THRESHOLD

This means that in principle Threshold has a somewhat slimmed-down lineup on this one, making do with five members where usually they have six. The main past precedent is Dead Reckoning, where Karl Groom took on rhythm guitar along with all of his other duties, but this arrangement seems to work better. In terms of vocals, Morgan seems to be a bit less generic than he was on Psychedelicatessen - he'd already improved somewhat on Livedelica, and it seems like he hasn't been a slouch since.

On a musical level, the album finds Threshold updating their sound via mild borrowings from Muse and the world of power metal; they're still staying squarely in the particular melodic prog metal territory they've staked out for themselves, but they've enriched its sound nicely, with some of the nicest production work I've ever heard on a Threshold release. (And that's saying something given that Karl Groom is no slouch as a producer, being the head honcho at Thin Ice Studios in his side gig.)

Threshold tend to evolve their sound rather than revolutionising it, but this is one of the bigger evolutionary steps - as significant of one as, say, Hypothetical. And whilst this is the band's first double studio albums, this is no dive into quantity over quality - it's this long because they had enough album-worthy material to deploy. It's a true gem of their discography, and when bands are turning out some of their best work this deep into their career, that's a sign of true tenacity.

At the same time, after two more studio albums he parted ways with them again - but at least on this go around he was able to record a really top flight live album with them. Unless there's tapes from old gigs from the Wounded Land or Extinct Instinct days sat in the Threshold archives somewhere, this is essentially the only way we're going to hear a live setlist from the band with Wilson fronting, and it's a damn good thing we did.

With For the Journey being a bit of a lukewarm release by Threshold's often high standards, it's good to hear material from it given more life here, and the band also give a good airing to material from March of Progress and a cross section of the Mac-era albums, giving Wilson a chance to demonstrate his emotive, borderline theatrical style of vocals.

If there's one thing which is a bit of a shame about this release, it's that there's only one song here from Extinct Instinct (Part of the Chaos), and absolutely nothing from Wounded Land - so I think it would still be worth Threshold's while poking about their old tapes to see if there's any live material from the early days they can release, because not having any live cuts with Wilson on vocals from their debut feels like a bit of a gap.

Still, given the high standards the band have maintained over the years, it's understandable why early albums would get crowded out of the setlist, and that old material did at least appear on other live albums fronted by other vocalists. By comparison, much of the material here wasn't on prior live albums (the band having not put out a major live release since Surface To Stage). If this must be the end of Damian Wilson's story with Threshold, then it certainly leaves him with a track record of the group he can be enduringly proud of.

Mac made no secret about his reasons for leaving: the statement he released at the time stated plainly that his work with Threshold just wasn't paying the bills, to the point where his girlfriend was having to work overtime so that he could afford to go on tour with them, and he was fed up of having no money and passing up better-paying opportunities due to the demands of being the Threshold frontman. This may seem shocking to some, but we should all remember that not all the musical acts out there earn masses of money - especially in niche genres like progressive metal. Sure, the other members seem able to make ends meet, but how many of them have been able to supplement that with side hustles, like Karl Groom's work as a producer at his Thin Ice Studios facility?

One has to wonder whether Dead Reckoning might itself be the product of Mac (and maybe other members of the band) feeling something of a pinch, because it feels like an attempt to steer the band's sound a bit away from the "prog" side of their sound and a bit more towards a more conventional "metal" approach. It's not a complete reconfiguration, mind - Pilot In the Sky of Dreams, in particular, is as prog metal a workout as they've ever done, and the guitar solo at the close of One Degree Down sounds an awful lot like a tribute to The Black Knight by Groom's pals in Pendragon.

Still, there's heavier riffs and a few harsh vocals this time around, when previously they'd consistently been a clean vocals band, and in general an air of a band in transition, perhaps not altogether sure of where they are going. Dead Reckoning is, after all, a term from navigation - perhaps the band not too subtly signalling that Threshold were dabbling with changes of direction here.

It's frequently been the case that I've tried out a Threshold album I've not heard before, not been too sure about it early on, but found that it's won me over the span of it - aside from Hypothetical and Subsurface, their album openers generally don't grab me. The effect is stronger than ever here, with opening numbers Slipstream and This Is Your Life doing little for me and the album only really beginning to click for me from Elusive onwards. The back part of the album makes up for the shaky start, however, though equally I find that Mac's vocals here are comparatively unmemorable set next to his excellent work on the run from Hypothetical to Subsurface, lacking the passion he'd proved himself capable of previously.

Mac would leave Threshold shortly after the release of their next album, Dead Reckoning, and would die in 2011 at a shockingly young age, making this to date the last live release from Threshold to feature him (and unless something gets dredged up from the archives unexpectedly, that seems unlikely to change). Here, his deft command of the live context and rapport with the audience is fully on display.

Threshold's Subsurface begins with Mission Profile - a full throated critique of the absolutist rhetoric around the War On Terror lyrically, bound to an engaging melodic prog metal musical backing instrumentally speaking. Steve Anderson has replaced Jon Jeary on bass, but otherwise the lineup is much as it's been since Hypothetical; what's shifted is an extra dose of political anger in the lyrical themes of the album, and if that puts your back up because it comes from a side of the aisle you passionately disagree with, fair enough, but for my money not only are the band saying a lot of what I was thinking in 2004, they're also saying a lot of what I'm thinking now.

Given how often political subject matter in art can become dated, that's partially an indictment of the state of the world, partially a credit to Threshold's ability to create material inspired by a particular moment in time but not so bound to it as to lose relevance with the passage of years.

There's a strong slate of songs represented here, and Threshold give them excellent renditions here, so the only really question mark is whether nearly two hours of Threshold is too much for one listening session - but I'd say it's just right, the band selecting a setlist which stays energetic whilst taking in the entire scope of their sound. Brilliant stuff.

Musically speaking, the band don't simply turn in Hypothetical Part 2: instead, to my ears it seems that they shift their sonic balance a little, offering more touches of the Marillion-influenced neo-prog which had always been part of their sound (it's the "prog" component in their "prog metal" blend), with more gentle moments sitting beside the explosive melodic metal material here than had previously been the case.

Once again, it's an album I take a while to ease into - really, one thing which seems to be regular with Threshold's studio albums is that they don't necessarily start out strong, with Hypothetical really being the only one prior to this to avoid that. Still, if you give the album a chance and show patience, it shows another side of Threshold which was always somewhat present, but had never been showcased to this extent prior to this.

The renditions here are, by and large, pretty excellent. Good material shines in the live context; weak material, like Change, has been refined and improved and benefits from a bit more grit. Light and Space turns out to be just as great in a live context as in the studio, and it's no surprise it became as much a cornerstone of Threshold's life repertoire as Paradox had previously.

Paradox is the only overlap here with Livedelica - and of course on that you didn't have Mac on vocals or Johanne on drums, making the rendition here worthwhile in its own right. Likewise, it only has Light and Space, Long Way Home, and Paradox in common with the subsequent Critical Energy release. As such, despite not being as expansive as the latter, it is still a live document of early 2000s Threshold which carves out its own space in the discography, and it also shows the band improving on the already solid live presentation showcased on Livedelica.