New album March of Progress by British prog-power metallers Threshold comes out in four days, and I am stoked. After the loss of vocalist Andrew McDermott (may he rest in peace \m/), this will be their first album with original vocalist Damian Wilson since Extinct Instinct, but from what I can tell from ‘Ashes’ he hasn’t lost a single erg of his former power. As far as progressive metal bands go, Threshold have had a pretty unique formula that they have stuck to faithfully, and I’m glad to hear that they are continuing solidly in that vein: the heaviness is pretty much all in the instrumentation, and the vocals, even though they do hit home hard, are pitched (with a few exceptions) in a more soft-rockish direction (with more than a few vocal effects deployed, not that they need them). They are also, along with Hammers of Misfortune, one of the few metal bands I have heard who are able to pull off liberal use of the Hammond organ (not on this song, though). The subtly political, Lewisian overtones of ‘Ashes’ are another reason to love the band; as I have remarked before, the band has a superlatively talented songwriter in Richard West.
Actually, I’m just going to go ahead and post another of their songs - this one’s from their 2004 album Subsurface. Enjoy both; they are truly inspired!
No comments:
Post a Comment