The Threshold Thread v. Divided Lines

[Lethean]

Indeed I am.  I wonder if Fritzinger knows that I'm going to persist in asking him for a review of Night of the Prog until he finally shows up and writes me one?

[Phoenix87x]

Been listening to Legends alot the past few days. Just want to proclaim my love for it 

[Lethean]

 

Been listening to Legends alot the past few days. Just want to proclaim my love for it 

 

I've been listening to it a lot too.

[Fritzinger]

Indeed I am.  I wonder if Fritzinger knows that I'm going to persist in asking him for a review of Night of the Prog until he finally shows up and writes me one?

Shoot, sorry guys!!! I've been on vacation on a campground with basically no internet. I'll write some words about the festival as soon as i find the time!!!

[kaos2900]

Been listening to Legends alot the past few days. Just want to proclaim my love for it 

 

I've been listening to it a lot too.

I agree. As much as I love Damian Wilson I think Legends of the Shire is easily their best album.

[The Walrus]

Legends is great. Sometimes I feel it's much too long but it's a great album.

[Lethean]

Indeed I am.  I wonder if Fritzinger knows that I'm going to persist in asking him for a review of Night of the Prog until he finally shows up and writes me one?

Shoot, sorry guys!!! I've been on vacation on a campground with basically no internet. I'll write some words about the festival as soon as i find the time!!!

No apologies needed - I was just messing with you. Of course I do want to know all about Threshold's set and if you got the songs you wanted and how awesome Glynn was. (Though youtube has already convinced me that the answer is: pretty darn awesome).  Also curious how you liked Riverside's guitar player, especially if you were already a fan of theirs from before.

[Lethean]

Been listening to Legends alot the past few days. Just want to proclaim my love for it 

 

I've been listening to it a lot too.

I agree. As much as I love Damian Wilson I think Legends of the Shire is easily their best album.

I'm not prepared yet to not have a Mac album as my favorite, plus Legends of the Shires is still not even a year old, which means that even though I have listened to it a lot, it doesn't yet have that history with me.

[Fritzinger]

I know I am late with this, but here are some words about Thresholds show at the Loreley!

Recently I had gotten into the band a little and I have never seen them live before. I really like the voice of Mac, and have heard tons of good stuff about Damian, so it was interesting to see how the "new old" guy was holding up. In my opinion, he's a VERY charismatic frontman and a great singer. And dare I say, he's a very good looking guy, too. Glynn did a very good job communicating with the crowd and it felt like he had been their frontman for decades.
The band had some major sound difficulties though in the beginning. It seemed like the bass wasn't working at all, and vocals were barely audible, so were the keys. Only things audible were the guitar and the drums. The crew needed about two/three songs to figure the whole thing out.. but after the initial struggle, the sound was pretty good, especially for a (let me call it) co-co-headliner.
I'd like to say some words about Johanne James since I have read overwhelming words about him in some other places in the internet. I don't want to talk bad about him, but I certainly don't understand the opinion that he was the best drummer of the whole festival when guys like Nick D'Virgilio and Marco Minnemann were around. James played a very solid, good set, but in my personal opinion he lacked sensitivity, some nuances; or to say it the other way round, his playing is not very detailed. That is not saying he is a bad drummer, but he could have concentrated a little more on, say, a few ghost notes or so, than on doing the same rotating-stick-trick all over again 

BUT it was an awesome set!

[Lethean]

Thanks! 

Did they play Light and Space and Mission Profile?  I know you were hoping to hear those two.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the show so much and that Glynn sounded so good.  It's also interesting to hear your impressions of him as a front man, never having seen the band before.  I thought both Damian and Mac were more active on stage and more able to get the crowd going.  But it's not a complaint about Glynn, and he has a more maybe laid back approach but it still works. I definitely felt that there was still a connection with the audience and that along with how well he sang is all that really matters.

It's too bad about the sound issues - especially that it took so long to get resolved.  At Rosfest the sound was mostly very good but during the middle the guitar volume dropped way down.  I don't think it took super long to fix but it was a little annoying.

About Johanne... I'm not a drummer.  So that's where I come from, and all I can say is I really enjoy watching him play.  Having said that, musicians, including drummers, couldn't stop talking about him at ProgPower.  I do remember there being a conversation about how necessary the stick twirling was, but people seemed to say that they didn't care and he could do it as much as he wanted since he played so well.  So I guess there's something to it.  But I can only assume a lot of people liked Marco too. I've never seen him live but he's always spoken of highly.

Thanks again for writing that and I'm glad you got to see them for the first time and enjoyed the show.

[ProfessorPeart]

Just discovered that they released a live album from the Hobbit tour back in August. Picked it up and it is quite good. Glynn is just awesome on this.

I wish there were more Mac songs on it as I just can't stand Mac's voice. I'm missing out on 5 albums of material because I just can't get into his vocals. I know, I'm in the very small minority. I could only wish that they did a Jon Schaffer and have Glynn re-record all of the vocals on those albums.

https://www.thresh.net/music/two-zero-one-seven/

TWO-ZERO-ONE-SEVEN

Slipstream
The Man Who Saw Through Time
Snowblind
Innocent
Stars and Satellites
Mission Profile
Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams
Hollow
Lost In Translation
Small Dark Lines

[Lethean]

I second that live album recommendation.  It sounds great.

However - Mac rules.  Go listen to those albums until you love them.

[ProfessorPeart]

I second that live album recommendation.  It sounds great.

However - Mac rules.  Go listen to those albums until you love them.

I do own Hypothetical and I go back to it every so often and the result is always the same, I just don't care for his vocals. Maybe I will give it a go again over the holidays.

[gazinwales]

I hated Mac for many years, after seeing Threshold live at Progpower 1999, Mac was drunk and/or stoned onstage and was terrible.
It took quite a few years for me to forgive him for that performance, it probably wasn't until his death that I started to appreciate his unique voice and style.

[Lethean]

I read about that performance and that the band felt pretty bad about it.  He'd been voted best front man of Wacken that year, and then they said he probably didn't get the same high rating at ProgPower Europe.    It's too bad if that's the only time you saw him.

[gazinwales]

The worst part about the PP 1999 show, was the next morning, we were staying in the same hotel as the band.
Rich West saw us and asked us how the show was and we all lied and told him it was great!

But I did get to see Threshold at ProgPower UK in 2005 (I think) and it was much better, but the band still hadn't clicked for me.
Luckily I stuck with them, I was still buying every release from them and eventually when I heard Subsurface I started to feel some magic.

[bl5150]

It's interesting how we all have such different journeys with the same band and their various members.  For many Mac is the definitive Threshold front man and I'm pretty much the exact opposite.

My Threshold journey started in 1994 when I bought Psychedelicatessen which became an immediate (and long term) favourite and I worked my way back to Extinct Instinct etc.......and so I was really upset when I heard that Glynn was a one album wonder.   I sampled the Mac era but felt that they had lost much of their variety - it all sounded rather samey to me . I finally started to get interested again around Dead Reckoning which would be Mac's last.  I really should revisit the Mac era properly and see if my opinions change.

I have been properly back on board ever since Damian's return and am even happier to have Glynn back.  Hopefully they can put a run of albums with the current band.

[Zantera]

Mac is the only Threshold singer i like, but obviously the non-mac albums still have some good songs here and there.

[jingle.boy]

I got my intro just before the release of MoP.  Seeing as how I'm a bing Damian fanboi, I'm somewhat partial to his albums.  I love the Mac era for sure, and Legends is an A+ record, but for me... Damian would be my preference.

[TAC]

Mac is the only Threshold singer i like, but obviously the non-mac albums still have some good songs here and there.

I'm not up on anything this Glynn guy has done, but personally, I cannot stand Damian.

[ariich]

I got into Threshold around the time of Critical Mass, so Mac is definitely the one I associate most as being the voice of Threshold. But to be honest, I think all three are great. I love Damien's voice but didn't like his early Threshold albums much (not because of his singing though), but MOP was superb. And Glynn is great too. I'm glad all three vocalists have had at least one top-notch Threshold album each.

I'd be interested to know what everyone's favourite album from each singer is. Mine are:

Mac: Hypothetical
Glynn: Legend of the Shires
Damien: March of Progress

[ProfessorPeart]

I'd be interested to know what everyone's favourite album from each singer is. Mine are:

Mac: Hypothetical
Glynn: Legend of the Shires
Damien: March of Progress

I'd go with that, aside from Mac.

I got into Threshold from also being a Damian fanboy. I remember I bought both of his albums and one Mac album (coincidentally, the one listed in the quote). I completely ignored the first Glynn album.  I also avoided the new Glynn album until Damian came out and endorsed him and his voice for the band. Then I checked out samples and was blown away. I still listen to the 2 Glynn albums fairly regularly. I have also been jamming the new live album as well. Mission Profile is a song I wasn't too familiar with as it is a Mac song. Glynn just slays on that track. I really hope they hold onto Glynn for a while.

[gazinwales]

March of Progress - one of my fave Threshold albums, love every song, has some killer melodies and some cool proggy bits.
I played it yesterday on my big hifi and I noticed the amount of compression used on the sound, that's the only negative I can think of.

Legends - again another killer album and Glynn sounds amazing on this, but even more compression used on this than MoP.

[Lethean]

I have a really hard time picking a favorite Mac album.  It always changes.

Legends of the Shires is my favorite Glynn album.

For Damian, I'll go with Extinct Instinct.

[cramx3]

Bump

Tour? Slim to none. I would consider a ProgPower appearance in the next three years to be a good possibility though.

well, I guess it will be 7 years later  but that's why I am here.  Next band for me to discover playing this year's ProgPower is Threshold.  Seems they have a bit of history with singers and lots of albums that makes it hard to find somewhere to start, but seems Legend of the Shires is a good place to start.  Just heard the title track for the first time and enjoyed it. Just listening through youtube videos for now, Mission Profile came on next, solid song too.  Seems like a band I would really like based on what I hear.

[Lethean]

Bump

Tour? Slim to none. I would consider a ProgPower appearance in the next three years to be a good possibility though.

well, I guess it will be 7 years later  but that's why I am here.  Next band for me to discover playing this year's ProgPower is Threshold.  Seems they have a bit of history with singers and lots of albums that makes it hard to find somewhere to start, but seems Legend of the Shires is a good place to start.  Just heard the title track for the first time and enjoyed it. Just listening through youtube videos for now, Mission Profile came on next, solid song too.  Seems like a band I would really like based on what I hear.

  Threshold is amazing.   For ProgPower prep, I think Legends of the Shires is a great place to start.  After that, I would go with the Mac albums and Psychedelicatessen, and you *should* have the setlist covered.  Of course I say listen to them all, but I know there's a lot.

[RoeDent]

Since hearing Damian Wilson on Ayreon's Into the Electric Castle, I've been wanting to start getting into Threshold.

[cramx3]

Bump

Tour? Slim to none. I would consider a ProgPower appearance in the next three years to be a good possibility though.

well, I guess it will be 7 years later  but that's why I am here.  Next band for me to discover playing this year's ProgPower is Threshold.  Seems they have a bit of history with singers and lots of albums that makes it hard to find somewhere to start, but seems Legend of the Shires is a good place to start.  Just heard the title track for the first time and enjoyed it. Just listening through youtube videos for now, Mission Profile came on next, solid song too.  Seems like a band I would really like based on what I hear.

  Threshold is amazing.   For ProgPower prep, I think Legends of the Shires is a great place to start.  After that, I would go with the Mac albums and Psychedelicatessen, and you *should* have the setlist covered.  Of course I say listen to them all, but I know there's a lot.

Thanks, and yea, they have too much to just go through it all, especially since there's more PP bands I want to check out so getting to know what's likely to be played is a perfect starting place.

[The Walrus]

Although I loved Dead Reckoning and the magic wore off after hearing the rest of their albums, there are some great songs throughout their albums. cram, if you haven't heard it, I strongly suggest you look up Pilot in the Sky of Dreams, from Dead Reckoning. That's the song that put the band on my radar and it's just so awesome. Slipstream is another killer.

[SleeperAwake]

Wanting to check out Damian Wilson's work I got into Threshold last year, at least partly because of recommendations in the Ayreon thread, so I started with the debut and kept going chronologically. Dead Reckoning is next (and I'll get around to it) but at some point it started to sound quite samey.

Don't get me wrong, solid albums all with great songs along the way, just not that much variety. It's not a vocalist problem either - Mac is great.

Maybe it's because I really took to Wounded Land and it's not really indicative of where they would go.

[gazinwales]

Bump, I bought from the thresh.net shop 2017 live album and Wireless.
The live album with Glynn is killer, his voice sounds great, even the Mac songs he breathes new life into them.
Really highly recommended release.

[Lethean]

I'll second that recommendation.  Glynn sounds awesome on that live album.

I'll also recommend Wireless.  Some of the songs you wouldn't expect to be good acoustic really are.

[goo-goo]

The Legends album has really aged well. Very tasteful solos and Glynn's voice seems to be perfect going forward. The live album they released with Glynn is also very good.

[ProfessorPeart]

This made me check their website and it states they are well into writing for the next record and to expect it in 2021. Looking forward to that one.

[kirksnosehair]

Mac is the only Threshold singer i like, but obviously the non-mac albums still have some good songs here and there.

I'm not up on anything this Glynn guy has done, but personally, I cannot stand Damian.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan either.  I much prefer the Mac era of the band.