THERE

What's good? Here: a reasonnable amout of thinking made the story of this album a complete, no, very complete one. The twisted story of a guy who takes away his life and his adventures in the afterlife meeting strange creatures and knowing more what is there for him. Just by the name of the tunes you could describe pretty well what's gonna happen.

There some influences, but some good ones. Like Echolyn and Riverside. The singing is somewhat the same as Echolyn's and the heavy approach could be close to Riverside's Out of Myself, in some moments. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes gloomy but never boring at the point to turn it off. A good effort that never came in the big leagues.

What's not so good? Well, the story! For some it's a great attribute to have a deep plot, especially so well described in the booklet. But for me, it goes way too much in some beliefs that are not really my cup of tea. It's not the fact that they should talk about love like Elp, or environnement like Rush but what's tickling me is the suicide matter. Some people may find it tough to swallow, since the matter is edgy and emotional. Too much gloom could do ya no good. And to me, it's ruining the fun a lot. Just like when Rufus Wainright is singing about love, but you know it's the kind of lova 'that they dare not to speak it's name'. A last point would be more diversity in the style of the melodies and not sticking to 'soft metal' in the majority of the songs.

Overall, not the buzz I expected. This band used to be on so many people's mouth, and frankly, I'm disappointed. Not 'Threshold disappointed', but invest your money on Riverside instead. You'll have basically the same sound and style, but on much better ground.