UMUR "The Fullness of Time" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Redemption. The album was released through Sensory Records in June 2005. Redemption started out as the brainchild of main composer/guitarist/keyboardist Nick van Dyk and the debut album "Redemption (2002)" sounded like a project more than a real band effort IMO. There were lots of prominent guest appearences on that album like Ray Alder from Fates Warning on vocals (who sang lead vocals on one song) and Jason Rullo from Symphony X on drums. It´s not an album that impressed me much, so I approached "The Fullness of Time" with some caution. As it turns out my fears were unfounded. "The Fullness of Time" sounds much more like a band effort compared to it´s predecessor and is overall a much stronger release. Ray Alder is now a full-time member of the band and lead guitarist Bernie Versailles (Agent Steel, Engine, Fates Warning) has also opted to become a full-time member. New members of Redemption are drummer Chris Quirarte (Prymary, Roswell Six) and bassist James Sherwood (Prymary).

The music on the album is progressive metal. It´s rather traditional with heavy guitar riffs, keyboards, a tight and technically skilled rhythm section, and a skillful vocalist with a strong voice. There are influences in the music from acts like Dream Theater, Fates Warning (...well it´s hard not to sound like them when you share lead singer) and Symphony X (only when the piano kicks in. But when it does there´s an audible similarity). So far... so good. Nothing out of the ordinary there. What is out of the ordinary on "The Fullness of Time", is that the compositions are of an extremely high compositional quality for the genre and the musicians are some of the more skillful players in that genre too. The development that´s taken place since "Redemption (2002)" is impressive. Many progressive metal acts tend to overuse keyboards, but the use of keyboards on "The Fullness of Time" is very tasteful and helps create the hauntingly beautiful and at times desperate dark atmosphere on the album. The guitar riffs are heavy and powerful but cleverly played and sophisticated when that is called for.

The choice of Ray Alder as the lead vocalist in Redemption could have been a dangerous one (comparisons to Fates Warning will forever cling to Redemption), but his performance here is so strong that any critique of the choice of him as the lead vocalist will be hard to justify. The new rhythm section is also a great new asset to the band. Drummer Chris Quirarte shines throughout the album and a comparison to Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Transatlantic, OSI...etc.) is not far from the truth.

There are 8 tracks on the 57:28 minutes long album. The first 4 tracks are individual tracks but the last 4 tracks ("The Fullness of Time Suite") seque into each other and form a concept. As mentioned above all tracks are of a high musical, lyrical and compositional standard. "Parker´s Eyes" with it´s TV-reporter samples from the September 11th terrorist attack is for example a stunning goose bump inducing piece. The sound production by prolific Danish producer Tommy Hansen (who used to be a musician himself and play with The Old Man & The Sea) is professional, powerful and clear. A very suiting sound for the music on this album. Overall "The Fullness of Time" is a top notch progressive metal release and a 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Warthur Eh, not really feeling this one. Redemption play a respectably competent variety of progressive metal which ticks most of the boxes without ever quite managing to excite me. Ray Alder of Fates Warning has a rather generic vocal delivery which feels a little soulless and lacking in personality - much like the drum work by Chris Quirarte, which is technically on-form but feels rather stiff and mechanical (there's points where I do have to wonder whether they weren't sneakily using a drum machine here and there). Keyboard flourishes from Nick van Dyk are pretty enough but feel like embellishments to what is otherwise a fairly uninteresting package. Those who are more keen on Alder-era Fates Warning might get more out of this than I do.

Phonebook Eater Redemption has been becoming more and more famous; from being just a side project of Nick Van Dyk to a real full-time band featuring one of the most talented and famous vocalists of the progressive metal scene, Ray Adler from Fates Warning. With their second album, “The Fullness Of Time”, the band does a huge step toward from their sound in the debut album, and create an excellent album.

Of course Nick Van Dyk called in for this band all excellent musicians, two from Fates Warning ( Ray Adler, mentioned above, and Bernie Versailles on lead guitar), two from the band Prymary (bassist James Sherwood and drummer Chris Quirarte), so it’s easy to understand how ambitious this project should have been. The style is pretty much straight-forward progressive metal; long songs, memorable epic sounding melodies, fast shredding guitar solos alternated with keyboard solos, very skilled musicianship on the behalf of everybody, powerful vocals. Of course they are elements that make this band “unique”; Ray Adler’s voice is kind of fragile and delicate sounding, despite singing without ever hesitating and being easily able to reach high notes. I though can’t really give Ray Adler the medal for originality, since his voice has already been known from Fates Warning. The songwriting is one of the true shiny diamonds of this album; songs like “Sapphire”, “Parker’s Eyes”, “Threads” and even the final suite “The Fullness Of Time” require a lot of talent and creativity, whether you like them or not. These are songs that every prog metal fan will like or even love, simply because they are the true and simple definition of the genre, even though sometimes they aren’t quite as original or experimental than you would think.

“Threads” is a really awesome and gripping song, with many rhythm changes and with, of course excellent musicianship. Every thing about this song to me is good, there is not one bad moment in it. I couldn’t describe the next three songs better than how I just described this first song, keeping though in mind that “Sapphire” has one of the most unbelievable metal performances of all time by a vocalist. Truly amazing work. The twenty one minute suite is where this album finds it’s weak point, and I know many will disagree about this; Everything is just less captivating, less haunting, even though the experimentation is a little wider, especially in the last part “Transcendence”.

But honestly I really think this is an album that should be considered a lot more than how it is now, because of it’s amazing solid structure and great content.