Threshold - Critical Energy

*=Staff's pick

Disc I:
Phenomenon
Oceanbound
Choices*
Angels*
Falling Away
Virtual Isolation*
Innocent*
Long Way Home*
Fragmentation

Disc II:
Clear
Life Flow
Narcissus*
Sunseeker
The Latent Gene*
Light And Space*
Sunrise On Mars
Paradox*
Sanity's End*

Genre	Progressive Hard Rock	Andrew McDermott	Vocals
Tracks	18	Karl Groom	Guitar
Runningtime	59/58 Min.	Nick Midson	Guitar
Label	InsideOut	Steve Anderson	Bass
Release	02 Feb. 2004	Johanne James	Drums
Country	England	Richard West	Keyboards
Similar artists	Royal Hunt, Dream Theater

The live album Critical Energy is a perfect introduction to the band Threshold, recorded live in Zoetermeer (Holland) in June 2003 this double disc features songs from every record they made so far in their career. No album is left out from their debut with Wounded Land (1994) on to their latest studio effort with Critical Mass (2002).

The sound is absolutely perfect and it is actually hard to hear that its really live they are performing, not sure whether the crowd was small or the venue that they played in was a small hall, because the sound of the audience shines with its absence at most times. Threshold isn't exactly a sing-along song band on the other hand but the when the audience only can be heard between songs and at very few places in the tracks the live sense gets lost.

Crowd or not it doesnt matter since they have song material that are outstanding most of the time, strong melodic hard rock with an progressive overtone that it is easy to take in, and their music sounds of American progressive hard rock contradicting the fact that they are from England. One thing that is strikingly is how great they are live and how close they stay to how it sounds on their albums, of course it gets a bit rawer and heavier but still equally beautiful as on the albums.

The constant argue when it comes to live albums is however about the selection of songs and for Critical Energy I have nothing to complain about, for me that are only half familiar with their back catalogue I get satisfied when the chosen songs comes from all their albums even if Critical Mass is the one most represented. The mixture of slower and faster parts in many songs is something that Threshold does very successfully, the way they make a wholeness of the different paces and moods in their songs with the always apparent melodies is something that is hard to resist. And as they also manages to mix calmer and softer parts with heavier riffing like in the track Long Way Home the closeness to Dream Theater shines through perhaps more than otherwise.

The strength from threshold really comes to its right with the two finishing tracks Paradox and Sanity's End with lots of energy and progressive elements, at the end of Paradox the pace in the music is quickened as it gets heavier with the riffing from the guitars and with Mac singing from the top of his lungs this part of the song would probably had been worth the album alone. With all respect for Glynn Morgan and Damian Wilson, the previous vocalists in Threshold, but Andrew "Mac" McDermott must be considered the best one, the strength and melodic sense in his voice can really breath life in the music and make even the older songs seem perfectly written for him.

Critical Energy is also released on DVD and if the attraction on that one is a strong for the eye as the album is for the ear it is probably worth checking out. The energy from the band on the album is something that you take notice of and if you can hear it through a live album the DVD ought to be equally great.

See also review of: Dead Reckoning , Subsurface , Critical Energy (dvd)

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	9	9

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Thomas