Redemption is the brainchild of guitarist/keyboardist Nicolas Van Dyk, who writes all the music and lyrics for the band. This is the progressive metal band's third album, and the second with vocalist Ray Alder (Fates Warning).
Everything has jelled for the band on this album, and The Origins Of Ruin is their best work to date. The songs have all the depth and complexity a good prog metal album needs, but also have more heaviness than most bands in the genre. Sometimes with epic songs there's a lot of excellent musicianship and lots of diversity, but little in the way of melody and hooks. That is definitely not the case here. There are a lot of really memorable songs on this album.
Alder's voice is in great form. He sings in a little lower pitch than in the past, but is as powerful and expressive in his delivery as ever. The combination of very well written songs and Alder's magnificent voice make for a noteworthy progressive metal CD.
