CRITICAL ENERGY

"Critical Energy" is an excellent twin-disc live document of the artful, melodic hard rock and thoughtful commentary of THRESHOLD. Although the album is neither consistently heavy enough for hardcore metallions nor consistently adventurous enough for hardcore proggers, it is an exceptionally smart, engaging, and powerful synthesis of the styles. Highlight tracks include the multi-faceted "Choices," the aching, acoustic-vibed "Clear," and the forceful prog-metal grooves of "Fragmentation" and "Sanity's End," but almost every cut cooks.

More convincingly than any prior THRESHOLD album, "Critical Energy" cements the band's ascension to greatness; they were solid in the days of their early albums (e.g., "Wounded Land"), but they have since reached a new level. The album is not quite enough to establish THRESHOLD as standard-setters --it is neither ambitious enough to displace DREAM THEATER nor exhilaratingly melodic enough to displace VANDEN PLAS-- but "Critical Energy" compels energetic critical consideration among those genre leaders, and that's major praise. Whatever the line is that separates the merely good prog-metal bands from the true greats, this outstanding "Critical Energy" leaves no doubt that THRESHOLD has crossed.