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 Progressive
metal can be a difficult musical style to get right for both the muso
and the listener. There are so many traps and pitfalls...
sacrificing musicality for technical excess, incorporating a truly
progressive flavour without diluting the driving power of the metal,
keeping hold of your singers and drummers for more than one album at a
time... well, if the score of tracks on this album proves one thing
it's that, through its many incarnations, Britain's premier prog metal
group know how to get it right!
It's hard to imagine that it's
almost 20 years since four friends started playing metal covers and
writing their own songs in an unregarded part of the southeast of England... Or that from those humble beginnings would rise the greatest progressive metal that Britain has ever produced. However, in 1993 Threshold Mk 1 (Karl Groom, Jon Jeary, Nick Midson, Tony Grinham, Richard West and Damian Wilson) launched themselves onto an unsuspecting world with their debut album, Wounded Land
– inspired by the enviro-aware novel of the same name by Stephen
Donaldson. With its blend of crunching guitars, progressive-tinged
keyboards and Wilson's operatic vocals it's no surprise that this first album spawned a number of long term fan-favourite songs.
Only a year later disaster seemed to strike as both Wilson and Grinham left the band. Little did the remaining members think that this would merely set a precedent for the coming years. Glynn Morgan stepped up to the microphone, not to “replace” Wilson, but to help take the band in a more determinedly rock direction on 1994’s Psychedelicatessen. Stand-in drummer Nick Harradence kept the drum stool warm on this album until Jay Micciche joined for the following year's live mini-album Livedelica. Sadly, this didn't herald a period of stability with the two new boys departing to found Mindfeed prior to the recording of 1997’s Extinct Instinct. For this, arguably Threshold's most progressive album, Damian Wilson returned to the fold joined by seasoned session drummer, Mark Heaney. The dream-team pairing of Threshold and US progressive rock band Enchant for that year’s live concerts led to the Extinct Instinct
tour being widely characterised in the press as "the prog-metal tour of
the year". Quite rightly too! Significantly it was on this tour
that Johanne James took up his tenure as Threshold's resident powerhouse.
But, as the recording sessions for the Clone (1998) album approached, Wilson
found himself being pulled in different musical directions for a second
time. Through a convoluted series of personal recommendations, Andrew ‘Mac’ McDermott (formerly of German band Sargant Fury)
was drafted in at the last minute. The sound on the album,
imagining a dystopian future with made-to-order children on sale to the
highest bidders, was more stripped back and rock-based than any of the
previous discs. The follow-up album Hypothetical (2001)
– considered by many to be Threshold's creative pinnacle –
heralded a period of relative stability to the band, punctuated only by
the departure of founder member Jon Jeary between 2002’s Critical Mass and 2004’s Subsurface. His replacement, Steve Anderson, was a long-term friend of the band and made his debut on the CD/DVD live set, Critical Energy in 2004.
The latest studio offering, Dead Reckoning, sees yet another period of transition for Threshold; a change of label, Nick Midson
taking a break, a continuously developing sound... It's a testament to
Threshold's musical and writing gifts that even the revolving door of
front men and drummers which has plagued them over the years never
derailed them from producing exciting new sounds and new textures with
each disc. Whether it be the eco-awareness of Wounded Land, Psychedelicatessen’s exploration of the human psyche, the high concept of sci-fi of Clone or Subsurface’s
political zeitgeist undercurrents... each new disc truly is a threshold
to something new. What other band would dare to blend Dan Swanö’s death metal vocals with the big, hook-filled singalong choruses of Slipstream? What other band would manage to pull it off?
Despite three fundamentally different singers in Damian Wilson, Glynn Morgan and Mac,
Threshold have always sounded complete and confident. This is due
in large part to the writing/production team at the centre the band - Karl Groom, Richard West and, until recently, Jon Jeary.
With each new disc they've pushed forward into new thoughts and sounds
without abandoning the pure spirit which is Threshold. The twin
guitars of Karl Groom and Nick Midson form a driving signature over the rock-solid foundation of Steve Anderson's precise bass playing and Johanne James’ brutal drumming - surely one of modern rock's best rhythm units. All this is swathed in swirling sounds and samples from Richard West’s nimble fingers. A perfectly honed combination.
As Threshold stand poised to begin
a new chapter of their career there's never been a better time to step
back and reflect over what constitutes their best songs so far -
particularly since this collection includes three song-mixes never
before committed to CD. For the band, paring their catalogue down
to just two disks can't have been an easy task. Surely, any track from
any album could have an equal shot at featuring on a
“…best of…” compilation. So, whether it
be the enviro-savvy Consume To Live, the prog-magnificence of Eat the Unicorn, the ominous futuristic overtones of The Latent Gene, the spiritual searching of Light and Space, the raw emotion of Falling Away or the crushing power of Pressure... strap in tight and enjoy the ride!
Trevor Raggatt, 2007
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