So I've slowly been going through the Threshold discography (thanks, Spotify!) since some people here are superfans of them, and I'm going to ProgPower this year with a friend who's recently become a very big fan of them. I have one record left to hear - For The Journey, which I hope to get to tonight - but I wanted to rank them as I view them at this moment.
1. Dead Reckoning
2. Legends of the Shires
3. March of Progress
4. Subsurface
5. Psychedelicatessen
8. Clone/Hypothetical/Critical Mass
9. Wounded Land/Extinct Instinct
So that's probably blasphemous to a lot of Threshold fans but that's how I honestly feel. I hesitate to call any of these albums 'bad' but Wounded Land and Extinct Instinct are just hard to get through for me. Damian's voice isn't fun to listen to. The songwriting isn't bad, but I honestly feel like almost all of their albums are too long. Cut a few songs, or shorten each song by a minute or two... There used to be a time I could enjoy a full hour or more of metal on every album but sometimes you gotta know when to stop; I've been appreciating 30-something and 40-something minute albums in recent years that just get to the point, so an hour of material is something I'm sensitive to.
Clone/Hypothetical/Critical Mass - I get the feeling these are the ones you have to love to consider yourself a Threshold fan which makes me wonder if I can even call myself a fan. I find the songwriting on these albums lifeless, sterile... There's a lack of compelling vocal melodies, not enough energy, a lot of the songs blend together and sound the same to me. I wanted to like these, I really did, but I'm just surprised at how flat they fell. I would have to call these boring. Not bad, just boring, and not something I would listen to again. These albums represent one of my biggest disappointments with the band in that I don't find many of their lyrics to be interesting.
Psychdelicatessen - I like this one a lot. Glynn's voice is great and there's a distinctly metallic edge to the production here which I enjoy. It's got some of that energy that I missed on the above albums, oddly. Young band hit gold? This was one of my favorites at first but can't compete with the later albums.
Subsurface - An improvement on the Clone/Hypothetical/CM formula, to me, but it's a grower. The first time I heard it, I didn't remember a single vocal melody until What About Me - and it turns out that's a bonus track. That has the most fitting vocal melody and delivery on the album, I think, and it's a shame it's relegated to bonus track status. Better songwriting though, better playing, although again, I wish they would've trimmed some of the fat.
March of Progress - hell yes. Modern metal record, typically guitar-driven Threshold, but it's just done so well. Damian's voice is way better on this album than his early two. I really like this album.
Legends of the Shires - awesome record if, again... too long! But the songwriting is fantastic and everyone's on fire, especially Glynn, who sounds wonderful. Huge choruses, great riffs, uptempo enough to keep the energy going. And the 'softer' stuff is as good as the heavier ones (looking at you, Stars and Satellites).
Dead Reckoning - Incredible from start to finish, the perfect balance and definitive of what Threshold is to me. Lyrically it's great, the production is great, Mac's performance and the vocal melodies are superb, it's got it all.
So yeah... I think I can call myself a fan of this band.
Although maybe not a big fan, or only really a fan of their modern output, but I enjoy at the very least 5 of their albums, three of them I enjoy
a lot. I predict For The Journey will rank high, given the trend.