THRESHOLD

This is excellent , tight, well-constructed prog-metal. It has the usual ingredients of heavy guitar riffs, exotic keyboards and plenty of solos. What Threshold have in addition, is strong melodic vocal lines rather than tuneless growls and these are excellently performed by Mac. (Is there a better prog-metal vocalist?) 'Pilot in the Sky of Dreams' is a minor masterpiece, with different moods, beautiful ballady sections interspersed with wilder instrumental passages, and interesting lyrics. 'Safe to Fly' is ther other highlight with, again, a strong vocal line. The shorter tracks are usually quite catchy. The absence of a second guitarist gives more space for keyboard solos. Altogether, a fine effort.

Since releasing the excellent Hypothetical album back in 2001 Threshold have struggled to release anything that's its equal (or better). Instead they've had a run of good prog metal albums that have some fantastic moments but fall short in consistency. Dead Reckoning I'm afraid doesn't alter that trend.

There's no doubting the talent of the band who are all fine musicians and Mac's vocals are as great as ever but I think they need to take a step back and look at what made Hypothetical so special. For me it was where they got the balance just right between powerful riffs that still retained a strong hook, the keyboards had more space to shine and the melodies were fantastic. No doubt in an effort to reach a larger audience the guitars here often sacrifice melody for a more up to date less tuneful but heavier approach in an attempt to compete with the newer kids on the block. This assumption is bore out by opener Slipstream, which to be honest is pretty good but they introduce the use of death metal style growling in places which is most unwelcome and adds nothing of worth.

The first great moment comes on the third track Elusive, which despite also having some death metal style vocals is forgiven because it's such a strong riff and has an immediately catchy chorus as well as a fine instrumental break with guitars and keyboards sharing centre stage equally.

Although Threshold don't go for twenty minute epics there's always at least one track on each album around the ten minute mark where they can stretch out a bit more. The first of the longer tracks here is Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams which fortunately is another high point. From a ballad style beginning it picks up pace into heavier territory. Mac's melodic vocals are a high point as well as Richard West's keyboard work, including a powerful solo having more space and there's still room for a melodic Karl Groom guitar solo. Of the two other longer tracks One Degree Down is the better with its mid pace Zeppelin/Kashmir style riff and more classic Threshold instrumental workouts. Safe To Fly also deserves a special mention, one of the shorter songs but having a fantastic riff as well as the strongest piece on a melodic level. More moments like this and they could have been onto a real winner.

Not long after releasing Dead Reckoning vocalist Mac announced he was leaving the band. As much as he'll be missed I was pleased to see the return of Damian Wilson who sang on Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct, their first and third albums respectively. Despite this being a good, even very good and occasionally excellent in places release it would be nice to think that Wilson's return may bring some of the qualities that made their earlier albums special more upfront.

Wow!Excellent Brit power prog metal and one of the most fantastic sound in the history of modern metal!This are not at all big words,no way,it's only a simple conclusion after a few minutes of audition of this sensational album!In fact,what maket this album even more sensational,are the great,absolutelly stunning vocals of GLYNN MORGAN,which delivers on this album a passionated interpretation of some really crunchy metal sounds!I never thought that KARL GROOM,which is very routined in the neoprog area,is capable to offer such heavy guitar riffs and such a metal attitude!After a LIVE album ,unfortunatelly Morgan left THRESHOLD and made 2 brilliant metal albums with his own band MINDFEED.I think that MORGAN was the perfect vocalist for THRESHOLD,putting in the best evidence the tremendeous componistic talent of GROOM,and that's because the clever agressivity,almost rage of his voice and a little dramatic vocal attitude too!!INNOCENT is the best example in my oppinion,and I've realised that he composed this track,because we found this one on the first MINDFEED album too!The sensational duels between the guitar and the modern keyoards is another ace in the pocket of the THRESHOLD's music,and it';a always attractive to see how long instrumental passages in the middle of the songs are capturing the attention of the listeners especially because of this thing!Most of the songs are midtempo and heavy,with changing rhythms and the album doesn't has any weak composition and no minute of boredom or monotone atmosphere!Simply excellent!The debut album was with DAMIAN WILSON ,which mades a more inspired come back on the third studio album of the band,but he never was ok for THRESHOLD!Damian doesn't have a powerful metal voice and even now,I amuse myself when I think that WILSON had auditioned for IRON MAIDEN after Bruce Dickinson left the band!!!In conclusion this album is the best THRESHOLD album,and it's impossible to see in the future a better one, simply because GLYNN MORGAN "has left the building"! 4,5 well deserved stars for a kick ass power prog metal album!Almost a monument!

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.