LEGENDS OF THE SHIRES

Do you like the sonic crunch of metal, but also have a soft spot for sugary pop? And, being a middle-aged man, miss the 80s? Legends of the Shires are for you. A double album that is just a little over a single album, it features probably the band's most bombastic sound to date, and delivers the familiar Threshold goodies: catchy rockers, power ballads, song-within-a-song power metalesque rifforama/Pink Floyd hybrids and a more neo-proggish epics - all with epic melodies and pretentious lyrics about a man's struggles in life (but seriously, those are of a high enough quality level for a genre where lyrics often seem an afterthought).

If there were any drawbacks that I had to mention, it would be that the sound palette towards the end seems to be kind of same-y, and the synths, while being appropriately loud during the solo sections, are sometimes drowned out by guitars during the verses.