Blaze Bayley The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III
Album Review By Adam McCann
Blaze Bayley Records
2018
Stand and Fight
It has been an extremely busy three-year slog for Blaze Bayley, a trilogy of albums released and toured since 2016 is no small feat. The ‘Infinite Entanglement’ series has been some of Blaze Bayley’s best work, it has captivated and held the attention of all those who have had the pleasure of hearing it. This brings us to the final chapter of the saga ‘The Redemption of William Black’, the culmination of three years work, but does it have the gall to stand alongside ‘Infinite Entanglement’ and ‘Endure and Survive’?
Flowing almost seamlessly from the previous album, ‘The Redemption…’ immediately picks up where ‘Endure…’ left off which gives the trilogy an almost movie like feel and helps you attach emotion and feeling to the protagonists and antagonists. Admittedly, the story for ‘The Redemption…’ is a little bit more difficult to follow than the previous albums, focusing more on the spiritual side of life after death, but it the repeating motifs from the previous albums such as in ‘Human Eyes’, ‘Redeemer’ and ‘Immortal One’ easily help tie this album to the previous works.
Unlike the previous two albums, there are parts of ‘The Redemption…’ which actually show just how good of a vocalist that Blaze Bayley is, you can feel every drip of emotion in ‘Human Eyes’ and ’18 Days’ as Blaze bears his soul in a duet with Liz Owen, although ‘Life Goes On’ does have hints of Queen’s ‘The Show Must Go On’. There are even allusions to his time in Iron Maiden with excellent twin guitar work in tracks like ‘The First True Sign’, ‘Already Won’ and ‘Life Goes On’, the second half of that song could easily exist on ‘Virtual XI’.
‘The Redemption…’ is an excellent way to finish the trilogy, yes, it is a little more confusing than the previous two and this album will always be the ‘Return of the Jedi’ to the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ of ‘Endure…’. However, that does not take anything away from the album and once more Blaze Bayley comes out on top.
Rating : 80/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
