Threshold - Wireless - Acoustic Sessions

Year of Release: 2003
Label: No Stop Music (self produced)
Catalog Number: NSM 003
Format: CD
Total Time: 42:02:00

First of all, I'd like to thank Karl Groom for sending me the CD so soon. It is the new Fan Club release and is available only through the Net or if you are a Fan Club member.

Wireless represents a new challenge for Threshold, a group that has published through the years some of the most fascinating albums.

Why am I speaking of a challenge? This brand new work is a completely acoustic set, far from the musical direction of the discs published to this point.

I have to say the result is very surprising. I wonder how the group has played in this new dimension, exploring new worlds, like the improvisation.

On the disc, all the great pieces of the past albums appear, with two previously unreleased songs, like "Seventh Angel" and "Conceal The Face." Thanks to a wonderful production, the sound is always very clear and the instruments are at the same level: these things permit to Mac to show his vocal qualities at their best and the soloists to perform some amazing instrumental sections, which arrive nearly into the fusion world.

I waited with great curiosity for the acoustic playing of some heavy songs, like "Consume To Live" or "Narcissus." Surely the two versions are worth it: the pieces are shorter and because of new arrangements they seem like new tracks. On the other hand, there are some others that from the beginning I thought they would come across better as acoustic songs, such as "The Sheltering Sky," previously published as electric.

Tracklisting:
Fragmentation (4.05) / Consume To Live (5.03) / Seventh Angel (2.37) / The Sheltering Sky (4.37) / Part Of The Chaos (4.40) / Innocent (4.04) / Falling Away (5.22) / Conceal the Face (4.18) / Lovelorn (3.17) / Narcissus (3.57)

Musicians:
Karl Groom - guitar, bass
Mac - vocals
Richard West - keyboards
Nick Midson - guitar
Johanne James - drums

Discography:
Wounded Land (1993)
Psychedelicatessen (1994)
Livedelica (1995)
Extinct Instinct (1997)
Clone (1998)
Decadent (1999)
Hypothetical (2001)
Wounded Land: Special Edition (2001/2002)
Psychedelicatessen/Livedelica: Special Edition (2001/2002)
Concert In Paris (2002)
Critical Mass (2002)
Wireless - Acoustic Sessions (2003)
Critical Energy (2004)
Extinct Instinct: Special Edition (2004)
Subsurface (2004)
Replica (2004)
Surface to Stage (2006)
Dead Reckoning (2007)
The Ravages Of Time (2007)
Paradox - The Singles Collection (2009)
March Of Progress (2012)
For The Journey (2014)
European Journey (2015)
Legends Of The Shires (2017)
Two-Zero-One-Seven (2018)

Critical Energy (2004) (DVD)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin UK

Added: June 1st 2003
Reviewer: Davide Guidone
Score:
Artist website: www.thresh.net
Hits: 2734
Language: english