instead of calling it a day, Redemption has endured once again.
The Art of Loss maintains the heavy riffs and driving rhythms of
This Mortal Coil, but returns the focus to the classy progressive metal that defined the band’s earlier albums. If
The Art of Loss isn’t considered Redemption’s best album, it’s damn near close.
