THRESHOLD – Critical Mass

I was very tempted to call this the UK progsters’ best CD to date, but having read what I said about the last one, “Hypothetical”, I won’t. So I disagree with myself, and that is perhaps a way to tell you that this is a record you should dig into and learn to love yourself. You can easily hear that this is a Threshold record, no need to worry about that if you always have liked the band. It’s indeed more progressive and richer than Clone, maybe even more so than Hypothetical also. The songs last for 7 minutes or so (average), without ever getting dull. My first impression was that this wasn’t at all as riff-based as Hypothetical, but I found the riffs being just as great after spending some time with Critical Mass.

Without really harping on the singer, I would sometimes have preferred a little rawer edge to the material. Mac is very one-dimensional, though he has a clean and neat voice, I think such a complex material would gain from a little more diverse singing. On the other hand, he has grown into a trademark for Threshold after replacing Damian Wilson in 1998.
The highlights on the record? Hm… Play’em all. No need to lift any songs off it, this record is classy material all the way. Maybe their best CD after all?