Critical Mass

Threshold

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Inside Out U.S.
• ASIN: B00006HI7B
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #188,329 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Phenomenon

2. Choices

3. Falling Away

4. Fragmentation

5. Echoes Of Life

6. Round And Round

7. Avalon

8. Critical Mass (Part 1-3)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting better with each release!, November 3, 2002

By	Sven B. Schreiber "rawol.com" (Fürth (Bayern)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Threshold is one of the bands that get better with each new album release. That's probably because the main songwriters - Richard West, Karl Groom, and Jon Jeary - continually improve their shills. Meanwhile, the writing team seems to have split sharply into two fractions: Out of the eight tracks, the odd-numbered titles ara written by Richard West, and the even-numbered by Groom/Jeary. All tracks are great, there's no garbage or filler material on this CD. The style is similar to the previous "Hypothetical" album: Powerful "Metal" with catchy melodies and rich "progressive" arrangements. Great ProgMetal for people who like Arena, Dream Theater, and the likes.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Britain's best prog metal band raise the bar a notch, October 8, 2002

By A Customer

I was fortunate to hear a pre-release mix of Threshold's latest album and was frankly blown away. If anything, getting the final, published package was even better! Their last album, "Hypothetical" was a landmark album which set the standard for others to beat. With "Critical Mass" Threshold have surpassed themselves and the competition.

The songs on "Critical Mass" are uniformly strong and powerful but there are still many subtle and expressive moments throughout the CD. This is a mature album in the best sense of the phrase... Tracks like the opener "Phenomenon" and "Fragmentation" rock with the best of them and look set to become live favourites for years to come. Other tracks like the big power ballad "Falling Away" and "Avalon" show the real prog in prog-metal drawing from influences from as diverse as classic Floyd and Queen to Kansas and Saga without ever becoming derivative. These tracks are all 100% pure Threshold. The CD-closer "Critical Mass Pts 1-3" is simply pure prog without any of the pretentiousness.

All the members of the group play to enhance the excellently written songs. This is a display of musicianship rather than ego! All in all, this album is a defninte "must buy" for any fans of prog, prog-metal or...frankly...any fans of good rock music. It is also worth checking out the Limited edition version which had a second CD featuring some impressive multimedia and a trio of bonus tracks.All in all, this is an album that mustn't be missed.

Could you tell I liked it?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a phenomenon, October 13, 2002

By	Eddie T. Head "hallowed" (Osijek, Croatia) - See all my reviews

I will say just one thing, I like it. I like it a lot. They still making great progressive metal that isn't played at light speed with million notes per second.They made a great album, even though I thought that they couldn't top Hypothetical, this is just as good. My favourite tracks are Phenomenon, Falling Away, Echoes Of Life and the title song Critical Mass(you don't get to many songs (and bands) that use terms like neutrons, protons and gluons these days ;))