Last Updated on 07:55 PM by Nikos Nakos
Genre: Progressive Metal
Country: U.K.
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Year: 2017
In the album that marks the return to their discography, those British present material that is both inspired and varied. The first goes to the listeners, the latter concerns mainly those who keep up with the band and who will rush to over-analyze the album elaborating on every teeny weeny detail.
The first bet won by the band is that the album doesn’t tire you despite its long duration. This doesn’t just lie upon the good song-writing, or the variety in the stylistic approach, but on the fact that the overall result sounds compact and complete. Also, our old acquaintance Glynn Morgan is singing exceptionally well and is in good shape. The most important thing is that here we are listening to a band that has something to give: True songs, not just mixes of the past, not repetitions, nor remnants of the glorious times of the past, features which characterize many “progressive” bands of today, simply resting on laurels of already built legacies.
In this album, we come across quite oftenly and in great – but not total – degree the lyricism and clarity of the first two albums. We will meet several references to the band’s golden age- with great Andrew “Mac” McDermott on the vocals – which means that we will hear again those creepy and so elaborately given Threshold themes that raised the band to the habits of many of us (it seems that the band itself is very fond of this period too. Set your ear and listen to “Reflect / Conceal” on the lyrics of “Snowblind,” referring to the cover of “Subsurface”). There are also more minimalist and modern approaches and riffs of the low flights of the third season that harmonize with the overall direction of the album.
All of the above – which are more understandable by the Threshold fans out there – coexist with wonderful Neo Prog deployments that will transform many of the tracks of the album, as well as a bunch of other elements such as at least one reference to 80s Futurism that Haken point out with their last album. All this and even more things are waiting for you to unlock them with multiple hearings that will make the album surpass the list of boring and nerveless albums you’ve heard in recent days.
This album will be played constantly for a long time; therefore, our wait was worth the candle. What didn’t worth the candle however, was the cringe that broke out on social media due to Glynn’s comeback behind the microphone. Guys, relax. I should remind you that the band’s core has always been the glorious couple of West / Groom, which has always been quite strict with the rest of Threshold’s members’ choices. So, listening to this album I confess that the band made the right choice. Unless, you got something else to recommend.
5/6