Warthur Nektar's Recycled presents an absolutely electrifying first side joined at the hip with an extremely pedestrian second side. The first half of the album (from Recycle to Unendless Imagination?) is a demented thrill-ride through a nightmare future of "recycled energy" and runaway entropy, which I could listen to over and over again; the second side is a set of rather pedestrian songs about tourism which lack the dynamism, energy, aggression, or breakneck pace of the first side, and so rather squander the album's momentum. I'll give it a four star rating, but please note that it's a five star side A bolted to a three star side B.

Warthur Did you like Remember the Future? Because this is basically a rehash of the general sonic approach of that, with a shade less oomph. It's alright, but a lot of it doesn't come across as being very memorable, and it all feels like revisiting territory Nektar have already explored. The following Recycled would invigorate their sound - especially on the excellent first side - but here the band sound a little bogged down, though there's still some charming moments here and there, as well as Beatles-esque touches (particularly in some of the vocals) which would have given it a bit of a retro vibe even at the time of release.

Warthur Emerging from a long hiatus, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum make a triumphant comeback. With an orchestra backing them, absolutely pristine production, and themes as dark and foreboding as any they offered up on their original run of three albums, this is a purified and intensified take on their distinctive musical approach, a terrifying metal-in-opposition meditation on human extinction and other weighty topics which runs the full emotional gamut from ethereal beauty to apocalyptic terror.

Not only do the band sound like they've not missed a beat - and in fact, they never did with many of the members having continued to work with each other in Free Salamander Exhibit, perhaps nodded to in the opening track here. Moreover, they began working on much of this material in 2010-2011 (and SQPR, a This Heat cover, hails from as far back as 2004) and have been gently working on it ever since, meaning this album has been brewed, distilled, and refined over the span of a decade. The end result might be the best expression they've ever offered of their creative vision, a keystone which ties their body of work together and which in retrospect it feels like their earlier albums were building towards all along. With many of the band members equally adept at rock and classical instruments, and Nils Frykdahl giving Mike Patton a run for his money in terms of vocal acrobatics, the Museum deploys its full bag of tricks here expertly, everything used purposefully and thoughtfully to best effect.

For a group which started out resembling an avant-prog take on Mr. Bungle, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum have only forged ahead into yet stanger territory; here they make Mr. Bungle's most alienating moments seem outright smooth and approachable by comparison, but never become dryly technical, maintaining an impressive command of atmosphere and emotion for the whole 66 minute running time.

Warthur This was recorded at the same sessions that yielded Savatage's debut album, Sirens, which in practice means it's much of a piece with it (especially given the fairly tight schedule they were on). It's pretty engaging, but as with Sirens we don't really get that much of what would make Savatage truly stand out coming through here; they're still rooted in NWOBHM-ish trad metal, and the power metal and progressive elements that would eventually be hallmarks of their sound are mere whispers on the wind at this stage. Not bad, but anyone with a decent range of early 1980s metal in their collection has already heard plenty of stuff like this.

Warthur Although it enjoys an enviable reputation, I have to say that I don't think Remember the Future is in the top tier of Nektar's albums. Taking a leaf from Jethro Tull's book, the group try to stretch a song across an entire album, only for a lack of material to become evident - by the last couple of minutes the song descends into fairly pedestrian hard rock, and the rest of the album just doesn't have the richness or diversity of Thick as a Brick, or even A Passion Play. The band's symphonic masterpiece would come later in the form of the brilliant first side of Recycled, but Remember the Future finds them not quite there yet, and could have done with an editing pass to trim back the filler.

Warthur Deliberately made in a rougher, looser style in a bid to translate their live energy to the studio, Nektar's ...Sounds Like This may be jarring if you're coming to it from their more symphonically-inclined works like Remember the Future or Recycled, but makes perfect sense as a continuation of their early space rock/heavy psych-influenced sound. It's a style which may have felt a little dated in 1973 - an era when prog was largely pushing past its roots in psychedelic rock - but I think it's a perfectly solid entry in Nektar's discography and doesn't to be overlooked to the extent that it is.

Warthur Jacob Buczarski's one-man atmospheric black metal project takes off into deep space yet again. "Solar Paroxysm" as a title suggests intense heat, searing light, and violent fits, and those are all concepts which the sound of the album seems to fit. It's perhaps a few steps closer to the centre of gravity of the atmospheric black metal scene than, say, the output of Darkspace, but it's still a compelling set of long, sprawling soundscapes. I'm not as immediately gripped and thrilled by it as I was by Phobos Monolith, which I think is Buczarski's magnum opus, but I'm certainly keen to continue exploring its mysteries.

Warthur A swirling keyboard line introduces Panic Attack, the first song on Judas Priest's latest album, Invincible Shield - sounding nothing like any of the prior dabbling in synthesisers and more like they've been dipping a toe into the synthwave scene. No, it's not a radical shift in direction - just an atmospheric intro which gives way to metal fury once the song kicks into high gear, offering the most electrifying opening track on a Priest album since Painkiller.

And it never, ever lets up after that! After the excellent Firepower found Priest playing in a very direct, go-for-the-throat style which went back to basics, this one sees them elaborating the song structures a bit in a manner reminiscent of their 1970s material whilst still keeping the sound fresh, offering a sound with blends the fury and pace of Painkiller, the pristine production of their mid-1980s material, and the edge of transgression and defiance they've been offering up since the 1970s, encapsulating the best of all of their classic eras whilst still finding novel and exciting songs to play in this style.

A particular tip of the hat is needed for Glenn Tipton, who despite his Parkinson's still manages to contribute to the album, helping out with songwriting as he always has and putting in a few guitar solos here and there. Andy Sneap of Sabbat fame, who's served as Tipton's stand-in for the band's live shows ever since he stepped back from in-person performance, is credited with additional guitar, as well as fully taking on the producer's role (having co-produced Firepower), and he does a fine job of all these tasks, engineering the album to perfection as well as giving Glenn that essential backup. Given how key he's become to the band's activities these days, we should surely start thinking of Andy as Judas Priest's unofficial sixth member; he'd deserve it based on his contributions to this album alone, but combine that with his sterling work on Firepower and the grand job he does live filling in for Glenn he's surely become as crucial as any of the tenured band members.

Think of any other band who've been going as long as Priest, putting a new album out some 50 years after their debut; nine times out of ten, that new album's going to be a bit of a nostalgia exercise, a process of going through the motions which will appeal to ultra-fans but doesn't really offer much over their more compelling work they put out in their prime. Now look at Priest: it's easy enough to say that Invincible Shield beats the living daylights out of Rocka Rolla, that's a notably weak debut which more or less all of their albums bar for Demolition or Jugulator beat comfortably.

But for Invincible Shield to measure up credibly next to the likes of Sad Wings of Destiny, Stained Class, or Painkiller? That's astonishing - and yet I really think it does. Judas Priest are an inspiration to all the rest of us: if these lads can keep the flame burning after half a century, if Glenn Tipton can keep contributing as he does here despite his Parkinson's, then that's a challenge to all of us to face whatever challenges life throws at us with equal determination. Perhaps that conviction and self-belief - and confidence that their listeners can discover that same fire within them - which is Priest's true Invincible Shield.

Warthur Helloween's debut EP is perhaps the strongest release of their speed metal years, enjoying a brash, rough about the edges style which gives it a touch more energy than the enjoyable but not exceptional Walls of Jericho, which was the only full-length studio album of their speed metal era before they undertook their career-defining shift into power metal.

There's few harbingers of their later style here, bar for a certain flair for the dramatic and borderline theatrical, such as in the whispered narration on Victim of Fate. Kai Hansen was still handling the vocals at this point in time - him passing the duties on to Michael Kiske would be a key aspect of the group's shift to power metal - and I think he acquits himself well here, establishing himself as a compelling and characterful vocalist. Mind you, if you don't get on with his vocals this will come across significantly worse to you - but for my money, I think this was his greatest moment as a lead singer.

Warthur Offering up a tasty feast of Candlemass-esque doom metal with a sense of the majestic, The Ruins of Fading Light builds wonderfully on the foundations that Crypt Sermon capably laid with their debut. The mystical Christian themes of the first album continue to be heard here, and tasteful doses of synthesiser are woven into the fabric of the band's sound to further enrich it, but the centre of gravity is still very much Nightfall-era Candlemass, so if that's something which floats your boat, they've got you covered. It might not be all that original when it comes to the fundamental parameters of its sound, but the compositional execution here is marvellous.

Warthur The Old Ways Remain! And it's good to know that, because for a while there it looked like Blood Ceremony had fallen off of the radar; after consistently putting out an album every 2-3 years, the long quiet from this doom-tinged heavy psych group was beginning to feel ominous. No need to worry: Alia O'Brien, Sean Kennedy, and the reliable rhythm section of Gadke and Carrillo are back. If Blood Ceremony have dialled back the quantity of releases lately, at least they are making sure the quality is top notch, with this occult rock tour de force as usual combining a solid heavy psych underpinning with O'Brien's distinctive presence on vocals, flute, and organ, delivering a defiant folk horror manifesto. Unless you are one of those for whom Blood Ceremony lost their charm when they dialled back the doom metal side of their sound in order to amp up the psych, there's plenty to love here for anyone who's already familiar, and if you're not it's a perfect statement of what thry are all about.

Warthur The Theory of Molecular Inheritance is the first Arena album to feature Damian Wilson on vocals, a matchup which fits so elegantly that it feels obvious in retrospect that Wilson is the perfect man for the job. After all, even before his stints in British prog metal stalwarts Threshold and his guest spots in Arena solidified his prog metal credentials, Wilson was the lead vocalist for 1990s neo-proggers Landmarq. Since Arena are very much in a neo-prog vein, but work in the odd metal influence here and there, Wilson already has a well-established grounding in both aspects of their sound, and he's able to tackle the dramatic, theatrical style that Arena's concepts call for brilliantly.

The musical backing here is squarely in the metal-tinged neo-prog style the band have been offering up since Contagion, but it's Wilson's exceptional vocals which really push this over the finish line, making it perhaps the grandest album Arena have ever offered up. The sheer compatibility of the band's established approach and Wilson's well-honed talents shines through, and it's enough to make you want to hear Wilson's renditions of other Arena tracks as well, since I can't think of a single song in their back catalogue which would not become even more compelling with him on the mic.

Warthur The debut album from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, opening with the immediately gripping Sleep Is Wrong, is the shocking answer to the question nobody thought to ask: "What if a band took its inspiration from the most horrifying moments of Mr. Bungle, then crammed in a bunch of influence from Rock In Opposition/avant-prog groups like Univers Zero or Thinking Plague at their most dark?" With Carla Kihlstedt's enigmatic violin work adding an extra dose of tension and widening the sonic palette, and the rest of the group splitting their duties between more conventional rock instrumentation and more esoteric instruments, this is certainly highly varied in sound, but a keen appreciation for their musical influences shines through and makes sure that whilst their approach is highly unusual, there's clearly a distinctive aesthetic vision involved and they're not just making random noise. Grand stuff indeed; their other two albums of the 2000s were great too, but they're clearly building on the foundations already laid by this album. Here is where their truly groundbreaking work took place.

Warthur A Tab In the Ocean sees Nektar incorporate a few symphonic elements into their space rock model, particularly in the synthesiser work on the title track. It also has some fascinating studio effects, such as the strange echo effect on the vocals to King of Twilight. Although this combination of symphonic-influenced compositional practices and studio magic would, in my opinion, come to fruition fully only on the masterful Recycled, this is still a great early prog album which proves that in 1972 Nektar could stand proud next to the likes of Genesis and Gentle Giant. A very well-earned four and a half stars for that Tab in that there Ocean.

Warthur Pink Floyd's space rock sound was a real highlight of the late 1960s and early 1970s prog scene, but they never really produced a full album consisting of nothing but full-on space rock from beginning to end - unless you count the live side of Ummagumma, that is. Enter Nektar, who with their debut album staked their claim as being the heirs to Floydian space rock just as PF themselves were moving to a different phase of their career with Meddle.

The album has all the wailing guitars, spooky synths, and shimmering percussion you'd expect from Saucerful of Secrets-era Floyd, but with a conceptual structure that's tighter and more coherent than any of Pink Floyd's pre-Dark Side of the Moon albums. Nektar's entrance to the scene may owe a little to their inspirations, but it's still one hell of a start. And the band make it into a monster, by all pulling together as a team...

Warthur It's probably fair to say that Savatage hadn't quite developed the sound they are known for - power metal with progressive sensibilities - at the time they recorded their debut album. This and the Dungeons Are Calling EP were recorded in the same sessions, the band having been given an opportunity to get a few precious days of studio time in and deciding to get as much material on tape as they could without half-assing things to an unacceptable extent.

What you get here is fairly straightforward trad metal, with some notes of the fantastical and perhaps a pinch of NWOBHM influence to add spice. It's... fine. Really, it's not bad. The problem is that it rarely if ever rises above that standard; if you've heard much traditional heavy metal, you've heard a lot of stuff that sounds like this, and can probably name a dozen albums which give you more pleasure than this one at that - some of those may even be by Savatage.

In short, this is comprehensively OK-to-good, but there's little sign of what Savatage would become given time.

Warthur Another album in Arena’s now-customary style, offering up more theatrical neo-prog with an uncanny atmosphere. Clive Nolan’s sensibilities as a songwriter are once again let loose, and whilst for the most part the general approach of recent albums by them still applies, they do throw in The Legend of Elijah Shade at the end - a 22 minute epic and a mini-musical in its own right. The section titles (Veritas/I Am Here/Saevi Manes/It Lies/Tenebrae/Omens/Redemption) spell out “VISITOR” and some other lyrical nods suggest a semi-sequel (or prequel?) to that album, whilst in terms of size it's the first time the band have turned out an epic track (as opposed to weaving together individual tracks) since Moviedrome on Immortal? - so old-school Arena fans will no doubt rejoice, but at the same time the track is strong enough to avoid being a mere exercise in length for its own sake.

Warthur A concept album based on the classic M.R. James ghost story Casting the Runes, Arena's The Unquiet Sky might have a uniquely terrible album cover - seriously, it looks like something out of that era in the 2000s when bands kept trying to do CGI album covers but cheaped out on the rendering - but it's a rather grand little album, perhaps the group's best outing since Contagion or The Visitor. It's certainly prioritising the theatrical over the experimental, but there's always been a strand of prog that's done that - especially in the neo-prog subgenre - and it's certainly a stirringly emotive set of tunes which lean a bit harder into the heavier side of the band's sound.

Warthur Paul Manzi makes an immediate splash as Arena's newly-minted lead singer on this album, opening as it does with a chilling unaccompanied vocal from him before the rest of the band comes crashing in on The Great Escape. It's a moment which sends chills up the spine and immediately makes him stand out, and whilst the musical accompaniment might be comparatively simple - it's fairly straight ahead neo-prog from the more melodic rock, less progressive side of the aisle, with some heavier sounds present - it does provide a compelling spotlight for Manzi's emotive, theatrical vocal style.

From Rapture onwards, a somewhat more varied sound creeps in, the band spreading their wings a touch more and bringing back more of their progressive influences now that Manzi has been given a big spotlight moment to introduce him. John Mitchell's guitar work keeps things heavy, Mick Pointer on drums is joined by John Jowitt on bass to reunite the rhythm section of Pride and The Visitor, and Clive Nolan's keyboard work takes in sound ranging from the 1980s heyday of neo-prog to more modern sounds which help keep things fresh. As is often the case with Arena, this isn't absolutely top-tier classic neo-prog stuff, but it's certainly an entertaining exercise in the genre and worth a listen unless you outright dislike the style.

Warthur The explosion of creativity let off when Vincent Crane and Arthur Brown pooled their creative talents didn't leave behind much when it blew over, but this single album is one of the best of both their careers. Wild, uncontrolled, alternatingly crooning and shrieking, putting the listener in mind of both a terrified sinner and the very devil himself... and that's just Crane's organ, though Arthur's vocal performance is just as good. With side one being a theologically-themed epic on the subject of damnation and side two being a fine set of Brown/Crane originals and finely picked soul covers (when was the last time you heard a James Brown track on a prog album?), the album's unique fusion of Brown's deranged-yet-philosophical lyrics and Crane's dark organ work would never be matched.

Warthur The first Darkspace demo - originally released in 2002 as a download, later rereleased in a rerecorded version in 2012 - is an apt manifesto for the band's distinctive style. Atmospheric black metal skirting the borderlands of ambient? Check. A chilly atmosphere that goes beyond the snowy landscapes of Paysage d'Hiver into the vacuum of deep space itself? Check. Ominous samples worked deep into the mix? Check. They'd further polish and refine their style over time, but it's clear that they already had the broad outline of their distinctive, innovative sound well-established straight out of the gate, yielding a compelling prelude to their more polished works.

Warthur Who'd have thought that twelve albums deep and with Glynn Morgan back on lead vocals Threshold would have dropped perhaps their magnum opus? The band describe this as taking the sound of Legends of the Shires in a darker direction, and that's certainly accurate, with Richard West's keyboards taking on a chilly, almost cyberpunk quality to them and the lighter power metal influences on the prior album are dialled back, yielding an album which is both one of their proggiest and one of their heaviest (even working in the odd bit of harsh vocals more effectively than any of their previous brief experiments with such). The lyrical focuses of the band from their earliest years have never been more relevant than they are here in the 2020s, and they take aim at them here with pinpoint accuracy, yielding one of the angriest and most relevant albums Threshold have ever put out.

Warthur Powerwolf's Sacrament of Sin finds the gradual dialling up of the symphonic influences on their music suddenly spiking, creating a style of bombastic church organ symphonic power metal which is exactly as ridiculous as their "priests and choirboys by day, werewolves and vampires by night" gimmick merits. Powerwolf are a pure fun band by this point (and indeed arguably they weren't ever anything else), but there's a sheer turn-it-up-to-11 bombast here which you kind of have to respect. So long as they can keep cranking that dial up bit by bit and still produce something which sounds fun and energetic, Powerwolf will have my attention.

Warthur Legends of the Shires sees Glynn Morgan return to the post of lead singer of Threshold, having only appeared on Psychedelicatessen (and its associated live album Livedelica) previously. Eight albums later - one with Damian Wilson on lead vocals, five with Andrew "Mac" McDermott, and two more with a returning Damian Wilson - Morgan stepped back in to perform a cunning dual replacement, taking over for Wilson on vocals and from Pete Morten on rhythm guitar.

This means that in principle Threshold has a somewhat slimmed-down lineup on this one, making do with five members where usually they have six. The main past precedent is Dead Reckoning, where Karl Groom took on rhythm guitar along with all of his other duties, but this arrangement seems to work better. In terms of vocals, Morgan seems to be a bit less generic than he was on Psychedelicatessen - he'd already improved somewhat on Livedelica, and it seems like he hasn't been a slouch since.

On a musical level, the album finds Threshold updating their sound via mild borrowings from Muse and the world of power metal; they're still staying squarely in the particular melodic prog metal territory they've staked out for themselves, but they've enriched its sound nicely, with some of the nicest production work I've ever heard on a Threshold release. (And that's saying something given that Karl Groom is no slouch as a producer, being the head honcho at Thin Ice Studios in his side gig.)

Threshold tend to evolve their sound rather than revolutionising it, but this is one of the bigger evolutionary steps - as significant of one as, say, Hypothetical. And whilst this is the band's first double studio albums, this is no dive into quantity over quality - it's this long because they had enough album-worthy material to deploy. It's a true gem of their discography, and when bands are turning out some of their best work this deep into their career, that's a sign of true tenacity.

Warthur Damian Wilson returned to Threshold to do them a solid - after their previous singer, Andrew "Mac" McDermott left abruptly after the completion of the Dead Reckoing album, they needed someone to take up the microphone for their upcoming tour, and with Wilson having been the singer on their debut, Wounded Land, and their third album, Extinct Instinct, bringing him onboard made total sense.

At the same time, after two more studio albums he parted ways with them again - but at least on this go around he was able to record a really top flight live album with them. Unless there's tapes from old gigs from the Wounded Land or Extinct Instinct days sat in the Threshold archives somewhere, this is essentially the only way we're going to hear a live setlist from the band with Wilson fronting, and it's a damn good thing we did.

With For the Journey being a bit of a lukewarm release by Threshold's often high standards, it's good to hear material from it given more life here, and the band also give a good airing to material from March of Progress and a cross section of the Mac-era albums, giving Wilson a chance to demonstrate his emotive, borderline theatrical style of vocals.

If there's one thing which is a bit of a shame about this release, it's that there's only one song here from Extinct Instinct (Part of the Chaos), and absolutely nothing from Wounded Land - so I think it would still be worth Threshold's while poking about their old tapes to see if there's any live material from the early days they can release, because not having any live cuts with Wilson on vocals from their debut feels like a bit of a gap.

Still, given the high standards the band have maintained over the years, it's understandable why early albums would get crowded out of the setlist, and that old material did at least appear on other live albums fronted by other vocalists. By comparison, much of the material here wasn't on prior live albums (the band having not put out a major live release since Surface To Stage). If this must be the end of Damian Wilson's story with Threshold, then it certainly leaves him with a track record of the group he can be enduringly proud of.

Warthur Threshold's final studio album with Damian Wilson to date is another competent slice of melodic prog metal of the sort we're well-used to getting from the band. Indeed, that's kind of the issue - the band really feel like they are going through the motions a bit here, perhaps entering the studio a bit too soon after March of Progress before they had cooked up a solid slate of material (recent studio albums have tended to have longer gaps between them, after all). Wilson's vocals seem to take on a bit of influence from Peter Nicholls from IQ, but otherwise this is much the same as we've had from them. It's good, don't get me wrong, but little of it actually stands out beyond the powerful opening track Watchtower On the Moon.

Warthur Blessed and Possessed finds Powerwolf leaning into the cheesier side of their sound even more - more choirs, more bombast, and more power metal in that cheesy Rhapsody/Gloryhammer vein. It's another sidestep away from their trad-metal roots, but after several albums which worked more or less the same formula evolving their sound a little was the right call, and pushing further into the distinctive aspects of their sound rather than retreating to their trad metal roots was likewise probably the sensible way to jump. If you are not amenable to their schtick, this isn't the album to win you around, but given the scarcity of power metal bands delving into darker themes, at least their gimmicks offers a novel twist on this particular sound.

Warthur How many times can Powerwolf repeat the same basic idea of heretical werewolves posing as Catholic faithful by day and unleashing Satanic mayhem by night? Well, if Preachers of the Night is anything to go by, the answer to that one is "at least five times". This doesn't represent any radical shift in direction from the preceding Blood of the Saints, but it does present a further refinement and a continued blending of operatic and symphonic touches into a solid power metal bedrock, dialling up the use of the choir appreciably to better give the sense of church music hijacked to Hellish ends.

Warthur OK, let's address the elephant in the room: this was Andrew "Mac" McDermott's final album with Threshold. With five studio albums under his belt at lead vocalist, he set a record in the role that still hasn't been beat (Damian Wilson was on four but then left again, and Glynn Morgan is on three at the moment). And unfortunately, there will never be another Threshold studio album with mac on lead vocals - because he died tragically young in 2011, after an illness which so far as is known was a total shock to his former bandmates, adding grim irony to the title of this album.

Mac made no secret about his reasons for leaving: the statement he released at the time stated plainly that his work with Threshold just wasn't paying the bills, to the point where his girlfriend was having to work overtime so that he could afford to go on tour with them, and he was fed up of having no money and passing up better-paying opportunities due to the demands of being the Threshold frontman. This may seem shocking to some, but we should all remember that not all the musical acts out there earn masses of money - especially in niche genres like progressive metal. Sure, the other members seem able to make ends meet, but how many of them have been able to supplement that with side hustles, like Karl Groom's work as a producer at his Thin Ice Studios facility?

One has to wonder whether Dead Reckoning might itself be the product of Mac (and maybe other members of the band) feeling something of a pinch, because it feels like an attempt to steer the band's sound a bit away from the "prog" side of their sound and a bit more towards a more conventional "metal" approach. It's not a complete reconfiguration, mind - Pilot In the Sky of Dreams, in particular, is as prog metal a workout as they've ever done, and the guitar solo at the close of One Degree Down sounds an awful lot like a tribute to The Black Knight by Groom's pals in Pendragon.

Still, there's heavier riffs and a few harsh vocals this time around, when previously they'd consistently been a clean vocals band, and in general an air of a band in transition, perhaps not altogether sure of where they are going. Dead Reckoning is, after all, a term from navigation - perhaps the band not too subtly signalling that Threshold were dabbling with changes of direction here.

It's frequently been the case that I've tried out a Threshold album I've not heard before, not been too sure about it early on, but found that it's won me over the span of it - aside from Hypothetical and Subsurface, their album openers generally don't grab me. The effect is stronger than ever here, with opening numbers Slipstream and This Is Your Life doing little for me and the album only really beginning to click for me from Elusive onwards. The back part of the album makes up for the shaky start, however, though equally I find that Mac's vocals here are comparatively unmemorable set next to his excellent work on the run from Hypothetical to Subsurface, lacking the passion he'd proved himself capable of previously.

Warthur Largely continues the approach of Bible of the Beast, with perhaps a pinch more influence from symphonic metal - take, for instance, the operatic approach of Ira Sancti (When the Saints Are Going Wild), where the lyrics (interspersed with a Romanian translation of the Lord's Prayer) take on a chant-like tenor in Attila Dorn's delivery as the band make as big of a sound as they can muster without actually calling on the services of an orchestra. (In this case, the keyboards of Falk Maria Schlegel perform a particularly important job in adding that little extra bit of texture.) I think I prefer Bible of the Beast to this one, but this isn't much worse than that - it's just a bit more of the same.

Warthur This live album from Threshold captures them on the Subsurface tour, and it's a sign of how strong an album that is that some six of its nine songs get renditions here. As for the rest of the track listing, that varies a little between editions; more recent rereleases have restored some songs to the running order previously left out to fit this onto one CD, but those tracks all have versions with Mac on vocals on prior live releases so the omission on earlier editions is no great crime. Naturally, the run of albums from Hypothetical to Subsurface is best-represented, but there's at least one nice throwback to the Giant Electric Pea days with Into the Light from Psychedelicatessen getting a great little runthrough.

Mac would leave Threshold shortly after the release of their next album, Dead Reckoning, and would die in 2011 at a shockingly young age, making this to date the last live release from Threshold to feature him (and unless something gets dredged up from the archives unexpectedly, that seems unlikely to change). Here, his deft command of the live context and rapport with the audience is fully on display.

Warthur Cast your mind back to 2004: the dreadful folly of the Iraq War was in full swing and increasingly it was becoming obvious that the case for the invasion had been built on a manifestly false premise. The broader War On Terror gave the sense of becoming a forever war which could never achieve its purported ends, and may have never really been about accomplishing them in the first place. Politically interested forces were trying to play down or outright deny the impact of pollution on the environment, and the far right was on the march in Europe and North America. The more things change, right?

Threshold's Subsurface begins with Mission Profile - a full throated critique of the absolutist rhetoric around the War On Terror lyrically, bound to an engaging melodic prog metal musical backing instrumentally speaking. Steve Anderson has replaced Jon Jeary on bass, but otherwise the lineup is much as it's been since Hypothetical; what's shifted is an extra dose of political anger in the lyrical themes of the album, and if that puts your back up because it comes from a side of the aisle you passionately disagree with, fair enough, but for my money not only are the band saying a lot of what I was thinking in 2004, they're also saying a lot of what I'm thinking now.

Given how often political subject matter in art can become dated, that's partially an indictment of the state of the world, partially a credit to Threshold's ability to create material inspired by a particular moment in time but not so bound to it as to lose relevance with the passage of years.

Warthur The third Powerwolf album finds their aesthetic, style, and band mythology appreciably coalescing. The idea now is fairly clear: the band are telling the legends of a heretical sect of werewolves who are Catholics by day, Satanists by night, and so are caught up in the interior conflict between their natures. It's pretty standard gothic horror stuff, bound up in a power metal style which draws significantly from traditional metal and has smatterings of symphonic metal musically whilst delving into black metal topics (in an early Mercyful Fate/King Diamond metal opera sort of way) lyrically. Is it very silly? Yes it is. Is it awesome? Yes, yes it most certainly is.

Warthur Whereas Threshold's live releases prior to this had been tight single-disc affairs (Livedelica was only 40-odd minutes long, and came from a tour which saw them as a support act), this two-disc live album offers a complete set from the Critical Mass tour, and was the most expansive live release the band had put out at the time. All of their prior studio albums are featured on the setlist, though of course Critical Mass and Hypothetical are well-represented; it's a particular pleasure to hear some cuts from Extinct Instinct on here, since I thought that was the best of the albums they put out when they were on Giant Electric Pea and no prior live release from them used material from that.

There's a strong slate of songs represented here, and Threshold give them excellent renditions here, so the only really question mark is whether nearly two hours of Threshold is too much for one listening session - but I'd say it's just right, the band selecting a setlist which stays energetic whilst taking in the entire scope of their sound. Brilliant stuff.

Warthur Having had something of a breakthrough on their previous album, Hypothetical, Critical Mass establishes another landmark for Threshold: six studio albums deep into their career, they've finally managed to put out a release where the band lineup was the same as on the previous album. It's a moment of stability which wouldn't last - Jon Jeary would depart after this, replaced on bass by Steve Anderson - but the days of the Threshold lineup being in near-constant flux were well in the past here. Mac's vocals, in particular, are really coming into their own.

Musically speaking, the band don't simply turn in Hypothetical Part 2: instead, to my ears it seems that they shift their sonic balance a little, offering more touches of the Marillion-influenced neo-prog which had always been part of their sound (it's the "prog" component in their "prog metal" blend), with more gentle moments sitting beside the explosive melodic metal material here than had previously been the case.

Once again, it's an album I take a while to ease into - really, one thing which seems to be regular with Threshold's studio albums is that they don't necessarily start out strong, with Hypothetical really being the only one prior to this to avoid that. Still, if you give the album a chance and show patience, it shows another side of Threshold which was always somewhat present, but had never been showcased to this extent prior to this.

Warthur Originally released via their fan club, Threshold's Concert In Paris is a bit more substantial than their previous live release, Livedelica, weighing in at nearly 54 minutes (Livedelica barely broke 40). As you might expect from a 2001 show, the focus is very much on material from Hypothetical and Clone, though a few cuts from Psychedelicatessen and Wounded Land creep in (leaving Extinct Instinct curiously unrepresented).

The renditions here are, by and large, pretty excellent. Good material shines in the live context; weak material, like Change, has been refined and improved and benefits from a bit more grit. Light and Space turns out to be just as great in a live context as in the studio, and it's no surprise it became as much a cornerstone of Threshold's life repertoire as Paradox had previously.

Paradox is the only overlap here with Livedelica - and of course on that you didn't have Mac on vocals or Johanne on drums, making the rendition here worthwhile in its own right. Likewise, it only has Light and Space, Long Way Home, and Paradox in common with the subsequent Critical Energy release. As such, despite not being as expansive as the latter, it is still a live document of early 2000s Threshold which carves out its own space in the discography, and it also shows the band improving on the already solid live presentation showcased on Livedelica.

Warthur Hypothetical by Threshold is a landmark album for the band for several reasons. One is that it's the first time they ever had the same vocalist stick around for two consecutive studio albums, Andrew "Mac" McDermott having joined for Clone, and whilst I thought Mac hadn't yet eased into his role on that album I think he really stepped up his game here, dialling up the emotion considerably.

The other watershed moment is that this is the first studio album to feature Johanne James. Whilst prior to this Threshold had enjoyed a revolving cast of drummers to a similar degree as their vocalists, Johanne has stuck with the band to the present, and it's clear from here that he clicked with them right from the get-go. James had in fact filled in the drum stool position on the Extinct Instinct tour, sitting out the Clone sessions but becoming the band's official full-time drummer soon after that release, with the result that he'd had some years by this point to cement his position and really gel with the rest of the group, and on this album in general - and opening track Light And Space in particular - the material really showcases his abilities.

It's the combination of a vocalist and drummer being able to actually settle into the role long-term whilst the rest of the group continued to hone their own craft which helps push the band's sound to the next level on Hypothetical - and it's certainly timely, given the broader distribution and higher profile they received once graduating from Giant Eletric Pea (on which they'd released their previous albums) to InsideOut.

Warthur Clone is a significant landmark in the Threshold discography for two reasons: it's the last studio album they put out on Giant Electric Pea, the small neoprog-focused label they started out on, and it's the first one to feature the vocals of Andrew "Mac" McDermott, who counting this one would fill the role for five studio albums - more than any other lead vocalist they've had, at least the time I'm writing this.

So, how is he? Well, here he feels a touch more generic than Damian Wilson, but then again I thought the same of Glynn Morgan on Psychedelicatessen and then discovered he was able to get more into the swing of things on the live release Livedelica, so perhaps after this Mac would spread his wings a bit more. He's certainly competent at his craft, but as with Psychedelicatessen this is a case where you have a vocalist who is acceptable but not exceptional performing over a musical backing which, by and large, is more interesting.

Then again, like I said when I reviewed Psychedelicatessen, this is prog metal - a field which can sustain that sort of approach if the material's good enough. By and large it is, with a futuristic theme based around concerns about genetic engineering (and, perhaps more on point, concerns about whether such technology would be responsibly be used in the lassaiz-faire corporate environment of modern capitalism), supported by a darkly compelling musical backing. I found myself warming to Mac's voice by the end of Clone more than I'd warmed to Morgan's vocals on Psychedelicatessen - like I said, it took Livedelica to sell me on him - and he has some of his finest moments towards the end on tracks like Voyager II.

As with all Threshold's early albums, it takes me a while to ease into this one; I also think Change is a fairly weak song which the album would be significantly tighter without. That's a shame, because I think that other than that the album finds them continuing to refine their approach. After this, they'd shift from Giant Electric Pea to InsideOut, following in the footsteps of other acts who got sufficient traction on GEP to move over to InsideOut in order to benefit from the larger label's broader distribution network and more active marketing. Threshold were here on the threshold of the big time - which means it's good that they took this moment to take stock and give their sound a last tune-up to make it ready for prime time.

Warthur The third Threshold studio album sees Damian Wilson return briefly on vocals, where he shows no sign of rust (having kept busy with Landmarq in the meantime) and lends his emotive style which was such an asset on the band's debut album, Wounded Land. Musically speaking this is of a piece with the band's other first two albums, the band further honing their craft in their chosen brand of prog metal with neo-prog influences rather than significantly evolving their sound at this stage, and whilst theirs might not be the most technically flashy brand of neo-prog out there, it manages to convey such a compelling, emotionally turbulent atmosphere that it grips you to the end. If you like any of their other early works, you'll find much to enjoy here.

Warthur This live release - originally put out as a standalone before being collected on recent 2CD editions of Psychedelicatessen - captures Threshold in the midst of a European tour in early 1995. There's only five tracks here, drawn from their first two albums, but given that this is prog metal you do still get a decent amount of music; the running time is a shade over 41 minutes, and given that they were in a support slot for the shows in question this is probably an accurate representation of what you'd have got at those shows.

Glynn Morgan is on vocals here - he was about to depart again, prompting a brief return for Damian Wilson - but to my ears he seems to have improved notably. Don't get me wrong, his vocals on Psychedelicatessen were fine, but they were only fine - they were perfectly acceptable generic vocals which didn't seem to have much in the way of distinctive character. He's a bit less stiff here, and that's to the benefit both of his performance and to the music as a whole - I can better understand what the band saw in him at the time, and why they'd welcome him back to the fold more recently. After this, he'd depart to form Mindfeed, and I can see why he'd opt to take a bet on himself on the strength of his work here.

As for the band themselves, they're giving the songs here an energetic workthrough which really showcases their capabilities in a live context. Jay Micciche's drumming is a bit uninspiring - Jay would leave to join Mindfeed after this - but perhaps that's inevitable given that Threshold seemed to have trouble finding a drummer who really gelled with the group in their early years. (To give you an idea, Johanne James has been the group's drummer for every release since Hypothetical in 2001; prior to him they had four different drummers, only one of whom actually appeared on two consecutive studio releases!) One could easily chalk up Micciche's playing to needing to catch up with a complex back catalogue of material in a hurry after the departure of Nick Harradence, so I don't mean any great criticism of Micciche by this, and it's certainly not enough to stop this being a compelling live release.

Warthur The second Threshold album is the sole studio album the group would release during Glynn Morgan's original run as their lead vocalist. He's returned more recently and has been back on lead vocals from Legends of the Shires onwards; I've yet to hear the band's most recent albums, so I don't know how he's evolved since here, but it has to be said that he feels just a touch more generic than Wilson's distinctive, emotive vocal style from the band's debut album.

Fortunately, the band's musical evolution has continued apace since their debut, with the result that what you get here is an acceptable but not especially spectacular vocalist performing against an absolutely killer musical backing. In a prog metal context, that's a combination you can absolutely work with, as the band do here. Perhaps less of a breakthrough than their first album, this is still a solid release which sees them avoiding the dreaded second album slump.

Warthur Threshold had been chugging away for some five years by the time they produced this debut album. Founder and key member Karl Groom had founded his Thin Ice Studios in the meantime, which became a reasonably successful recording venue which gained particular traction in the neo-prog scene, but perhaps wisely Threshold didn't unduly rush to make use of this resource. By the time Karl Groom's connections had managed to land them a deal with the small Giant Electric Pea label - originally established by neo-prog band IQ to handle their own releases - it's clear that Threshold had workshopped their material a high degree and could present a debut in which they were confident in their sound.

That style here focuses on melodic metal with progressive touches and recording sensibilities, buoyed by the emotive vocals of Damian Wilson, whose band Landmarq had been one of those using Thin Ice Studios. There's a darkness to it reminiscent of the harder-edged 1980s thrash metal, but rather than taking on the tone of an angry protest, instead the atmosphere is more of a mournful warning, owing to the ecological concerns that inform the lyrics - something which has only become more relevant over time. (That's not the only place where they're right on the money - Siege of Baghdad was composed about the 1990s Gulf War, but could also be read as a warning about the Iraq War of the 2000s and the incessant chaos that has resulted from it.)

With Dream Theater's sound being so widely influential in progressive metal (especially in those sections of the scene which don't incorporate extreme metal influences), it's refreshing to hear a band who clearly are drawing inspiration from the same well but whose sound is distinct and clearly their own - Threshold having come together and developed this material whilst Dream Theater were still one band among many and hadn't yet conquered the scene. Threshold's more subdued, subtle approach isn't as immediately gripping or as technically flashy as Dream Theater, but it grows on you over the span of this album, making it well worth repeated listens. It's certainly a very promising start for the group, who'd clearly honed their craft to a fine degree even at this stage.

Warthur The second Powerwolf album is an evolution of their sound rather than a revolution; it's still recognisably the product of the same general ethos as their debut, but the centre of gravity has shifted from traditional heavy metal towards power metal (whilst still having a few light the gothic and symphonic touches here and there and a Satanic bent to the lyrics reminiscent of black metal). The "heretical werewolves masquerading as Catholic priests" angle gets dialled up a bit here, and would be the aesthetic aspect which got focused on more and more as the band's discography progressed, but in terms of the music this is simply some solid European power metal with strong trad-metal aspects.

Warthur The debut album by Powerwolf finds the gang staking out their territory. Over the years they've taken a lot of inspiration from a range of styles - black metal corpsepaint and lyrical focuses (largely based around a band mythology around Satanic werewolves subverting Catholic imagery), and gothic and symphonic flourishes around the fringes of their sound. But whereas their centre of gravity over time has moved into the realm of power metal, this debut sees them demonstrate a solid grasp of the fundamentals of straight-ahead heavy metal. Perhaps some of their later capacity for genre-blending arises in part from a thorough understanding on the common ground between the different metal traditions they weave together - as it stands, the album is solidly entertaining, albeit nothing metal fans won't have heard a lot of before.

Warthur The Incident had a somewhat mixed reception as far as Porcupine Tree albums go, and heralded the start of the hiatus which was only alleviated just recently with the release of Closure/Continuation. Octane Twisted, then, is one of the last documents of the pre-hiatus version of Porcupine Tree, hailing as it does from the Incident tour and leading off with the 55-minute song cycle which formed the first CD of that album in initial versions. (More recent rereleases take the less wasteful and more economical approach of putting all the songs on one CD - for they will fit.)

As it stands, I think I faintly prefer this live rendition of the epic to the version on the album - it feels a bit looser, more organic, the band a little more comfortable with the direction it represents. Following this up with a nicely selected clutch of tracks from across the Porcupine Tree back catalogue, Octane Twisted is about as good a presentation as this material had.

Nonetheless, I don't find it as compelling as, say, the live albums from the Fear of a Blank Planet period, the band feeling perhaps a touch tired at this point - suggesting that the hiatus was, perhaps, a creatively necessary and inevitable thing at this point. It's also hard to deny that things perk up a bit on the second half; The Incident has its merits, but it still feels like it wasn't quite the album it could be, that something was a little askew in the process which prevented it from hitting the standards of preceding albums.

Warthur This release captures a compelling live performance from Opeth, hailing from right towards the tail end of their metal era; Watershed had been out for nearly two years when this April 2010 concert were recorded, and the band were still some months away from entering the studio to record Heritage, heralding their stylistic shift from prog metal to a more purely prog-based approach.

In this case, the results are excellent. The band are working with songs which have had extensive road testing. Moreover, the format of the concert makes this an apt tribute to Opeth's past before they moved on to a significantly transformed future - for the concert is divided into a first act in which the entire Blackwater Park album is performed, and a second act in which the band pick out and play one song from each other their other studio albums to date in chronological order.

Blackwater Park is, of course, a stone cold classic - an album where the band's prog influences and death metal roots achieved a seamless fusion, carrying enough of their past to be an appropriate album to focus on for this journey through their career whilst also exhibiting enough of their innovations to suggest the seeds of future developments. The second half of the set allows the band to take us on a whistle-stop tour of their musical evolution, and the "one song per album" approach allows them to showcase the absolute cream of the crop, with the band erring towards epic pieces to perhaps give each album a fairly expansive showcase. (All of the songs in the second half are over ten minutes long except Hope Leaves from Damnation - and none of the songs there hit the ten minute mark.)

With the recording of Heritage a few months after this concert, an entire new chapter of Opeth's existence would begin - but this concert is an excellent summation of their previous incarnation, and will be of interest to all Opeth fans.

Warthur Porcupine Tree's live performances in the wake of Fear of a Blank Planet are pretty well-documented - as well as this live release you also have live albums like Atlanta, Ilosaarirock, and We Lost the Skyline from this era - but Anesthetize deserves to stand head and shoulders above all but Atlanta, which is close to the same standard but a mite shorter. Released both as audio and as a DVD of the performance, it's a stunning performance which sees them offering a host of compelling tracks from what at this point was a very rich repertoire indeed. After this would come the Incident and then the hiatus, but for my money this perhaps represents the peak of what Porcupine Tree were doing in the 2000s.

Warthur This live album is, perhaps, Ministry's finest moment. Leaning harder on the metallic side of their sound and veering further away from electronics, it consists of a short, angry blast of aggression using some of the post powerful and visceral songs selected from The Land of Rape and Honey and The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste. It's a compact set offering everything which was thrilling and cutting edge about Ministry back at the dawn of the 1990s, drawn from some of their best albums, and the live context adds a little extra dose of fury which never quite translated into their studio albums of the era. Brilliant.

Warthur This one's a bit of an oddity. Released as part of the promotional work preceding the release of Heritage, the title track is one of the studio cuts form that album, which saw Opeth take a hard turn away from their metal roots into more purist prog territory. However, by far the bulk of the material - and what most Opeth fans will be interested in - is their live appearance from 2009's Rock Hard festival, which would have been in the wake of the release of Watershed. As a result, you get a quick preview of what is essentially a whole new style for the band (though The Devil's Orchard is one of the more energetic tracks on Heritage) followed by a festival set played in the style they were about to shift away from.

I suspect a good many Opeth fans who track this one down will find themselves simply skipping the opening track most of the time - not because of any problem with its quality, but simply because if you're an Opeth fan who likes their post-Heritage direction, you already have Heritage, and if you aren't this ain't going to sell you on it, and regardless of which type of fan you are you're really here for the festival set, not the studio album track you probably already have heard on the album itself. Still, it's worth a listen, particularly to hear the band interpret some of their metal works live at the point when they had taken that direction of their sound about as far as it would go.

Warthur Recorded on the Fear of a Blank Planet tour, this show from (as the title implies) Atlanta was one of several considered for a live release, before the band eventually settled on the show from Holland to form the basis of the Anesthetize live album and blu-ray.

Eventually, Atlanta would see release on a download basis (initially to raise some money to help Japan bassist Mick Karn's family during his final illness), and whilst its set list has much in common with Anesthetize, the atmosphere here is so absolutely electric that many Porcupine Tree fanatics will want to have both shows to hand, and the slightly shorter track list makes the thing more digestible to boot.

This is absolutely the sort of thing you could put on to instantly hook a curious listener on the late 2000s sound of Porcupine Tree, with an excellent group of songs drawing heavily on In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet, with a pinch from Nil Recurring and some archival dives into Stupid Dream and Signify to round out the running time.

By this point, Porcupine Tree had honed their sound wonderfully, intensive gigging having refined the Blank Planet material to perfection. Whilst prior phases of the band could be pigeonholed as space rock or indie-prog, here the group were in a sonic realm all of their own, following no bandwagon or genre and guided only by their own inspiration. The result is marvellous.