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Rating:
I am increasingly amazed that on Debaser attention is often focused on renowned bands, even with multiple or duplicate reviews, when instead it could also look at what is less advertised and sometimes much more interesting. And that's why I felt a frustrating astonishment at the inability to read reviews about Threshold.
Surely a progressive band not to be compared to Dream Theater, in fact, I believe that comparisons are wasted and completely out of place: Threshold has a much more heavy and thrash attitude than their colleagues, and Subsurface is an excellent manifesto of what they had already demonstrated with other excellent records like Hypothetical or Psychedelicatessen. I believe this Subsurface represents a true pinnacle for the English band. Certainly great musicians, with excellent technical skills but displayed with intelligence and sobriety, preferring the creation of truly exciting atmospheres.
The opening track of the album is Mission Profile, with its 8 minutes and more, and it shows how to seamlessly fit an excellent keyboard, never pretentious or overwhelming, into a decidedly metal track. Ground Control presents the band again in a truly heavy attitude but at times sweet and romantic: the voice moves excellently, and excellent are the solo inserts both in the more aggressive and calm parts. Throughout the album a small vein of electronica is noticeable, which doesn't spoil but rather makes this album fresher and more interesting. Opium continues the discourse of the previous track, and to truly understand the wonderful essence of this album we eagerly await the arrival of The Art of Reason. There's everything in this wonderful song: the melody, the exceptional technical skills, the exceptional compositions. A song of almost frightening grandeur, and its ten minutes will seem like sweet moments. Pressure instead offers pleasant pounding to the ears but with the usual undeniable class. The following Flags and Footprints is a wonderful prog-ballad (a term I coined for the occasion, perhaps I shouldn't have...!), unpredictable. Static is the song that perhaps best stood between the two songs that express the most sweetness in the entire album. In fact, the last song, The Destruction of Words, is one of the most incredible wonders my ears have ever heard.
In conclusion: an album to have, and a pity that it can't be imposed to buy it, because not having it would be a sin. For all those who seek musical answers in much more renowned bands, I advise searching well within Threshold. Not discovering them and not loving them would truly be a pity.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
03 Opium (06:48)
lost in the haze
so far away
how can we get back home
lost in the haze
so far away
who's going to guide us home
i've struggled to get near it to backwards engineer it
but all i find is a smoke and mirror game
the recondite monopolise the airwaves
till all believe there is no other way
and this is how we live our lives our opium is televised
till finally they watch us fade away
our lifeless generation is going to the wall
a languid demonstration of daze before a fall
a preconceived condition imagined long ago
but will we ever know all that lies below
they'll print it on the front page to synthesise an outrage
but all we find is a decoy once again
duplicity and trickery surround us
till all believe there is no other way
and this is how we fall asleep their opium is running deep
till finally they watch us fade away
our lifeless generation is going to the wall
a languid demonstration of daze before a fall
a preconceived condition imagined long ago
but will we ever know all that lies below
waiting to play are we the pawns in this game
paving the way watching the kings make their claim
martyrs and spies although we don't realise
falling away under the watch of their eyes
this is the way we've chosen to be
this is the road that we go down
as clear as the day but still we don't see
we'll only know when it's over
lost in the haze so far away how can we get back home
lost in the haze so far away who's going to guide us home
and this is how our nation died our opium has satisfied
and finally they watch us fade away
our lifeless generation is going to the wall
a languid demonstration of daze before a fall
a preconceived condition imagined long ago
but will we ever know all that lies below
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Other reviews
By splinter
Without shame and without fear of others’ retorts, the masterpiece of the group.
Truly a great album, I really wanted to describe it with my heart because I love Threshold.
