EXTINCT INSTINCT

Extinct Instinct, Threshold's third album saw the return of Vocalist Damian Wilson who had previously sang on their debut album, Wounded Land. It also has a change of Drummer, Mark Heaney who was later to join Stone Roses offshoot band The Seahorses.

Threshold are a Progressive Metal band for sure but their previous effort, Psychedelicatessen was more of a straight Metal album than Wounded Land. Extinct Instinct sees a return to a more Progressive style. Having said that the Guitar riffs are often more metallic than ever, unfortunately sometimes at the expense of melody. It's a good solid album though if not up there with the bands best efforts. Wilson sings well, indeed the whole band are extremely competent players as any fan of Threshold will know and play well throughout. The Dual Guitars of Karl Groom and Nick Midson are well to the fore as is to be expected with Prog Metal but Keyboard player Richard West is further back in the mix than on many other Threshold albums which is a shame as he adds a lot of colour to the bands sound.

Most of the tracks are around the six minute mark giving the band plenty of opportunity to stretch out a bit, highlights being Exposed, Somatography and Life Flow; Somatography perhaps being my favourite of the three in part down to the haunting Guitar arpeggios used. There are two short tracks, Forever and Clear which are best described as ballads, the later having a particularly strong melody. Of greatest interest though are the two epic tracks, Eat the Unicorn and Part of the Chaos, both clocking in at over ten minutes featuring all the Threshold trademarks of time/tempo changes, Metallic riffs colliding with melodic Guitar arpeggios and sweeping Keyboards.

To conclude, Extinct Instinct has never been one of my favourite Threshold album but for whatever reason I find it a more enjoyable listening experience now than when I first bought it around ten years ago. Perhaps it will now come off the shelf for a play a bit more often than in the past. 3 ½ stars.