Band:	Redemption
Album:	Snowfall On Judgment Day
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	September 2009

01. Peel
02. Walls
03. Leviathan Rising
04. Black And White World
05. Unformed
06. Keep Breathing
07. Another Day Dies [feat. James LaBrie]
08. What Will You Say
09. Fistful Of Sand
10. Love Kills Us All / Life In One Day

I remember that I discovered Redemption with their second album The Fullness Of Time. It was probably one of the best surprises for me, and one of my favorite albums since that day. After a really good third release, the Americans are back with their new baby, Snowfall On Judgment Day. One more time the band confirms that they're among the best progressive Metal act and if you still don't know them, I will ask you to check this release to finally discover a really nice band.

Snowfall On Judgment Day features ten long complex songs. This is pure classic Prog Metal with all the ingredients that you want to hear when you listen to such kind of music. Nice clean vocals, powerful riffs but with a lot of variation, complex guitars and keyboards solos and of course a ton of breaks and several orientations in each tracks. The music flirts with Power Metal but the melodies are definitely not "happy" and at the opposite there is a certain melancholy in this release. Snowfall On Judgment Day is dark actually, not extreme, "gothic" or whatever else but when I listen to this release I don't have the feeling that I'm listening to something which will make me smile. You know what? I like to listen to this kind of Prog and the great thing with Snowfall On Judgment Day is that you will not be bored by this album or have the feeling that this guys try to give some music lessons. This is just good songs from the beginning to the end and it simply works despite a certain lacks of originality.

The production is solid and the performance of ALL the musicians and singer is just perfect. One more time the voice of Ray Alder fits perfectly to the music. This is emotive without being too "nice", his voice is deep and never monotonous. He is what I call a great singer. But the other members don't have to be ashamed of their work, the solos, guitars like keyboards are perfectly done and extremely technical without being pompous, and the bass and drums are two real metronomes but don't forget to have complex arrangements. Even the cover art looks cool actually, the only problem with this album is that Redemption doesn't do propose anything new. This is classic US Prog a la Dream Theater (without being a clone don't worry) and even if after all it's probably better to do classic Prog in a good way than in a bad way it's a bit sad too that Redemption cannot be more surprising. I like the music of Snowfall On Judgment Day but well a lot of other bands found a way to propose something else lately and I think that Redemption could do it too without any problem and that's a bit frustrating.

Ok, Snowfall On Judgment Day is not so surprising in the end. I mean that all the people who liked the previous albums and know the band will not discover something else this time. But still, Redemption is not disappointing and it seems that these guys remain in the category of the bands which only do solid music and cannot disappoint their fans. Snowfall On Judgment Day is a really good album of powerful Prog Metal, intelligent, technical without being indigestible. Now I hope that metalheads will finally understand that Redemption must be considerate like one of the main progressive act and I hope too that Redemptionwill understand that we believe in the capacity to kick our asses with something a bit more "crazy". They can do it to finally be in the top 5 of the best Progressive bands!