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Line-up: Mac - Vocals
Karl Groom - Guitars
Richard West - Keyboards
Steve Anderson - Bass
Johanne James - Drums
(Additional vocals on 1&3: Dan Swano)
Release
Date:
23 March, 2007 (EU)
Tracklist: 1. Slipstream
2. This Is Your Life
3. Elusive
4. Hollow
5. Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams
6. Fighting For Breath
7. Disappear
8. Safe To Fly
9. One Degree Down
10. Supermassive Black Hole (Bonus)
Website: www.thresh.net Check
also:
Surprise Of March 2007 |
Their
previous monumental album “Subsurface” proved that the band was
in the right direction, the new album verifies it and places the
band in the top quality league of the prog genre. We are talking
about one the most qualitative prog albums released in the past 5-6
years, an album baptized in inspiration, good taste, lyricism, pure
artistic songwriting. The band seems to have (finally) found the
golden line between prog metal and melodic music in general. After
many come and go they managed to hold on to a steady line-up, which
is tied up with a unique chemistry.
Their
sound is so trademarked that any one who has heard the band in the
past cannot confuse them anymore. They manage to balance among sharp
riffs, melodic bridges and lyrical outbreakes, where the keyboards
paint wonderful sound-emotions. The album gains you since the very
beginning with the smash prog hit “Slipstream”, which is among
the best ever recorded tracks of the band and among the best opening
tracks I’ve hear for quite a while. And this enhances your
appetite for more... and the great thing is that the band fulfils
its promises to make this thirst of your subside with their music.
Monumental songs like “Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams”, “Safe To
Fly” and “One Degree Down” with the amazing refrain are
capable of sending any prog fan to heaven. But the rest of the songs
are equally good - yes, there are no fillers here, guys!
The
band seems to have adopted a more “down to earth” approach this
time (elements of which were present in the previous album too):
more solid tracks, with only few extended solos, shorter duration of
songs, with emphasis on guitar riffs. After all Threshold always
invested on their guitar works. Of course this doesn’t mean that
they have moved towards any simplistic forms, or that their music is
“easy”. No, they just managed to fit within fewer notes and more
plain structures all their ideas - which is a rather hard thing to
do. A total must for prog fans and for the rest, a qualitative idea
of what the prog genre in general can provide! Congratulations!
by Alex Savatianos 9/10 |