Minneapolis band Last Shot At Redemption fuse fast, heavy riffing with socio-political lyrics in an engaging metal meets emo sound that they describe as “intense, urgent and hopeful.” Moreover, the band aims to offer a voice for people who want to see positive change in the world around them.
The band, from the city of Maple Grove, takes its name from an unfinished project in vocalist and guitarist Chris Dohmen’s college days. He teamed up with a group of musicians to work on an album when the US was recovering from the pandemic in 2021, learning, rehearsing and improving a bunch of songs with Blaine Johnson (guitar), Daniel Kruyer (bass and vocals) and Tony DeNapoli (drums).
And on the band’s approach, Chris told us: “Our sound would best be described as emotional honesty, musical intensity, and lyrical urgency in an accessible package.”
To give us a taste for this, the band sent us Care At All from their debut album Perspective, which was released two weeks ago. It opens up with intense layered guitars, with guitar chords under two piercing guitar licks. That drops into driving drums under Chris’ high-pitched vocals that drop into intense screams, teeing up a taster of a big emotional chorus “Does anyone share the feeling that they might not care at all.” A heavier second verse ends with more big screams dropping into the extended shoutalong chorus “Does anyone share the feeling that they do not care at all, Can anyone make the promise of the rise after the fall.” That gives way to more intense screams and driving drums and guitars, teeing up a couple of final blasts of the chorus.
On the track, Chris told us: “I would say people should expect to perhaps recognize a time in their lives where maybe due to circumstances beyond their control or choices that put them on a dark path, they found themselves no longer caring, and hopefully reflect on how they got out of it.”
As mentioned, that comes from the band’s debut album, which is packed with more intense emo-ey goodness. That includes the powerful Only A Pawn, Speak Your Peace and New Reality, the wild Insanity, a personal favourite Promise, and the excellent seven-minute-long final track When The Butterfly Lost Its Wings.
When pressed to pick out one track for new listeners, Chris said: “As the main songwriter for the band, it’s hard to say that any one song is a favorite as they are basically all my children. I think the biggest curveballs for the majority of the record would either be New Reality, a song that came from a demo that I recall being a mix of dungeon synth and Gojira, or the punk-infused title track. Here’s a fun fact about it: most of the vocals on it are from the original demo. I played around with different approaches during the recording, but found they wound up as the best fit for the final song.”
And on the album as a whole, Chris told us: “Words don’t describe how excited I am for these songs to finally be released. These songs all began life during the 2020 lockdown, and I found great catharsis in each of them. It’s unfortunate that the lyrics are more relevant than ever, but that’s what I think people can expect from this album, along with a drive to leave their situation better than they found it.
“Perspective as a whole feels like a call to action by reminding us what we’re up against and what we stand to lose when we don’t resist against ideals that hurt people or the environment or the structures that we’ve worked so hard to build.”
The Last Shot At Redemption sound draws on a wide range of influences, from Metallica, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Trivium, The Replacements and even Linkin Park. And on what inspires them to write music, Chris explained: “My main influences for the writing on this album in particular stem from my thoughts on the events of 2020. Living close to the origin of the George Floyd protests while in the middle of a globe-changing pandemic certainly provided lyrical ammunition, along with a time of personal turmoil.”
Last Shot At Redemption are currently working hard on completing some demos that they plan to turn into a second album. They’ve been gigging the tracks for around three years, with a view to expanding their musical palette – including an ambitious Linkin Park Re-Animation style remix album with different artists.
You can follow Last Shot At Redemption on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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