{"id":7455,"date":"2012-11-12T00:00:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=7455"},"modified":"2015-06-18T13:35:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T13:35:59","slug":"feature-threshold-11-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-threshold-11-12\/","title":{"rendered":"THRESHOLD – The Progressive March (November 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

THRESHOLD – The Progressive March<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Threshold (l-r): Richard West, Johanne James, Damian Wilson, Pete Morten, Steve Anderson and Karl Groom<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nIt was publicly revealed on July 23rd, 2007 that vocalist Andrew \u2018Mac\u2019 McDermott had parted ways with British progressive metallers Threshold, his exit taking place several days prior to scheduled appearances at the Metalcamp and Eartshaker festivals in Slovenia and Germany respectively. Andrew lent his vocals to five Threshold studio full-lengths; Clone<\/em> (November 1998), Hypothetical<\/em> (March 2001), Critical Mass<\/em> (September 2002), Subsurface<\/em> (July 2004), and Dead Reckoning<\/em> (March 2007).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe cut off all ties,\u201d recalls Richard West, keyboardist of Threshold. \u201cFrom the moment he sent the message he switched his phone off, so we couldn\u2019t reply back to him. We couldn\u2019t call him, and he refused to take any calls or have any conversations with us. It was just the weirdest thing. All we could deduce from the fact he wanted to get on with his life is maybe he needed a more reliable income or something. I don\u2019t know. Threshold \u2013 like all bands \u2013 is fairly sporadic in terms of when you get paid, but it\u2019s weird because we had spent so much time together making the album, talking about our hopes and dreams for it, planning big touring and everything, and then he just disappeared. I can only guess that there were other factors that he didn\u2019t wanna talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having occupied behind the microphone stand for debut effort Wounded Land<\/em> (September 1993) and third outing Extinct Instinct<\/em> (March 1997), singer Damian Wilson returned to the fold. \u201cWe were just about to go on tour to support Dead Reckoning<\/em> when when our old singer Andrew McDermott sent us a message to say he wasn\u2019t coming,\u201d the pianist recounts. \u201cIt was the day before he was supposed to come over and rehearse with us in Germany, and I think we had maybe five to six days until our first show. It was a really big surprise. He didn\u2019t even explain why; he just said in a message that he had to get on with his life, which was weird because we thought Threshold really was a big part of his life. We were quite surprised, because he had made it very clear that he was really excited about the new album and everything we were doing. We were totally surprised, and really shell shocked. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to cancel shows, because that\u2019s just not a good thing to do. Fans buy tickets, book flights, and book hotels. We did talk very briefly at the time about having vocalist auditions, but we didn\u2019t have very long. Over the years we\u2019ve had three singers, which is ludicrous for any band. Your dream is that you have the same line-up for your whole career, so the fact that we\u2019ve managed to still keep our fanbase is quite fortunate. The thought of having a fourth singer… We thought that would just be a bit of a joke really for a band. We might as well have just called ourselves a project or something, so we really thought that it had to be Damian or Glynn (Morgan, vocalist on November 1994\u2019s Psychedelicatessen<\/em>). It was so obvious to go back to one of those two.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLuckily I had been working with Damian about a week before in the studio on another project, and he had spoken about Threshold. He said to me \u2018I really miss the band. If there\u2019s ever an opportunity, I\u2019d love to have another shot.\u2019 A week later he got a phone call (laughs), and he came back in. He was the hero of the hour, and we did the shows. After that he then did a tour, and some more shows. With every show we did, he just became more and more part of the band. There was never a day where we said \u2018We don\u2019t have a singer again.\u2019 Slowly he made his way back in I think. To be honest it was down to timing though; Damian was here and he was ready, and he was available. We didn\u2019t actually have a way of getting hold of Glynn at the time, so it was a pretty easy decision. If it was another month it might\u2019ve been Glynn who came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damian\u2019s late 90s departure was an amicable affair. \u201cI don\u2019t think he ever really wanted to leave, to be honest,\u201d Richard feels. \u201cThat must\u2019ve been about 1998. We had done the Extinct Instinct<\/em> album, and we had written Clone<\/em>. It was mostly recorded, and we were just ready to do vocals. Damian got offered this other job out of the blue, which was to sing the lead role in the musical Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>. It was a fantastic offer, and Threshold wasn\u2019t really doing much back then. Doing an album and then a two-week tour wasn\u2019t really enough to call it a career. He needed something more, so he took the job. He then said to us \u2018I don\u2019t wanna leave Threshold, but at the same time I\u2019ve gotta start rehearsals on this West End musical thing next week. I don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll be able to do the vocals.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had studio time booked and a schedule with the record company, so we made the difficult decision that we needed to finish the record. Damian didn\u2019t know when he would be available though. It sounded like it was gonna be two years, which in fact it was. We would\u2019ve had to have waited two years to do that record (laughs), which would\u2019ve been a bit long. We split on friendly terms, but he never particularly wanted to leave. He just got busy. That\u2019s what Damian does; he\u2019ll find suddenly find himself in five different bands and three different projects, and suddenly he can\u2019t do everything. Let\u2019s hope that doesn\u2019t happen again (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Damian\u2019s musical commitment towards Threshold isn\u2019t exclusive. \u201cHe\u2019s in four bands,\u201d the pianist chuckles. \u201cHe\u2019s a permanent addition to Threshold and also another band he\u2019s in, so hopefully we can keep making it work. Everyone in the different bands are all friendly, and we all understand the situation. Most musicians these days have to be in more than one band and working on more than one project to make it sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Threshold had accordingly adapted its songwriting tendencies during Andrew\u2019s tenure. \u201cI guess we just got very familiar with being with Mac,\u201d Richard muses. \u201cWe did five albums with Mac in the meantime, and we wrote in a slightly different way. He had a heavier, more growly sort of voice, so it meant that the writing style changed a bit. It was a bit more straight ahead metal in the way we approached things whereas when Damian left we had just done Extinct Instinct<\/em>, and that was a much more progressive album I think. Yeah, he had to adapt to that side, but the good thing was he came in for the touring phase so he came in to do Mac\u2019s songs. He got very used to having to change while we were touring. We did about 60 shows together, so by the time we went into the studio he knew what we were about and knew what the new Threshold was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing sessions for August 2012 record March Of Progress<\/em> \u2013 their ninth studio proper overall \u2013 didn\u2019t begin until 2009, 2008\u2019s time being consumed by a separate release. \u201cIn 2008 we were putting together our singles box set called Paradox<\/em>, which is eight discs each with three tracks on them,\u201d the ivory-tinkler begins. You got a single and then two B-sides, and the B-sides were all rare songs or unfinished songs or unreleased tracks. We spent a lot of time recording them and putting them together. That took up a lot of time in 2008, and I think we just about started writing in 2009. That was quite a slow process, just working out how Threshold was gonna sound for the new album. We didn\u2019t want to lose everything we had been building towards with Dead Reckoning<\/em> \u2013 the new, modern Threshold sound \u2013 and we didn\u2019t wanna go back to just making another Threshold record with Damian sounding like the old ones. It took awhile before we found that sound I think, and worked out what the modern Threshold was gonna sound like. It started slightly in 2009 and 2010, and then we finished everything in 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The outing marks the first Threshold studio platter to feature guitarist Pete Morten, whose tenure was disclosed on January 17th, 2007. \u201cI think he was recording one of his bands down at Karl\u2019s studio, and they just got on well,\u201d Richard shares. \u201cI think Karl realised he was a nice guy, a good player, and a good writer, and when Nick Midson left I think just before we made Dead Reckoning<\/em> we needed somebody obviously to tour. We asked \u2019Can we really do this with one guitarist?\u2019 We did the album Dead Reckoning<\/em> with just one guitarist. That\u2019s easy isn\u2019t it because you just do overdubs, but onstage we really couldn\u2019t create the Threshold sound with just one guitar. We really need two to make that sound, so Karl instantly thought of Pete I guess. The same way we got Damian back we got Pete because he was just around at the time, and was willing and available. There was no audition process for either of them. We just knew they were there, so we asked them. Pete\u2019s been invaluable. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been great fun on tour; he\u2019s such a nice guy. On the tour bus he brings a lot of comedy which is great, because we can all be a bunch of serious guys sometimes. It\u2019s really nice. He\u2019s like the little brother that has fun with everybody. He\u2019s good; he\u2019s a good player, a good writer. He plays really well, and does a great job for us. He\u2019s quite a quirky guy, and that comes out in his writing. For him to write a couple of songs for the album, we\u2019re very happy with that. I guess because he\u2019s been out as well doing 60 shows with us, he knew our sound. He didn\u2019t try to write a Pete Morten track, and was able to write a Threshold track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith his own band called My Soliloquy you can really hear his personality in it, and it\u2019s quite a quirky album. It\u2019s very good, because you can hear his personality. I think with Threshold he managed to tone that down, so you just get a little bit of his personality which is nice. Obviously I\u2019m no analyst, but I think if you heard his My Soliloquy album (The Interpreter<\/em>) which\u2019ll be out soon and then listened to the two tracks that he wrote, you just hear that certain flavour. A bit like with Queen where you could tell it was written by Freddie (Mercury, vocals), or Brian (May, guitars), or by John (Deacon, bass), or Roger (Taylor, drums). It just sounds like Queen, but you can hear a certain different vocabulary musically. I think if you hear anything that sounds a little bit off the wall, then you can probably guess that that was Pete\u2019s idea. You can tell that he wrote it, but it still fits on the album. He\u2019s just fitted in really nicely. It\u2019s a pleasure to have him with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As was the case with preceding studio records Obsessive<\/em> and Dead Reckoning<\/em>, March Of Progress<\/em> was mostly penned by Richard and guitarist Karl Groom. \u201cWhat tends to happen is Karl will write a whole load of instrumentals, and they\u2019re fully formed,\u201d the organist describes. \u201cThey\u2019ve got all of the drums, bass, and guitars, even some of the solos. Quite a few of the keyboards are mapped out as well, and then he gives me a complete instrumental because Karl doesn\u2019t write lyrics. I\u2019m sent a pile of instrumentals, and I write all the lyrics and melodies for them. I\u2019ll then record all of the vocal demos here, which I\u2019m not the best singer, so (laughs)… There\u2019s a lot of auto-tuning going on and they\u2019re not for public release, but then all of the vocals and harmonies all get mapped out. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re finished we\u2019ve got complete demos, so we know exactly how the songs are gonna sound. We then need all of the players to come in and actually play the songs for us. The other half of the songs are just written by me, so I do the whole thing. I do the instrumentals, and then the vocals too. That\u2019s how it\u2019s been the last two albums. We kept that process going for March Of Progress<\/em>, but then fortunately we also had some of the other band members write. We always try to encourage that, but it doesn\u2019t always happen. This time Damian\u2019s written a song, and Pete Morten our second guitarist has actually written two songs like I said \u2013 one is a bonus track. Even Steve (Anderson) our bass player has contributed to one of the songs with a few riffs so it\u2019s a little bit more collaborative than usual, which is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Richard contends the fact that several of Threshold\u2019s members contributed tunes causes March Of Progress<\/em> to be a more varied album. \u201cIt goes back a long way back, back to Psychedelicatessen<\/em>, the second album,\u201d he adds. \u201cWith the first album Wounded Land<\/em>, it was all written by the three founding guys, Karl Groom, Jon Jeary, and Nick Midson. With the second album suddenly I was writing and the new singer Glynn Morgan was writing, and it really changed the flavour. I think that\u2019s why Jon Jeary called it Psychedelicatessen<\/em>, because it was like a delicatessen. You can go in there and choose all of these different flavours, and it feels a little bit like that with March Of Progress<\/em>. It just opens up the perspective a bit. There\u2019s a little bit more diversity in there, but that said I think it\u2019s a very coherent record. It doesn\u2019t sound like a compilation; it does sound like one body of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Layered vocals prevalent during the Mac era have been carried over into Threshold\u2019s current chapter. \u201cCertainly with Mac, one of the things we really changed was we brought in more and more layers of vocals,\u201d the keyboardist critiques. \u201cI was writing most of the vocals and melodies by that point, certainly by the last couple of albums with Mac. I was enjoying building up that almost Freddie Mercury style where you have just layers upon layers of vocals, and it worked really well for Mac\u2019s voice and he was quite happy to come in and do that. That\u2019s something we never really tried before with Damian. There were a couple of bits on Extinct Instinct<\/em> where we layered up the choruses, but really not very much. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think when Damian came back into the studio, he suddenly found this was all there to do as well. He finished the leads, and then he had to do 48 layers of backing vocals or something. I think that was probably bit of a shock to him. That\u2019s one of the changes. It doesn\u2019t dominate our sound, but it\u2019s one of those layers that we really find important for the modern Threshold sound. I think everything\u2019s just a bit more technically minded now. Even when there\u2019s a really nice, simple, easy melody, the riffs underneath are generally a lot more technical and complex than they used to be. We\u2019ve already kind of embraced that modern prog metal thing, whereas I think probably when we started Wounded Land<\/em> it was more classic rock meets prog. We\u2019re certainly a bit more technical these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard chalks Threshold\u2019s growing technical sensibilities up to evolution. \u201cAs we\u2019ve gone on we\u2019ve become better writers and better players, and that\u2019s just worked its way into the music,\u201d he observes. \u201cIt was never a conscious decision. I think we\u2019ve probably always played to our ability, but we\u2019ve become more technically proficient. I think with every album you want to stretch yourself as well. With this sort of music we don\u2019t want to keep making the same records, so we\u2019re always finding ways to stretch \u2013 even things like time changes. Some of the songs have so many subtle time changes going on constantly in the background. If you sit there and try to work it out you\u2019d be there with a calculator, whereas in the old days the time signatures were a lot more simple. A lot of things are just in the background. The way things are written has really evolved as we\u2019ve become more confident and competent I guess in what we\u2019re doing. The more you do, the better you get I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pianist is constantly attempting to achieve that elusive piano sound he can hear in his mind. \u201cI have a big love of piano in rock just because not many people do it, and when you can do it in a way that works I love it,\u201d he expresses. \u201cNot the old honky tonk kind of piano, but just atmospheric riffs and that kind of thing. I\u2019ve done a bit more of that than usual. Songs like \u2018Colophon\u2019 for example have quite a bit of piano, and \u2018Staring At The Sun\u2019. I really enjoy getting that to work, and also I\u2019m a big fan of those old, big Gary Numan sounds from the late 70s and early 80s. I\u2019ve never really gone there so much in the past, but I\u2019m going there more now. I think \u2018Hang on… That\u2019s the stuff I love, so let\u2019s try it out.\u2019 <\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019ll find a few lead lines with that kind of sound going on this time, and probably even more on the next album. It\u2019s just a lovely sound. Synths used well are just beautiful things, so I\u2019m trying to move a bit more in that direction and a bit less Hammond organ and strings \u2013 the stuff that everyone puts on everything. I\u2019m trying to move a little bit away from that, and then plus my leads as well. A big part of Threshold is all of the solos that we all do; we spend a lot of the time trying to get the perfect lead every time, which is always fun \u2013 stretching your playing and stretching your fingers as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late Deep Purple member Jon Lord is an influence on Richard\u2019s playing, Jon having passed away from a pulmonary embolism on July 16th, 2012 at the age of 71. \u201cSubliminally I think, yeah,\u201d Richard acknowledges. \u201cHe loved his distorted Hammond sounds, and certainly in the past we\u2019ve done a lot of that. I don\u2019t do so much these days, but yeah, I grew up listening to him. He was one of the guys that made keyboards in rock music work, wasn\u2019t he? Absolutely phenomenal talent and legacy. So yeah, subliminally he\u2019s definitely there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pianists like Yes alumni Rick Wakeman and musicians of that ilk generally influence progressive players. \u201cWith no disrespect to Rick at all, I don\u2019t really know much of his stuff,\u201d the ivory-tinkler confesses. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, because I know when I joined Threshold there were some guys in the band who were really into Rush and some into Yes, and I was more into Genesis and Queen. I kind of brought in a slightly different flavour, so probably more Genesis would come into it and like I say, people like Gary Numan \u2013 people you wouldn\u2019t expect. People who just managed to take the synth somewhere that it hadn\u2019t really gone before.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something different. \u201cThat\u2019s what I hope, yeah,\u201d Richard concurs. \u201cI don\u2019t tend to listen to that much prog metal partly for that reason, that I don\u2019t want to be influenced by my peers. The last thing we want to do is all sound the same. Keyboard wise, my influences come from different places and I listen to a lot of modern music. Modern music and production comes into it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many modern progressive metal groups try to sound like Dream Theater, unfortunately. \u201cI remember in the 90s when Dream Theater first got big,\u201d the organist embellishes. \u201cLoads of bands started and they only had one influence, and you could tell it was Dream Theater. If you\u2019re a musician and you\u2019ve only got one influence, then you\u2019re stuck aren\u2019t you? That\u2019s what you\u2019re gonna sound like. If you\u2019re a musician who has 20-30 influences and you just let them all be a small part of what you do, then you\u2019re gonna create something new. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019ve always tried to do with Threshold. I think that\u2019s one of the reasons we sound a bit different than other prog metal too, because we\u2019re British. Pretty much all of our influences are British. I know prog metal isn\u2019t specifically a British thing, but I think what we do is though because that\u2019s where we come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

British groups are audibly different to American groups, but it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint that sonic contrast. \u201cI agree, but I can\u2019t quite work it out either,\u201d Richard admits. \u201cI love the fact that it is though. I also love the fact that we can then just be a British band sounding British, but I don\u2019t know why that is either. It\u2019s just about what subliminally goes into you while you\u2019re growing up, just to find your musical character I think. That\u2019s what comes out when you write.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening composition \u2018Ashes\u2019 was originally titled \u2018March Of Progress\u2019, the erstwhile track title eventually lending its name to the album itself. \u201cWe liked it so much we made it the album title,\u201d the keyboardist enthuses. \u201cReally, most of the lyrics on the album are looking at the life cycle of things. They\u2019re looking at how you can start up a business or a relationship, or an empire \u2013 anything really. You fight for it, you really work hard, and you get to a point where it\u2019s doing really well. You then take your foot off of the gas and you start cruising, thinking \u2018Yeah, this is going really well.\u2019 Before you know it you\u2019ve become complacent, and you\u2019ve become apathetic. Before you know it the whole thing falls apart, because you stop fighting for it. I think that theme comes into the lyrics in at least half of the songs, looking at it from different perspectives and from different parts of that life cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The above could perhaps be interpreted as a veiled reference to Threshold, but Richard insists this isn\u2019t the case. \u201cI hope not,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI hope not. That certainly wasn\u2019t the intention. I had heard about this thing called the \u2018Fatal Sequence\u2019. Somebody studied I think the Athenian empire from about 2-3,000 years ago… I was gonna say \u2018Don\u2019t quote me on that,\u2019 but of course that\u2019s exactly what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t it (laughs)… It was sometime around there, and they discovered this life cycle of an empire that rises up from bondage and slavery up into freedom. Then it goes through these nine phases of prosperity and liberty, and then complacency, dependency, apathy and back down into bondage again. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that this generally took about 250 years, and then they tried to apply it to other empires and saw a similar model. I was quite fascinated by this because like I said, you can apply that to anything really \u2013 relationships, companies, any idea that you have. I did most of the album looking at different subjects from different points of view of different parts of the \u2018Fatal Sequence\u2019, and inevitably it\u2019s getting applied to Western civilisation where they think we\u2019re reaching the apathetic dependency stage. That creeps in a little bit, not that we want to be political. It\u2019s just one of those subjects that comes in there. But no, I wasn\u2019t really thinking about the band. I hope we\u2019ll never reach that stage. We want to be one of those bands that stays at the successful stage for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occupying seventh position upon March Of Progress<\/em>\u2019 track listing, \u2018That\u2019s Why We Came\u2019 was authored by Damian. \u201cHe had written it, and it was just a little acoustic song,\u201d the pianist judges. \u201cIt was just him on acoustic guitar, but he had bigger dreams for it in his head. He could hear it as a big song, but he\u2019s not a producer. He\u2019s not one to put onto tape or computer a whole arrangement. It\u2019s not his thing, because he\u2019s a writer and a singer. I went down to the boat that he was living on \u2013 he was living on a houseboat \u2013 and recorded him singing this song on my phone. I then took that away and tried to build up the arrangement for him the kind of way he described it to me, so I hope I\u2019ve done him justice. It\u2019s quite difficult trying to realise someone else\u2019s vision, but he seems happy with it, so… (laughs). I hope I\u2019ve done a proper job. It\u2019s always a dangerous thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penned by Pete Morten, part of \u2018Coda\u2019 pays tribute to former vocalist Andrew \u2018Mac\u2019 McDermott, who sadly passed away from kidney failure at the age of 45. \u201cI think not the whole song, but I think he said the second verse is his tribute to Mac which was a nice thing to do,\u201d Richard praises. \u201cIt\u2019s funny… It\u2019s not something I really thought to do lyrically, because we don\u2019t really write songs about ourselves or each other. It didn\u2019t really occur to me to do that. We\u2019ve done tributes to him on the web, and that kind of thing. It didn\u2019t really occur to me, which I hope isn\u2019t my own stupidity. It was really nice that Pete thought to do that though, and I think he\u2019s done it very nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ivory-tinkler\u2019s memories of Mac paint a troubled individual. \u201cHe was a phenomenal singer, and in equal parts phenomenal and infuriating I would say,\u201d he reminisces. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty well documented he had a pretty serious drinking habit, and you can imagine that that causes all sorts of difficulties and problems. Whether it was in the studio or onstage, you just never quite knew what you were gonna get. Some days he\u2019d be quite brilliant, and then the next day he couldn\u2019t remember anything. Alcoholism is a terrible thing, and as far as I\u2019m aware that\u2019s eventually what killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, Threshold doesn\u2019t consume much alcohol nowadays. \u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d Richard remembers. \u201cBack in the 90s you go out on tour as a young band, and you get backstage. There\u2019s a fridge full of a 100 beers and you just feel like the world\u2019s coming away, so you have a few before the show. You get onstage, and you\u2019ve got a couple more down by your feet. You play a pretty shockingly bad show, because you\u2019re quite hammered. You can\u2019t get all of the solos out quite the same. You\u2019re so drunk… well, not drunk, but you\u2019re a little bit tipsy so you don\u2019t really notice how badly you did. You then get offstage, and have a few more. I think after a couple of tours we realised it was just so stupid. <\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can do that in some kind of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band maybe, but when you\u2019re trying to play technical progressive metal you\u2019ve gotta be on top of your game. We managed to get that out of the equation, so now if you come to a Threshold tour you\u2019ll see how no-one drinks before the show. No-one\u2019s really drinking during the show either; we might just have one bottle onstage just to kind of relax ourselves a bit, and then it\u2019s just a nice, sophisticated bottle of red wine on the tour bus on the way to the next show and that\u2019s it. We feel a bit older than we used to (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Swansong cut \u2018Rubicon\u2019 reflects over the career of Threshold. \u201c\u2018Rubicon\u2019 just takes a fond look back at what we\u2019ve done, and the fact that we\u2019ve managed to continue and maybe extend our seasons a little bit longer than we thought,\u201d the organist explains. \u201cCertainly when Mac left the band, I know he thought we\u2019d stop. I\u2019m sure a lot of our fans thought we would as well, so even by making March Of Progress<\/em> it does feel like we\u2019ve managed to extend our life cycle a little bit for which we\u2019re very grateful. That song really addresses the subject I guess, but no, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve reached the complacent stage. We still work really hard, and we just wanna keep on making things better and better. In some ways we\u2019re still trying to rise up to that peak. We haven\u2019t peaked and fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years separate the issues of both Dead Reckoning<\/em> and March Of Progress<\/em>, which is a great length of time. Threshold is arguably attempting to rebuild its profile. \u201cWe never really stopped,\u201d Richard stresses. \u201cWhen Damian joined, we made a conscious decision just to do a bit more touring and keep on touring. As a band we were really enjoying it we found more than ever. It was a great unit. With Damian coming back having gained so much experience from other things like Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> and also touring with the Rick Wakeman band for awhile, he came back quite a different guy to the one who left back in 1998. He was a good frontman then but he came back as a great showman, and so we were really enjoying the shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kept on doing them, and so we kept putting off the idea of going back to the studio. Like I said, the box set slowed things down too because it meant we were focusing on that. For some reason it then just took awhile to find that sound again, maybe because we\u2019d spent a few years not writing. There was never an intention to slow down full-stop. It\u2019s just sometimes things take a bit longer I guess, but this time we\u2019re planning it slightly different. We\u2019re hoping to bring out another album at the end of 2013 \u2013 that\u2019s the plan. We\u2019re about to start writing the new one, because we don\u2019t want to wait another five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recording process for March Of Progress<\/em> \u201cwas very long, very slow. Like I said, we had all of the demos so we knew what was going on. We then sent out the demos to all of the musicians, and then they each come in one at a time and record. Obviously drums are first, so Johanne comes in and puts his personality on what was played on the demo. Steve then comes in and does the bass, Karl and Peter do the guitars, and near the end of the process I do the keyboards. We then get all of the vocals done, so it\u2019s quite a linear process and is done one chapter at a time. We don\u2019t all get in a room and jam; I don\u2019t think that really works for prog.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Once again, the keyboardist and Threshold bandmate Karl Groom handled production duties. \u201cI think it helps that we\u2019ve written most of the songs, so we\u2019ve already got a very strong vision of what we\u2019re trying to make,\u201d Richard gauges. \u201cWe also technically know what we\u2019re doing in the studio which is obviously quite important, but we tend to oversee different parts each. While Karl\u2019s looking after drums and guitars over at his studio, I\u2019m normally looking after bass, vocals, and keyboards at my studio. We then go back to his studio to mix. In this case Karl did the whole of the mix on his own, and then he was just sending me rough mixes by email and I\u2019d comment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny. Ten years ago we\u2019d both be in the same studio all of the time, because it was the only one we had. Everything was going onto tape and we had one mixing desk in front of us, so we needed as many hands as we could. We both had to be there all of the time, but nowadays it\u2019s a bit more disconnected because you can do things over the internet and I\u2019ve got my own studio now. Quite often we find that there\u2019s two men sitting in their own studios alone collaborating at a distance, so it\u2019s quite a weird process. I have to say I think I prefer the old days, because quite often you\u2019re trying to suggest changes or make little adjustments and by email it\u2019s quite hard. It\u2019s quite a long time before you get the conversation resolved, whereas if you\u2019re in a room together it\u2019s instant. We\u2019ve got a process that works, but I kind of miss the old days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italian artist Davide Nadalin additionally returned to design the outing\u2019s cover artwork. \u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you the other bands he has designed for, because they\u2019re not bands that are in my CD collection,\u201d the pianist concedes. \u201cHe did the last Threshold one though \u2013 Dead Reckoning<\/em> \u2013 the one with the zeppelins on the front, which we loved as a piece of work. We went back to him again, and he did the new one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth times we just told him what the album was about, because both albums have a vague storyline \u2013 there\u2019s a certain theme. We explain the theme to him in three to four sentences, and ask him to interpret that in his own way. We found that that is the best way for artists to work. If you tell them what you want as a picture, then they really struggle to try to recreate what they think\u2019s in your head. It\u2019s like they\u2019re shackled, so the last thing we want for Davide is to be shackled like the man on the cover (laughs). We want him to be that free butterfly. It\u2019s his interpretation of the lyrics, which is nice. It\u2019s very interesting to see, and actually with that one, that was one of two ideas he came up with. The other was based on the second song which didn\u2019t look quite right for us, so we chose the butterfly. It\u2019s really a bit different for Threshold \u2013 we tend to have slightly harder images than that. A butterfly is quite soft for us, but we love the picture. I think it works really nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

November 16th, 2012 saw the reissue of Threshold\u2019s back catalogue (sans Dead Reckoning<\/em>) through Nuclear Blast Records. Dubbed \u2018Definitive Editions\u2019, each include bonus material. \u201cThey\u2019re just a practical thing, really,\u201d Richard ponders. \u201cWe\u2019ve moved to Nuclear Blast. All those old albums were released through Inside Out Records and those contracts have now expired, so those albums are no longer available. That\u2019s obviously a silly thing to do if you\u2019re a band, so we needed them reissued. Nuclear Blast have taken on the job, and have released the definitive edition series. Obviously from Nuclear Blast\u2019s point of view, they wanted to make them as appealing as possible. We\u2019ve crammed them full with as many bonus tracks as you can fit on a CD, so they really are definitive and good value for money. The mastering\u2019s been tweaked a little bit, so they sound slightly better in some cases and hopefully they really are the definitive editions. <\/p>\n

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Steve Anderson<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever need to release them again; unless a brand new format comes along or something, these are the editions that will live on into history I hope. They\u2019ve got some really interesting bonus tracks. Some of the tracks are from the Paradox<\/em> box set, and some are taken from other fanclub releases over the years. There are some nice rarities on it, and they\u2019re really the ones which make the most sense to come after the album. When I was a kid I used to love how you\u2019d buy an LP, and then the first thing you\u2019d do was put it on tape so you could listen to it in the car or anywhere else. There was always room on the end of the tape to put on a couple of B-sides or an extra track, so it\u2019s the same kind of mentality. What we\u2019ve tried to do here is put on the most relevant tracks to fill out the discs at the end. They\u2019ll certainly get great value for money packages, because they\u2019ll be crammed to the brim. I hope the fans love it. I hope they don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re being ripped off into buying more editions, because that\u2019s certainly the last thing we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

March Of Progress<\/em>\u2019 successor will hopefully arrive in a more timely fashion. \u201cWe did our fifth and sixth albums in 15 months or something like that, and that was good,\u201d the ivory-tinkler figures. \u201cThat worked really well for us, and we should\u2019ve kept that going really. I think Hypothetical<\/em>, Critical Mass<\/em>, and Subsurface<\/em> were three albums in four years, so we know we can do it. I don\u2019t know why things slowed down so much at the end, because I think the time between Subsurface<\/em> and Dead Reckoning<\/em> was three years. The time between Dead Reckoning<\/em> and March Of Progress<\/em> was five years, so we seem to be getting slower. If we go on that way it\u2019ll be seven years before the next one, and that\u2019d be crazy. The world might not even exist then if you listen to all of the prophets of doom (laughs), so we think we\u2019ll get on with it quickly. By the end of making March Of Progress<\/em> we were really back in the flow of things. We remembered how to do this, so I think making the next one will just keep on in that flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

March Of Progress<\/em> was released on August 26th, 2012 in Europe (excluding the UK), in the UK on the 27th, and subsequently on September 11th in North America, all through Nuclear Blast Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2012. All promotional photographs by Robert Burress.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THRESHOLD – The Progressive March Anthony Morgan November 2012 Threshold (l-r): Richard West, Johanne James, Damian Wilson, Pete Morten, Steve Anderson and Karl Groom It was publicly revealed on July 23rd, 2007 that vocalist Andrew \u2018Mac\u2019 McDermott had parted ways with British progressive metallers Threshold, his exit taking place several days prior to scheduled appearances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-threshold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7455"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7497,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7455\/revisions\/7497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}