'This Mortal Coil' First-Week Sales Revealed

"This Mortal Coil", the fifth studio album from REDEMPTION, the U.S. progressive metal band featuring in its ranks guitarist/songwriter Nick van Dyk and legendary FATES WARNING vocalist Ray Alder, sold around 1,100 copies in the United States in its first week of
release. The CD landed at No. 32 on the Top New Artist Albums
(Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and
developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top
100 of The Billboard 200.

Released on September 26 in Europe and October 11 in North America via InsideOut Music, the follow-up to 2009's "Snowfall On Judgment Day" was recorded and mixed with producer Neil Kernon (QUEENSRŸCHE, NEVERMORE, DEICIDE). The CD's cover artwork was created by acclaimed artist and longtime band collaborator Travis Smith (OPETH, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, NEVERMORE).

"This Mortal Coil" track listing:

01. Path Of The Whirlwind
02. Blink Of An Eye
03. No Tickets To The Funeral
04. Dreams From The Pit
05. Noonday Devil
06. Let It Rain
07. Focus
08. Perfect
09. Begin Again
10. Stronger Than Death
11. Departure Of The Pale Horse

In North America, "This Mortal Coil" is also available as a 2CD package featuring a special bonus CD with the following six (!) cover versions:

01. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (ELTON JOHN)
02. Jane (STARSHIP)
03. Hold The Line (TOTO)
04. Edge Of The Blade (JOURNEY)
05. Love To Love (UFO)
06. Precious Things (TORI AMOS)

Nick van Dyk previously stated about REDEMPTION's new CD, "It was a pleasure to work with Neil Kernon during the production, although I dare say we had more challenges and
curve-balls in this process than either of us is accustomed to.
Nonetheless, we overcame everything in our path, from Internet failures
to lightning strikes, and since one of the themes of this CD is
essentially overcoming adversity, the production process served as a bit of a metaphor for the whole concept!

"The new CD continues our
creative effort to combine heaviness with melody — fusing those
disparate elements has always been part of REDEMPTION's sound, along with an element that I have called emotional urgency, which we've maintained here. All in all, it sounds like REDEMPTION — although importantly I think it's by far our best-sounding record, owing to the work of Neil Kernon and the mastering of Alan Douches."

Regarding the artwork, Van Dyk said, "We have worked once again with the incredibly talented Travis Smith on our art; we work very well together and he has a proven knack for bringing my concepts to life visually."

SYMPHONY X, EPICA, REDEMPTION, PRETTY MAIDS Confirmed For PROGPOWER USA Festival

SYMPHONY X, EPICA, REDEMPTION and PRETTY MAIDS are among the confirmed bands for next year's edition of the ProgPower USA festival, set to take place in September 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia (exact dates to be announced).

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

Friday:

SINBREED
KINGCROW
SOLUTION .45
SERENITY
PRIMORDIAL
REDEMPTION
EPICA (headliner)

Saturday:

ABOVE SYMMETRY
LANFEAR
AMARANTHE
MYSTIC PROPHECY
MAYAN (WITH SPECIAL GUESTS)
PRETTY MAIDS
SYMPHONY X (headliner)

For more information, visit www.progpowerusa.com.

REDEMPTION: New Album Artwork Unveiled

REDEMPTION, the U.S. progressive metal band featuring in its ranks guitarist/songwriter Nick van Dyk and legendary FATES WARNING vocalist Ray Alder, will release its fifth studio album, "This Mortal Coil", on September 26 in Europe and October 11 in North America via InsideOut Music. The follow-up to 2009's "Snowfall On Judgment Day" was recorded and mixed with producer Neil Kernon (QUEENSRŸCHE, NEVERMORE, DEICIDE). The CD's cover artwork was created by acclaimed artist and longtime band collaborator Travis Smith (OPETH, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, NEVERMORE).

Commented Nick van Dyk: "I'm extremely pleased to announce that work on 'This Mortal Coil' has been completed. It was a pleasure to work with Neil Kernon during the production, although I dare say we had more challenges and
curve-balls in this process than either of us is accustomed to.
Nonetheless, we overcame everything in our path, from Internet failures
to lightning strikes, and since one of the themes of this CD is
essentially overcoming adversity, the production process served as a bit of a metaphor for the whole concept!

"The new CD continues our
creative effort to combine heaviness with melody — fusing those
disparate elements has always been part of REDEMPTION's sound, along with an element that I have called emotional urgency, which we've maintained here. All in all, it sounds like REDEMPTION — although importantly I think it's by far our best-sounding record, owing to the work of Neil Kernon and the mastering of Alan Douches."

Regarding the artwork, Van Dyk said, "We have worked once again with the incredibly talented Travis Smith on our art; we work very well together and he has a proven knack for bringing my concepts to life visually."

REDEMPTION will headline this year's edition of the ProgPower Europe festival and embark on a European mini-tour.

The twelfth installment of the ProgPower Europe festival will take place in Baarlo, Holland, October 1-2.

REDEMPTION will play the last show on this visit at the inaugural edition of the Denmark Rock Festival on October 8 in Copenhagen, Denmark at the venue The Rock.

The mini-tour will see REDEMPTION play a selected number of concerts across Europe, giving European fans a chance to finally see the band live (their only European show so far
was five years ago at the Headway festival in Amsterdam, Holland) and, of course, to witness a live rendition of material from their
acclaimed current studio album release "Snowfall On Judgment Day". Direct support act on these shows will come from the Italian proggers KINGCROW, who released their fourth album, "Phlegethon", through Scarlet Records last year.
SOURCE: RNR

REDEMPTION Completes Work On New Album

REDEMPTION, the U.S. progressive metal band featuring in its ranks legendary FATES WARNING vocalist Ray Alder and guitarist/songwriter Nick van Dyk, has completed work on its new album, "This Mortal Coil", with producer Neil Kernon, who has previously worked with such acts as NEVERMORE, NILE, QUEENSRŸCHE and DEICIDE. The CD will feature the following working songtitles, among others: "Noonday Devil", "No Tickets To The Funeral", "Rain In My Soul", "Focus", "Dreams From The Pit", "Path Of The Tornado", "Blink Of An Eye", "Perfect" and "Departure Of The Pale Horse".

Commented Nick: "I'm pleased to announce that after what can only be described as a very challenging production experience that threw every possible curveball at us, we have finished the record. Fortunately, Neil kept a steady hand at the tiller through rough waters but it really tested us all: computer failures, Internet failures, missing files, strange 'ghost-in-the-machine' type elements, scheduling challenges, lightning strikes (I'm not kidding), etc. At any rate, the masters are in the hands of the label. Now we just wait for it to be released! Hope you all enjoy it."

REDEMPTION will headline this year's edition of the ProgPower Europe festival and embark on a European mini-tour.

The twelfth installment of the ProgPower Europe festival will take place in Baarlo, Holland, October 1-2.

REDEMPTION will play the last show on this visit at the inaugural edition of the Denmark Rock Festival on October 8 in Copenhagen, Denmark at the venue The Rock.

The mini-tour will see REDEMPTION play a selected number of concerts across Europe, giving European fans a chance to finally see the band live (their only European show so far was five years ago at the Headway festival in Amsterdam, Holland) and, of course, to witness a live rendition of material from their acclaimed current studio album release "Snowfall On Judgment Day". Direct support act on these shows will come from the Italian proggers KINGCROW, who released their fourth album, "Phlegethon", through Scarlet Records last year.

REDEMPTION: European Mini-Tour Announced

REDEMPTION, the U.S. progressive metal band featuring in its ranks legendary FATES WARNING vocalist Ray Alder and guitarist/songwriter Nick van Dyk, will headline this year's edition of the ProgPower Europe festival and embark on a European mini-tour. "We are extremely excited for the opportunity to come to Europe and play for our fans" said Nick van Dyk. "We are hard at work in pre-production on our upcoming release, 'This Mortal Coil', and we look forward to performing new music from it at these European shows." The twelfth installment of the ProgPower Europe festival will take place in Baarlo, Holland, October 1-2. REDEMPTION will play the last show on this visit at the inaugural edition of the Denmark Rock Festival on October 8 in Copenhagen, Denmark at the venue The Rock. The mini-tour will see REDEMPTION play a selected number of concerts across Europe, giving European fans a chance to finally see the band live (their only European show so far was five years ago at the Headway festival in Amsterdam, Holland) and, of course, to witness a live rendition of material from their acclaimed current studio album release "Snowfall On Judgment Day". REDEMPTION's mini-tour is shaping up as follows: Oct. 01 - London, UK, The Underworld Oct. 02 - Baarlo, The Netherlands, Progpower Europe Oct. 04 - Pratteln, Switzerland, Galery Music Bar/Z-7 Oct. 07 - Essen, Germany, Turock Oct. 08 - Copenhagen, Denmark, Denmark Rock Festival Direct support act on these shows will come from the Italian proggers KINGCROW, who released their fourth album, "Phlegethon", through Scarlet Records last year. "This Mortal Coil" is being produced by Neil Kernon, who has previously worked with such acts as NEVERMORE, NILE, QUEENSRŸCHE and DEICIDE. The CD will feature the following working songtitles, among others: "Noonday Devil", "No Tickets To The Funeral", "Rain In My Soul", "Focus", "Dreams From The Pit", "Path Of The Tornado", "Blink Of An Eye", "Perfect" and "Departure Of The Pale Horse".

REDEMPTION: New Album Title, Producer Revealed

Los Angeles-based progressive metal band REDEMPTION, which features in its ranks vocalist Ray Alder of FATES WARNING, has set "This Mortal Coil" as the title of its fifth album, tentatively due in the fall. The CD will be produced by Neil Kernon, who has previously worked with such acts as NEVERMORE, NILE, QUEENSRŸCHE and DEICIDE, and will feature the following working songtitles, among others: "Noonday Devil", "No Tickets To The Funeral", "Rain In My Soul", "Focus", "Dreams From The Pit", "Path Of The Tornado", "Blink Of An Eye", "Perfect" and "Departure Of The Pale Horse".

Commented guitarist/songwriter Nicolas van Dyk: "The band was really happy with 'Snowfall On Judgment Day' and so when it came time to put together new material, with our own expectations for ourselves always on the rise, we gave a lot of thought to how to deliver the goods and step up our game yet again.

"We have worked well with some excellent producers in the past and they have put their mark on our sound, especially Tommy Newton, with whom we did two records and who we tried to involve early enough in the production process to help shape the records. But even with Tommy, most of the involvement came after we were finished with songs.

"For this record, I thought we could bring in an outside producer very early on. Someone to help shape the music and raise the bar for us, challenging our ideas and getting the best from the band. I knew I wanted somebody with a depth of experience that reflected the many things REDEMPTION pursues in its music: melodic but heavy; intricate and complex when called for, but accessible; a bit of virtuosity but always in the service of the song. This is a tall order, when you think about it. We would need a producer, ideally, who had extensive experience in pop music but also maybe jazz fusion, had worked with somebody like KANSAS, had worked with somebody like NEVERMORE, had extensive experience in heavy technical music (like, say, SPIRAL ARCHITECT or even somebody like NILE) and hopefully also had particular domain expertise in prog metal (maybe someone like QUEENSRŸCHE).

"Fortunately, such a producer exists! I am delighted to announce that we will be working on 'This Mortal Coil' with Neil Kernon, whose extensive CV includes all of those bands. He has immense experience in song craft, creating compelling intricate music across a variety of genres. It's a great fit for what we are looking for right now. He is, simply put, a legendary producer and we are really fired up to work with him.

"Neil and I have known each other socially for several years, and actually about three years ago he called me and asked if REDEMPTION would be interested in creating a ''Rage For Order' for the next century.' Uh, YES, we would! However, at that time, we were already down the road with 'Snowfall On Judgment Day' so I explained that we would have to table the conversation until the next record.

"So when the time came to consider how to make sure our next CD is our best (a goal we will always have!) I thought immediately back to that conversation. And as Neil and I spoke about the possibilities, it became obvious to us both that this could be a very special opportunity to make a really great CD. So we are really going to dig into pre-production together beginning just a few weeks from now and needless to say, I'm really looking forward to it!

"I've been working on the basic structure of the songs for a couple of months now, and the band is very pleased with how things are coming together. We are taking more time to explore different drum parts than we have done before, and working out bass and drum parts together in a more organic way than we have had the luxury of doing in the past.

"So the songs are in a bit of flux now, but at this point it looks like we will have ten or eleven tracks, with a fair amount of compositional diversity between them but all having the strong melody, the aggressive riffing and the sense of emotional and musical urgency that we hope is core to all of REDEMPTION's music.

"This is not a rock opera but the songs are tied together, loosely, by the theme of confronting our mortality. You can imagine, given my medical adventure, that what I experienced would make its way into my songwriting.

"After pre-production, we'll get to tracking and mixing and all that good stuff. We are shooting for a fall release date, assuming all goes well. We're also planning some pretty extensive and cool bonus materials, which will be fun to do and which we think our fans will really enjoy. We also have some tentative plans right now to play out a bit more extensively than we did on the last CD in support of the record."

In November 2008, Nicolas van Dyk was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a disease that he described at the time as "a particularly bad form of blood cancer which is generally considered incurable and which has a five-year survival rate of 34%." He now says, "I continue to follow the very aggressive protocol of my brilliant doctor, Dr. Bart Barlogie, who is quite literally saving the lives of people diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma — he's the only doctor in the world who believes it can be cured. As of now, I remain in complete remission and have been there for around fifteen months. If I make it thirty six months, Bart's data shows I am almost certainly cured. So I continue to take three nasty meds to (hopefully) ensure I remain in remission. The odds at this point are very much in my favor. Incidentally, I have a different blood cancer than what Nergal of BEHEMOTH is battling, but a small part of the aggressive protocol I underwent consisted of two
blood stem cell transplants that Nergal recently underwent."

REDEMPTION Working On New Material

Los Angeles-based progressive metal band REDEMPTION, which features in its ranks vocalist Ray Alder of FATES WARNING, is "in the early pre-production stage" of writing material for its new album for a 2011 release. Guitarist/songwriter Nicolas van Dyk states, "It's too early to say too much, but I can share that the arrangements vary from short (for us!) hard-hitting songs to at least one and possibly two more sprawling ideas, and that a few of the working titles at this point are 'Noonday Devil', 'Dreams From The Pit' and 'Rain In My Soul'."

In November 2008, Nicolas van Dyk was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a disease that he described at the time as "a particularly bad form of blood cancer which is generally considered incurable and which has a five-year survival rate of 34%." He now says, "I remain in complete remission with no trace of the disease that I announced publicly about a year ago. I remain on three powerful medications to ensure that the cancer does not return. Of the five original active lesions in my bones, none are active for cancer and one of them has resolved (i.e. been completely repaired with new bone). The other four are in the process of being repaired and that is the next big milestone.

"Patience is required but I believe they will get there. If that happens, it is a good sign that I am well down the road to being cured (according to the very aggressive doctor to whom I entrust my care). However I must remain on these medicines for two more years. They have many unpleasant side effects but I am resolved to stick with the program and beat 'incurable' blood cancer."

On February 4, REDEMPTION was interviewed for an episode of "Hard" on the AUX music channel out of Canada. The six-minute segment, which includes performance footage, can be viewed below.

REDEMPTION released its fourth CD, "Snowfall on Judgment Day", on October 6, 2009 through Inside Out Music. The album was mixed and mastered by Tommy Newton, who produced the group's last two CDs, at Area 51 Studios in Celle, Germany. The artwork was once again created by Travis Smith.

REDEMPTION is:

Ray Alder - Vocals
Nick van Dyk - Guitar, Keyboards
Bernie Versailles - Guitar
Sean Andrews - Bass
Chris Quirarte - Drums
Greg Hosharian - Keyboards

REDEMPTION released a concert DVD, "Frozen in the Moment: Live in Atlanta", in late February/early March 2009. The disc contains a five-camera, high-definition shoot of the band's ProgPower USA VIII festival appearance in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2007. In addition, there is a 12-minute video and photo tour diary set to the band's previously unreleased instrumental from the DREAM THEATER songwriting contest that REDEMPTION wrote back in 2003.
Source: RNRCOLA

REDEMPTION Scraps European Tour Plans

Guitarist/songwriter Nicolas van Dyk of the Los Angeles-based progressive metal band REDEMPTION has issued the following update:

"I am sorry to say that we are faced with the reality of having to cancel REDEMPTION's intended European shows the summer.

"Part of our unique sound comes from our vocalist, Ray Alder of FATES WARNING.

"As a longtime fan of FATES myself, I have always maintained that REDEMPTION would not interfere with Ray's commitment to FATES, and we have worked very carefully and diligently since Ray joined REDEMPTION in 2005 to ensure that both bands would be able to record and perform without conflict.

"We intended to play several shows in several countries this summer in support of our new CD, 'Snowfall On Judgement Day'. Our management and local promoters in Europe worked hard to line up some great shows that we were very much looking forward to playing. Originally, there was no conflict, even when FATES announced some special shows and festivals to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their fantastic 'Parallels' CD. However, some additional shows were then added on FATES' schedule. We intended to carry on and simply reschedule some of our dates, shortening the tour to ensure that there would not be a conflict. Again, our management and local promoters worked hard to ensure we'd be able to do this. It became economically more difficult, but REDEMPTION was prepared to accept that since we really wanted to play for our fans in Europe.

"As of a week ago, we still intended to move forward. However, after considering it, Ray determined that the schedule — which would have involved him performing headline sets with us, then taking a very long flight, having only a brief time to recover before performing headline sets with FATES, then having to fly back to Europe and perform again — is simply too much to take on. There's just no way to do it while performing at the level that I know Ray wants to.

"So I'm left with the unfortunate reality that we're not going to be able to play Europe this summer.

"Please understand we've done everything we can to find a solution — but none were available to us.

"We look forward to coming to Europe at another time, and thank you for your interest and support."

on February 4, REDEMPTION WAS interviewed for an episode of "Hard" on the AUX music channel out of Canada. The six-minute segment, which includes performance footage, can be viewed below.

REDEMPTION released its fourth CD, "Snowfall on Judgment Day", on October 6, 2009 through Inside Out Music. The album was mixed and mastered by Tommy Newton, who produced the group's last two CDs, at Area 51 Studios in Celle, Germany. The artwork was once again created by Travis Smith.

REDEMPTION is:

Ray Alder - Vocals
Nick van Dyk - Guitar, Keyboards
Bernie Versailles - Guitar
Sean Andrews - Bass
Chris Quirarte - Drums
Greg Hosharian - Keyboards

REDEMPTION released a concert DVD, "Frozen in the Moment: Live in Atlanta", in late February/early March 2009. The disc contains a five-camera, high-definition shoot of the band's ProgPower USA VIII festival appearance in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2007. In addition, there is a 12-minute video and photo tour diary set to the band's previously unreleased instrumental from the DREAM THEATER songwriting contest that REDEMPTION wrote back in 2003.