Phew, finished listening to all four albums.
Redemption - my favourite of the bunch and just an amazing album it seems, definitely going into my rotation. A lot to take in on the first listen, but I remember I really enjoyed Peel, Unformed and Keep Breathing. Obviously I knew Black and White World from the roulette and it's probably still my favourite track from the album. Love Kills Us All / Life in One Day will need more listens, I've heard a lot of good things about it but I don't think I could repeat any melody from it after one listen. Probably a grower.
DGM - well that's probably my well-known beef with Italian power metal talking, but I didn't find it really interesting or anything like that. There were some cool tracks - The Secret pt. 1, Ghost of Insanity (this one features Tom Englund on vocals and has that Evergrey vibe all around it, probably my favourite), and Daydreamer - and that's about it, other tracks were quite bland for me and I wanted to skip a few of them after a minute or two. Not a good sign for the album.
Sieges Even - this was also a lot to take in but I think I enjoyed every song. Great singer and I really like the acoustic guitar playing on the whole album. Very clean production too, just the kind of progressive rock I was looking to. This is definitely going in the rotation, I need to listen to it more. Favourite tracks so far were The Lonely Views of Condors (got this one in the roulette), Blue Wide Open and Lighthouse. While Snowfall on Judgment Day was my favourite from the bunch, I think this is the album I'm looking forward to spin again the most.
Sonata Arctica's Pariah Child - actually, the songwriting here is really good except for last two tracks which I mostly can't stand. What really brings the album down is the production, especially after the Sieges Even album where you could hear everything clearly. Here the production is just muddy. Still, some good tracks on this one - especially Blood which is easily Top 10 SA song for me. I think I'm a bit more pumped for their new album now.