WOUNDED LAND

It's pity this personal and original band has not the position it deserve in Prog Metal history... Ok, they are well known, and a lot of people know about their quality. But in my opinion, and having only heard Wounded Land from them, I must say they should be beside Dream Theater, Queensrÿche or Opeth like one of the most influential and important bands in the prog-metal subgenre.

Wounded Land has a clear direction, a really well represented style... The sound of the album is homegene, all the tracks are made in a similar way. But it doesn't mean this album is boring or repetitive... Every track deserves close attention!

This is not metal in the proper sense of the word. It's maybe hard rock with some progressive elements, like prominent keyboards and complex structures. The longer tracks are progressive (Sanity's End, Consume to Live...) while the shorter ones (Mother Earth, Days of Dearth...) are just brilliant hard rock pieces. The sound is a bit in the 80's way, being maybe the Richard West's keyboards the retro element of the music... But I really love this Marillionesque sense of the keys mixed with the Karl Groom and Nick Midson's hard riffs! Some fragments of songs like Paradox and Surface to Air sound Neo-Progressive to me...

Another great fact of the album is the Damian Wilson's voice... This man is a SINGER! And I must say it really clear: his voice is unique, original... This man has something not easy to find in a frontman: personality, originality, quality and feeling... This man really rules on vocals! You only have to hear Mother Earth no notice it...

Best Songs: Consume to Live (marvellous opening, with an outstanding final part... This track shows the way the album will follow: quality, complexity and good feeling), Sanity's End (my absolute favourite of the album: great keyboard introduction, marvellous vocal melodies, really well made central part, catchy chorus... A classic!), Surface to Air (I love the guitar opening melodies, and the chorus's explosion... The second half of the song is the most progressive part of the album) and Mother Earth (Damian Wilson rules here... Great riffing for another brilliant track!)

Conclusion: after hearing Wounded Land many times, I'm sure I will buy more Threshold's albums... I'm really addicted to this kind of Neo-Hard Rock-Progressive Metal! If you like hard riffing, great singing with marvellous vocal melodies, intrincated keyboards and guitar parts... But with the accesibility and feeling that other bands lost in their seek for something progressive and originial, Wounded Land is your album. They made this mixture between progressive structures with catchy melodies in a really natural way... Strongly recommended!

My Rating: ****

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