02/09/02

THRESHOLD / CRITICAL MASS

British Progressive Metalers, Threshold have been around for nearly 10 years and produced several good albums and Critical Mass is another fine example of what they are capable of.

If you like Dream Theatre, Queensryche and Spock's Beard you will love this, full of time changes, very complex lyrics and enough guitar licks and keyboard fills to keep any muso's happy. It's starts off with "Phenomenon " which possess all of the attributes that I have just mentioned along with a really good vocal performance and despite all the line up changes over the years they have still managed to keep their identity.

They slow the pace down a little with "Falling Away" witch is a slower more thoughtful piece very remenicent of Spock's Beard but that is meant as a compliment, not a criticism. You will probably need a degree in particle physics to understand the first couple of verses of the title track, when they go on about 11th dimension, superstring membranes and the likes but this for me only adds to their appeal as I have always been interested in physics.

DOWNLOAD : "Falling Away" from the band's own site above

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 60 mins + 8 TRACKS