WOUNDED LAND

I admit that Threshold is one of my two favourite bands, the other being Celtic Rock veterans Runrig. For those who think "Huh?", I would have guessed that Runrig are included in the Prog Folk section of this site, but there are also some similarities between them and this album. The obvious one is the focus on environmental topics, but some of the melodies could easily feature on Proterra, the heaviest Runrig album, of course minus the double bass drum and with less distorsion in the guitar riffs. Keep It With Mine wouldn't even need any change at all (and I'm pretty sure Bruce Guthro would fit in as well as Damian Wilson does).

Even apart from that, Wounded Land is a really strong debut album. The rhythm section is solid, the guitar parts show great variety and the keyboards, while used relatively sparingly, leave their impact in the necessary places. The songwriting gives a clear impression of what is to follow in the later albums, it is consistent without getting boring. Needless to say that there is no weak song. Add in the deep lyrics (which are in no way ridiculous as another reviewer suggests, there are more than enough prog bands with fantasy as their only topic) and there is one of the best albums of 1993. The highlights for me: Paradox, Surface To Air with its extra moment of genius in the final chorus which makes it one of my Threshold top 5 songs, and the aforementioned ballad Keep it With Mine.

I don't want to throw around 5 stars too easily, so I go for 4.49 for now which may be edited to 4.51 later. By the way, the 1993 Runrig album Alba contains some really good songs, but is summa summarum considerably weaker than Wounded Land.