Once deemed too progressive for their own good, Redemption have toned down the widdly technical acrobatics of their early days in favour of a down-to-earth metal sensibility. Call it a case of having sharpened things to a point over the course of seven years, enough to cut away from the often tedious mindfood requirements of the prog metal world. Their new album, Snowfall On Judgement Day, features a healthy updated take on the genre without selling out for a more mainstream approach, with a focus on the ebb and flow of the music rather than the time and place of each note and every time signature. Guitarist / founder Nick van Dyk hasn’t abandoned Redemption’s prog roots by any means, but he has most certainly grown into his art. It now has a soul, which is something that can’t be said of the band’s self-titled debut.

“I totally agree with you,” says van Dyk. “That was sort of a dream project I had, to be able to take music that I’d written and put out a record with famous people involved in it. I’m a vastly different and better songwriter now, and instead of me playing multiple instruments Redemption has real musicians now (laughs). One of the things that we’ve tried to do since then is combine elements that don’t usually fit together and try to make them work. We have very heavy aggressive riffing up but we also have very strong melodies. The aggressive riffing comes from me growing up listening to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands and Bay Area thrash before I got into prog. I was a fan of Forbidden before I was a fan of Genesis (laughs).”

With more metal on the menu over the course of previous record, The Origins Of Ruin, and Snowfall On Judgement Day it’s fair to say the “progressive metal” tag applies less and less to Redemption.

“That’s one of my hopes. Not that we don’t consider ourselves a progressive metal band, but we don’t want to fall into that situation where the music only appeals to a select group of self-identified music snobs. We can cross over into power metal, melodic metal, classic metal, and have the type of fanbase that gets bits and pieces of what they like out of our music.”

The new album marks the second of two releases since Redemption’s 2007 North American tour supporting Dream Theater on the Systematic Chaos tour. A live album, Frozen In The Moment, was issued in early 2009 to give old and new fans something to chew on, with Snowfall On Judgement Day hitting the shelves at the end of the year to show the band means business. The Origins Of Ruin is considered the one that got the ball rolling in earnest, making it one of the most important baby steps the band has taken since its inception.

“It’s still a work in progress,” van Dyk says of Redemption’s achievements thus far. “It’s very hard to judge anything these days because the music business has just been decimated. An album that does 8,000 units today might have done 50,000 units 10 years ago, and I don’t think those are exaggerated numbers in either direction. We did about what I expected with The Origins Of Ruin, which was more than 8,000 but not 50,000, and I think and hope we’ll do better than that with the current record despite the fact the market’s gotten even worse. Being on tour with Dream Theater and getting in front of their fanbase is something that should help build us up. It also showed people that this is a band and not a project, that we’ve got some longevity and building a catalogue, so hopefully things are pointed in the right direction.”

As for securing the Dream Theater tour; intimidating or a dream come true (no pun intended)…

“It was the best opportunity I could imagine. Direct support for the biggest band of the genre in venues seating thousands of people for six weeks is unbelievable. It was amazing for me personally as well because I’ve been a fan of the band since before they were called Dream Theater. They’re absolutely terrific guys and we became friends, and James ended up contributing to this record as a result (on 'Another day Dies') which is really cool. Playing for their fans is a mixed blessing because they are the pickiest fans in the world, as Dream Theater can probably attest. We’d get out there and the first eight or nine rows were people that paid an awful lot of money and really would have preferred an ‘Evening With…’ format than having opening bands. So, the first 600 people we saw had their arms folded across their chests until we impressed them with something (laughs). They weren’t being jerks or anything, but there was a high bar that we had to get past, which was good.”
“The Toronto show was great,” van Dyk adds when discussion turns to BW&BK;’s and Dream Theater frontman James Labrie’s home town. “When we play ‘Bleed Me Dry’, which has a little break in one part of the song on the record, I’ll throw in the opening riff of (Rush classic) ‘The Spirit Of Radio’ in there because it fits the key. When we got to Toronto we’d had some drinks the night before and we discussed what we were going to play, and the suggestion came up to play the opening section of ‘YYZ’. Everybody was into except Ray; he was saying ‘Aw man, everybody’s just gonna think that’s weird…’ (laughs). We out-voted him, and when we broke into ‘YYZ’ at the show all the arms-folded guys stood up and started screaming (laughs). That was pretty cool.”

A major selling point for Redemption is vocalist Ray Alder. Best known as the singer for Fates Warning, he has a rock solid reputation as one of the finest prog metal singers around, with over twenty years and seven studio albums under his belt. Alder’s involvement with Redemption hasn’t broken the bank, but since The Origins Of Ruin his presence has drawn considerable attention.

“A fair number of the comments that I see online reflect the fact that people know who Ray is, which is good,” says van Dyk. “Some people prefer the fact that we’re busier and bit more aggressive than Fates is these days. But, I want to be very mindful of Ray’s commitment to Fates Warning. I don’t want people perceiving his involvement in Redemption as threatening that, so we’re very careful to do this in a way that it doesn’t disrupt his other obligations.”

Similar to his situation in Fates Warning, Alder is on board primarily as the voice of the Redemption. Van Dyk, like Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos, is the driving force behind the band’s music.

“Ray does have input in Redemption but I’d say I do the bulk of the writing. It allows me to control the pace of the albums, but whether it’s Ray, Bernie (Versailles / Agent Steel), Chris (Quirarte / Prymary) or one of the other guys, I don’t want them to come up with an idea and worry about which band they’re going to contribute it to. If they have something that they think will fit with Redemption I’m all ears and they’re welcome to bring it to the table. I don’t want them to feel like they have to come up with stuff because then there’s the potential for conflict with other musical ideas they have to contribute elsewhere.”
“Quite frankly, if I wasn’t good at doing that sort of thing by this point there would be more contributions from Ray” he adds. “But, we’re close friends and I think he relates to my lyrics. Everybody relates to internal struggle and overcoming adversity on some level. It’s stuff that we’re faced with daily as human beings, so I promise you that the day I start writing songs about trolls and dragons, that’ll be the day I hang it up (laughs).”

Which won’t be any time soon, particularly since van Dyk holds down a day job that supports his music hobby. Putting in 60 hours a week takes its toll, but Redemption has been part of his life too long for him to give it up.

“I don’t know that I have to do the music, but it certainly is a great release and just a lot of fun. It’s very rewarding, so if I can find a way to do both I will. It’s a challenge but… I was trying to think of what I’ve given up for music and I guess it would be TV, but there’s nothing on anyway (laughs).”