This is the sixth studio album from
Threshold and it has quickly become my favourite. I still need to listen to their older albums though, as the only other album I have gotten really into is Hypothetical.
Critical Mass has a very warm atmosphere, in no small part due to the vocals of Andrew McDermott. The production is excellent throughout the record. Lots of power in the guitar and drum sound gives the songs a great drive while still keeping the right atmosphere. Acoustic guitars are used at times to enhance the sound.
Here we have an hour of music divided into 8 songs. That means some very long songs, but listening to the album they just seem to fly by.
The album starts out with the somewhat chorus based
Phenomenon. That is not a bad thing when the chorus is this good... Johanne James controls the drums with perfection here and helps the song along nicely. Good start to an album that evolves to become better with each song.
Choices is a very progressive song with lots of different parts connected together by many excellent keyboard and guitar solos. There are some great parts in the song, which should be left for you to discover by yourself.
Falling away - What an excellent start this song has and it gets even better when the powerful chorus makes an appearance. A special mention goes to the excellent drum playing which takes the song up another notch on the progressive scale.
Fragmentation - Listening to this song for the first time took me back in time and made me think of the first time I heard Perfect symmetry by Fates Warning, another excellent progressive metal band. The song has a special atmosphere that reminds me of Fates Warning. That is quite a compliment... In fact this song is one of my favourites of the album. Excellent.
Echoes of life is another personal favourite. Here Andrew McDermott definitely reminds me of James Labrie (Dream Theater). I love the lyrics to this song and the emotion filled guitar solo close to the end is perfect.
Round and round is an ok song, but I get somewhat tired of the chorus by the end of the song.
Avalon is a very beautiful ballad.
The title song is something of a chapter in itself. I won't give away too much... Just let me say "Damn, I love this song". The 13 minutes it takes fly by and the ending part is just.......
The lyrics on the album are quite spiritual and revolve around life, feelings, earth and everything. If you think that sounds strange then I guess you will just have to go out and get the album :)
I should also mention that a limited double CD edition of the album with 3 bonus tracks and a multimedia part has been released along with the normal CD version.
I would like to give this album a rating of 9 but I've settled on 8,5. One reason is that I feel
Threshold are able to even surpass this one in the future. This band seems to have so much potential. Now I'll go back and discover some of their older albums and start waiting patiently for the next release.
Highly recommended!
Written by
Steen Tuesday, September 24, 2002
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