Impressive third album from the LA’s prog metal band Redemption, The Origins of Ruin is their best work, they consolidates, and now they are a top band, Nick is a musical genius, expose openly their ideas and feelings, incredibly emotional, he traduces all these ideas and feelings in music and lyrics, it’s perfect, this is write, play and sing with the heart, but they don’t forget the technical and heavy parts, pretty amazing!!!, all the prog metal should be like this; The album is conformed by nine tracks, two bonus tracks for the Japanese edition, almost an hour for the normal edition, each song is special, like Nick’s says about Suffocating Silence song: “The trademarks that Redemption has in our music: heavy but melodic, complex but song-oriented, a lot of “urgency” or tension to the music”, this “urgency or tension in the music” are instrumental parts and it’s when the band plays faster at the same time, this “urgency or tension” came in the entire album, the tension in the keyboards and piano parts are amazing, also orchestrations, these gives an excellent touch to the music, it seems that your heart come out from your chest; Ray’s voice simply awesome, singing with a special sentiment, Sean Andrews debut with a remarkable work in this album, he is a notable bassist, Chris and Bernie improves each album recorded, now we’re waiting for the tour, it will be excellent!!!
1. The Suffocating Silence 2. Bleed Me Dry 3. The Death of Faith & Reason 4. Memory 5. The Origins of Ruin 6. Man of Glass 7. Blind My Eyes 8. Used to Be 9. Fall on You 10. Precious Things (cover song Tori Amos) 11. Love To Love (cover song UFO)
2007 - INSIDE OUT MUSIC (Worldwide) 2007 - DINGWALL MUSIC (Japan)
Redemption is:
Ray Alder (vocals) Nicolas van Dyk (guitars, keyboards) Bernie Versailles (guitars) Sean Andrews (bass) Chris Quirarte (drums)
Every now and then, a
young band comes along that leaves you in no doubt you are listening to
something really special. Quandary from Australia has definately left me
feeling that way.
Another great band from
Eastern Europe, this time from Poland. Votum is a quite interesting reality of
the late 2000’s. They have started a bit heavier than what shown on this
particular album (Metafiction), but those who will have the chance to get this
CD will understand the reason why I am happy they have changed their style into
a more progressive way. Their first album was very normal (nothing to add to
prog scenario), but this Metafiction work, which by the way was made under
Mystic Records that must receive lots of compliments since they are doing an
excellent work promoting bands from that part of Europe, has something more.
Great music and amazing lyrics to bind the entire album, creating a melancholy
atmosphere that leads listeners into a more committed hearing session. I
wouldn’t go as far as some of my friends who compared Votum to Porcupine Tree
or Riverside (a fantastic Eastern Prog Band), but if you are listening Votum
for the first time you might experience that sensation as well.
Subject to Thoughts are a relatively unknown Prog band from the US that
have been around for a few years now, I think this band deserves more attention
with the album The Culmination. The members are Mark Mendieta, Keys, Bass,
Drums, Guitar and Brandon Strader on lead guitar and Vocals. The sound is
Ambient Progressive with Doomy elements and the keyboards really add a
forboding and somewhat eerie feeling. Some great tracks include "Since The
Inception" "One Day" and the title track "The
Culmination" and as with most STT Cds they are 70 minutes plus. The vocals
by Brandon sometimes appear strained but I honestly believe that this adds to
the whole atmosphere and meloncholy feel
the band is trying to achieve on this release...
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Vanden Plas – The
Seraphic Clockwork (2010) – Review by Logan
Lee
After
a 4 years wait since Vanden Plas’ last album (the extraordinary Christ O), some
side projects and a change of discography record company (from Inside Out to
Frontiers Records) Vanden Plas has returned with a brand new concept CD called
The Seraphic Clockwork. The story, as explained by the band itself (the story
was written by Andy Kuntz), is about a
journey from 16th century Rome to sacred land Jerusalem in the year
33 A.D. (obviously a time and space travel); The protagonist, after an apocalyptic vision,
has come under the spell of an Old Testament prophecy and must travel back
through the centuries to face his God-given destiny. Vanden Plas has perfectly
combined their recent achieved theater experience with their consecrated
ability on progressive metal. I have talked with some colleagues and looked
around on the net for other opinions and almost everybody thinks that this is
the best Vanden Plas ever but even if I agree with them for what concerns
lyrics’ composition I still believe that as a whole Christ O is a half degree
above (meaning that this album is their second best, which is still a good
thing since the above mentioned album is a masterpiece in my very humble
opinion). Nevertheless, this band is digging deep into progressive and
symphonic foundations finding some quite amazing musical arrangements.
Division by Zero - Independent
Harmony (2010) – Review by Logan Lee
I have to admit that this is my first time listening to this polish prog
metal band and I assure all that it will not be the last since I got surprised
by their sound, specially by Slawek Wierny (vocal) flexibility. He manages to
vary between prog style and metal style (a bit like Akerfeldt from Opeth) with
quite competence.
Without a doubt Poland is the hub of all thing Prog and we have a band that just might possibly be the best of all of them and that includes Riverside. I love bands that draw you in from the very opening track and the album just gets better. The vocalist Rafal Biernacki reminds me somewhat of the Lord Of Mushrooms singer and is great on this disc. The one thing for me that stands out apart from the amazing melodies is the Guitar playing from Jakub Zytecki, he really is an amazingly talented guy who can create wonderful emotions!!
Avantasia – The Wicked
Symphony & Angels of Babylon (2010) – Review by Logan Lee
Due to personal issues, I was not
into music these last days. But when I was asked to prepare this review I
suddenly regained strength and that really is the greatest Avantasia feature -
the ability to lift up spirits with their music. I did not even know that Mr.
Sammet was preparing a new release and when I saw there were TWO CDs to hear I
ran and got them.
We recentlly contacted respected Producer Tommy Hansen (Mixer of Helloween, Jørn Lande, Circus Maximus, etc.)
for and interview, here it is!:
1.- Wat's the first thing you
consider
when mixing a band?
The sound design is the first
decision.
Should the drums be wet or dry? Back in the eighties the drums used
to be
very wet - now a days they are normally a lot dryer.
Next decision - should the
guitars be
loud? (Yes - always) If there is a lot of keyboards going on, maybe
the
guitars will come down a bit.
Next
decision - Will I need to re-amp the bass? Very often
it brings
out the bass better, if it gets distorted. However, the bass will always
suffer
from the loud guitars, so you may not hear the bass very clear and
loud, but
you'll miss it if it went out completely.
Next
decision - Vocal sound. Should it be wet or dry? I always use some delay
and
reverb and harmonizer to get a great vocal sound. The question is
more like
how much effect should be added. The eq and compression is very
important
too. Getting those right, brings out the magic of the vocal
performance.
Finally the master eq/compression shall be set.
These days everybody expect loud records, so the only way to get that
loud, is by use of limiter and booster. I use several of them to get
there,
rather than using one unit a lot, I tend to use more units with less
effect.
Thanks for the pictures..they look real cool..please send more and the video clips would be nice to see;-)It was really nice to meet the mexican-gang..hihi;-)
