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Threshold - Decadent

Artist:	Threshold
Title:	Decadent
Label:	Nonstopmusic NSCD001
Length(s):	65 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	12/1999

Line up

Andrew McDermott - vocals
Karl Groom - guitar
Nick Midson - guitar
Jon Jeary - bass
Richard West - keyboards
Johanne James - drums
(This is the current line-up, but other line-ups are also present on this
album, since this is a compilation and many personnel changes have taken
place)

Tracks

1)	Virtual Isolation	4.16
2)	Intervention	7.02
3)	Sunseeker	5.32
4)	Voyager II	5.11
5)	Devoted	7.16
6)	Change	4.03
7)	Mother Earth	5.53
8)	Exposed	4.37
9)	Lost	2.42
10)	Into The Light	9.59
11)	Paradox	4.32
12)	He Is I Am	3.50

Summary

A fanclub release by the band celebrating their tenth anniversary. The album can sometimes be obtained from regular channels, but also from the band directly.

The music

The opener is the powerful Virtual Isolation. The vocals are by Damian Wilson with his "crying" voice. A powerful bombastic track with heavy rhythm guitar work, but also a high melodic content and a catchy chorus. The song is a radio remix leaving out the intro. Intervention, also sung by Wilson, was my first encounter with Threshold. It was featured on the second SI Music Compilation Disc, already long unavailable. One of the better tracks by the band, it opens moodily after which the guitars set in full force. Like the previous track thoroughly bombastic and melodic with plenty of power. Sunseeker is something quite different, with more pronounced rhythm guitars. To my feeling a muhc less interesting track, although the bridge is nice. Because of the large amount of backing vocals the music soubds more American, the guitar solo is somewhat Arabically styled. Voyager II is a perfect mid-tempo rocksong. The vocal melody sounds a bit depressing and the more forceful chorus is very good. After a quick pianic interlude we come to the more or less mandatory guitar solo. Devoted is back to rock 'n' roll. Between the riffs there are some samples of people shouting and such. Then the music winds down a bit and the melody has something of Nothing Else Matters. The vocal part by Glynn Morgan is not so good, a bit too standard for progmetal. This is what I like about Damian Wilson: his vocals are not typical for the style, so his rendition easily sets the band apart from the rest. It must be noted however that on Voyager II, McDermott (it should be 'im) does a good job. The light up your candles part is a bit too melodramatic. The band may feel to be showing diversity here, but I tend to like them more as they are. The song ends as it started. Change is here in an unplugged version. A good vocal melody makes the song stand up in its own right and the song is sung right. Later on the song comes close to Bon Jovi however. Still, a heartfelt song. Mother Earth is from the first album. This song is not as good as Intervention or Virtual Isolation. The chorus is a bit weak, a bit too screamy. Wilson also sings on Exposed. A song that contains quite a few of tempo changes with a very busy drummer indeed. As often happens it is the bridge that is the most melodically enticing part of the song. Lost is a song that was present only on the Japanese version of Psychedelicatessen. An acoustic ballad with a few synthetic strings. Not very distinctive. The longest track on this album is Into The Light missing the 10 minute mark by one second. The song opens in a relaxed way with well-sung verses. Then the speed picks up slightly and then even more ending in heavy rhythm backing with sometimes quite raw vocals. The last part of the song is quite metallic and is not typical for the band really. The last two songs are try-ous. If Galahad and Marillion can then why not Threshold? The club mix of Paradox (one of the more well known songs from Wounded Land) is quite a successful one. I'm not sure whether it was played on any dancefloor, but it's not bad. He Is I Am exists on this album in the drum 'n' bass version. A rather weird song with strange vocal tracks and moody piano. Still it does seem to work.

Conclusion

A good "best of" I think. A few really good songs (three in the first four for instance) where heavy rhythm guitars are not meant to mean to forget about melody. The good thing about Threshold is that at their good times they can roll out memorable rocking tracks that have depth, clarity, melody and power and sounding as themselves and not a clone of ehm well some other band.