THRESHOLD

Imagine Marillion didn't hire Hogarth but instead went with the best Robert Plant replica around and added an extra rhythm guitarist to metalize their sound a bit. Wounded Land might be the very result. It's more then 15 years ago already but this is the very album that (together with the entirely different progbeast "Into The Everflow" from Psychotic Waltz) ruled my playlist in 1993 and got me completely into progressive rock again after years of other explorations.

It's packed with beautiful melodious guitar solos like I hadn't heard since Marillion's Fugazi, it has epic songs with a fine balance between heaviness and melody, a big glossy sound that was nevertheless crystal clear and warm, nice crispy grooves and so on. Some samples:

Days of Dearth. This is the song I got to know them from, it's an ecstatic doom metal track with excellent lead guitars, very emotive vocals and a wonderful finale. A bit different from the other songs here but a good track to sample as a starting point.

Sanity's End. If you've never made the link between Threshold and Marillion then you haven't heard this one yet: a piece that is every bit as impressive as Incubus. It's a typical example of Threshold's approach to prog: start with a few pretty basic but memorable guitar riffs, add tons of synths on top of that, create a clever song structure that builds up to a splendid finale, make the best possible use of your world class vocalist and spice it up with plenty great guitar solos. The focus is not on technicality but it sure works fine for me.

Paradox. Probably my least favorite track here. It's still ok but too cliché FM-rock, and way too Market Square Heroes! But it's the only lighter piece in this otherwise dramatic album, so it adds a little variety and a bit of playfulness to the gravity that surrounds it.

Like it or not but this album has that trademark Threshold glossy sound that they basically wouldn't stray away from anymore. But, contrary to their later works, they were still full of ambition and good ideas here. Threshold would continue to create great songs in the 90's but with the turn of the century they gradually turned into a slick commercial format that got them more fans but has little to do with their initial charm.

I used to be entirely unimpressed by this album. I liked some songs but after the stellar debut it was a bit of a letdown. The vocals of new guy Glynn Morgan weren't bad but could simply not be compared to Damien Wilson's superior performance on the debut. And most of all the production was terrible.

I've sort of revised my opinion with the 2001 remaster that solved the sound problems and consequently immensely improved the listening experience. In most cases the whole re-mastering hype is just baked air but here it really improved the drum and guitar sound. It made me finally start appreciating this album that boasts some of their best compositions next to the debut.

Generally, I must say I find the tag progressive a bit flattering for Threshold. They sure make long songs but all the way through the main ingredients are just fairly basic Sabbathy guitar riffs. Luckily they had a keen sense for melody and worked for a great epic impact.

After my initial disappointment with Psychedelicatessen I stopped following Threshold and completely overlooked this fine album. I didn't even know they had the Damien Wilson featuring on any album other then the debut. Here he shines again, full of melody, surprises and emotion.

This is a beautiful melodic rock album with some soft metal and slight neo-progressive influences. When I first heard them they reminded me a bit of Fugazi-era Marillion: similarly constructed epic songs, fluid guitar solos and layers of keyboards. The main elements that they add are the crunchy rhythm guitars and a singer that could stand in for Robert Plant if Jimmy Page would want to go ahead with that Zep-reunion tour after all.

Almost every track is entirely convincing here: Exposed, Somatography and Eat The Unicorn are an excellent trio of songs to kick things off. Forever and Virtual Isolation are less though and hint at things to come. But The Whispering and especially Lake of Despond are poignant compositions, also Life Flow and Part of the Chaos are ok but stand in the shadows of the preceding highlights.

In my perception, Damien Wilson is the main factor that was responsible for lifting Threshold above the many similar bands that populate this melodic-metal-with-long-songs style. He managed to put some real emotion in this often too sterile and too smooth type of metal.

The decline of Threshold continues. Apart from the Ravages of Time and Light and Space this album is tough for me to get through: often blatantly commercial, too bombastic and overall predictable.

The Ravages of Time is classic Threshold though. An epic and melodic piece with those firm and crunchy metal riffs (nothing demanding but effective) and a chorus that can stand as an example of how to make a pompous refrain (that will set off your cheese indicators in all extreme directions) into something dramatic and impressive. We used to call this FM-rock, but it's probably the best you might encounter.

Also Light and Space is ok. Other songs contain listenable parts, usually the verses, but if you're not into sing-along anthem metal, I'd advise you to stay away from this.

Clone falls somewhere in between good and unsatisfactory. Crunchy rock like Freaks is mixed with cheesy songs like Angels. Sometimes, as in The Latent Gene, they even shift from a beautifully built tension to cringing inferior breaks within one song.

At best this album delivers decent repetitions of what they already did on previous albums: Freaks, Lovelorn, Life's Too Good are decent melodic metal, and The Latent Gene and Goodbye Mother Earth have their share of enjoyable moments. Overall I sure do miss the grace, emotion and inspiration that Damian Wilson had so plenty off.

For me this is the last Threshold album worth listening to. From this point onwards, an occasional song not withstanding, Threshold would continue the commercial and predictable metal FM-rock that first surfaces here and has nothing on offer that I want to be near to.

Not quite a clone (at least not yet!)

Threshold once again lost Damian Wilson who left the band for the second time after their last album Extinct Instinct. In my view, the two albums Wilson sings on, Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct, are Threshold's best. But Clone is also a good album that introduced new singer Andrew McDermott which was the band's third singer in four albums. Like Glynn Morgan who sang on Psychedelicatessen, McDermott has a strong voice but hardly as distinctive as Damian Wilson. Overall, the musical direction of Clone is perhaps closer to that of Psychedelicatessen than to the other two I have mentioned. I find this one less progressive and also less diverse compared to the three previous albums.

Like Wounded Land, Clone is a concept album. This time it is about genetics and genetic engineering. While the lyrics are certainly less naïve and direct here compared to the debut, the ideological view presented is, again, rather questionable from my point of view. Personally, I think that those who are overly sceptical of the abilities of genetic engineering are often not very well educated about the science and tend to greatly exaggerate the risks involved. But the lyrics do not distract me here in the way they did on Wounded Land. Anyway, this is an enjoyable set of moderately progressive Heavy Metal songs revolving around this theme. Black Sabbath-like guitar riffs and melodic verses and choruses are still the backbone of Threshold's sound.

While there are several good songs here and not really any weak ones, I feel that they are too similar to each other and I tend to lose interest somewhat towards the middle of the album. What I particularly miss is the presence of ballads to make the album more varied, but there is sadly only one to be found on this album, the closer Sunrise On Mars. The sound is also less dynamic with keyboards playing a lesser role than on previous albums.

Clone is my least favourite of the four first Threshold albums, but it is not a Dream Theater- clone like later Threshold albums would be.

Good, but not essential

Thrashhold?

Having recently reviewed albums by the Neo-Prog band Shadowland, I was reminded of Threshold because of the presence of guitarist Karl Groom in both these bands. Groom is (I discovered just now), however, not the only member these bands have in common. Also drummer Nick Herradence was a member of both these bands. But despite this overlap in terms of personnel, anyone looking for musical connections between the two bands would be hard pressed to find any on this album. Comparing Psychedelicatessen with Shadowland's Through The Looking Glass (that was released the very same year and involves both Groom and Herradence) the difference in musical style and approach is striking. The Neo-Prog tendencies that were displayed on Threshold's first album (and to some extent also on Extinct Instinct) are almost wholly absent here. Psychedelicatessen is possibly Threshold's heaviest and least melodic album. I'm not saying that this is not melodic, just that there is more focus on riffs than on melodies. Some moments are not far away from (melodic) Thrash Metal. (It is absolutely not Psychedelic despite the title!).

Psychedelicatessen is quite different from the rest of Threshold's albums. Comparing it to the two albums that surrounded it, Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct, it is indeed not entirely out of place to wonder if this really is the same band! One major factor here is that both of these two other albums had Damian Wilson on vocals, while Psychedelicatessen is the sole Threshold album with Glynn Morgan handling those duties. While not as distinctive as Wilson, Morgan is a fine vocalist that does a good job here. But the vocals is not the only thing that sets Psychedelicatessen apart from Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct. As I have said, this one is a bit heavier and has much less of the Neo-Progressive tendencies of those albums.

However, though perhaps less overtly progressive, Psychedelicatessen is still a good album. It takes longer to get into compared to other Threshold albums, and with every listen I'm enjoying it a bit more. It sometimes reminds me of Black Sabbath's 90's albums, particularly Cross Purposes that was released the same year. The music is riff-based and the solos and instrumental breaks alternate between guitar and keyboards. They obviously know how to play their instruments! But despite their talents, they often come across as slightly anonymous on this album. The sound they produce lacks a strong identity of its own.

There is a decent balance between aggressive and mellow moments and between riffs, melodies and instrumental work outs. Under The Sun is a pleasant Symphonic ballad based on piano, acoustic guitar and some flute-like keyboards and as such stands out from the other songs. There are no songs that stand out as great, but there is also nothing weak here. I would not recommend starting your investigation of Threshold with this album. Both Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct offer a lot more progressive value.

Good, but hardly essential.

Heavy Metal environmentalism!

Wounded Land is the debut album by Threshold and one of my earliest encounters with this band. My interest in the music of Threshold began when I heard Damian Wilson singing on Rick Wakeman's excellent Out There album and also on the very good DVD Live In Buenos Aires by Rick Wakeman's New English Rock Ensemble (despite a couple of slight vocal mistakes by Wilson there). I think that Damian Wilson's distinctive voice fits the music of both Rick Wakeman and Threshold very well. I have also recently been listening to Shadowland which is a Neo-Progressive band that Karl Groom, Threshold's leader and principal guitarist, was in together with Clive Nolan. And this reminded me of Threshold (that is, not the music but the pure fact that Karl Groom was involved). My first Threshold experience was, however, with their Extinct Instinct album, which was the second one they did with Wilson on vocals (third overall).

The music of Threshold is progressive and melodic Heavy Metal with much keyboards and good compositions. Both Karl Groom and Damian Wilson have connections also to the Neo-Progressive subgenre with membership in bands like Shadowland and Landmarq respectively. This might lead you to expect that Threshold's music is close to Neo-Prog which is not entirely false. Fans of bands like Arena and Pallas should check out Threshold. However, Threshold is clearly more Metal than those very good Neo-Prog bands and the songs here are mostly based on heavy guitar riffs with symphonic keyboards. Black Sabbath is just as relevant as a reference but Threshold is more melodic than the founders of Heavy Metal.

The lead guitar work is very good and is the primary instrument for solos, but there are also good keyboard solos.

The concept behind Wounded Land is environmentalist and I must admit that I am not at all in agreement with the political stance expressed in the lyrics here. But regardless of what we think about the environmentalist ideology, we should agree that it is not very successful when it is transformed into Rock lyrics. The lyrics here are full of clichés of the supposed conflict between man and nature, how we pollute the environment, etc. The lyrics often come across as naïve and childish. It is, for example, very hard for me to take lyrics like "will rich men eat their money when they've killed the world stone dead?" and "he [i.e. man] makes big generators chewing up the atmosphere" seriously! This is sad, since the compositions are mostly very strong as are the vocal and instrumental talents. If you can ignore the lyrics, you are in for an enjoyable ride!

While Extinct Instinct is my favourite Threshold album, Wounded Land is very good also! Recommended for all fans of the lighter side of Prog-Metal and the heavier side of Neo-Prog.

Dead reckoning is their eight studio album from 2007. Threshold needed 3 years to release this album and to tell the truth is not better then the predecesors, but not weak either. Something worth mentioning is that Threshold has albums with a constant quality, I mean every single album is good and has something to offer, one of those bands from progressive metal that realy knows to make the listner glad avery time he finishes an Threshold album. This band don't have highs and lows, Threshold has only highs from the beggining, well of course their albums never reaches the masterpiece status in my opinion, but for sure all are good, some of them great and worth investigated by everybody intrested in good music. Dead reckogning is again well made with tipycal Threshold sound, nice vocal parts made Mac Dermott, he's final studio album with them after all, pitty he was a great key to Threshold music. All the pieces stands as good, not a weak moment here, the two pieces Sleapstrem and Elusive where is invited legendary Dan Swano from Edge of Sanity are well constructed and give a special atmosphere to the album, a little more diversivity in their music was needed because their last 2 albums beggining to sound a little dated and monotonous. In the end another typical Threshold album, nothing more nothing less, a good album that desearve 3 stars, but nothing realy impressive either. Every musican did a great job here, is clear that they know bussines in progresssive metal, Karl Groom's guitar is again crunchy and yet very melodic when needed, excellent guitarist, but far away in popularity then John Petrucci, wonder why???? Even is a 3 star album Threshold remeins one of my fav bands from this sugenre, quite less popular then other acts but with a lot of potential, still they haven't run dry after more then 15 years of career.

Threshold forth album with Mac Dermott behind the microphone named Subsurface from 2004 and seventh from their career. While this album keeps the same formula as on Critical mass, this release is leass convinceing than previous albums, at least the last 2-3 of them. I don't realy know why this album is less enjoyble then others, because has catchy melodies, good riffs, nice progressive metal pasages that will please any fan, but in the end as whole somthing is lacking and I don't know for sure what is. Maybe the listners find that the music too much the same as on last two albums, they didn't come with something new, every piece from this album can easy enter on any previous albums (the ones with Mac Dermott of course), no diffrence actualy, maybe in quality of the song but not in musical prestation of the musicians. To me Subsurface is a good album overall, nothing realy groundbreaking or very intristing, is kinda far from Extinct instinct or Hyphottical their best album without hesitation, but has good pieces like opening track Mission Profile, catchy and typical for Threshold sound, The Art Of Reason and Static, the rest are ok just. So , a worthy album, more like only for Threshold fans, but for sure some of the usual listners of progressive metal would find somthing of an intrest here, not very much but has some moments of brightness. 3 stars, good but nothing more.