WOUNDED LAND

Imagine Marillion didn't hire Hogarth but instead went with the best Robert Plant replica around and added an extra rhythm guitarist to metalize their sound a bit. Wounded Land might be the very result. It's more then 15 years ago already but this is the very album that (together with the entirely different progbeast "Into The Everflow" from Psychotic Waltz) ruled my playlist in 1993 and got me completely into progressive rock again after years of other explorations.

It's packed with beautiful melodious guitar solos like I hadn't heard since Marillion's Fugazi, it has epic songs with a fine balance between heaviness and melody, a big glossy sound that was nevertheless crystal clear and warm, nice crispy grooves and so on. Some samples:

Days of Dearth. This is the song I got to know them from, it's an ecstatic doom metal track with excellent lead guitars, very emotive vocals and a wonderful finale. A bit different from the other songs here but a good track to sample as a starting point.

Sanity's End. If you've never made the link between Threshold and Marillion then you haven't heard this one yet: a piece that is every bit as impressive as Incubus. It's a typical example of Threshold's approach to prog: start with a few pretty basic but memorable guitar riffs, add tons of synths on top of that, create a clever song structure that builds up to a splendid finale, make the best possible use of your world class vocalist and spice it up with plenty great guitar solos. The focus is not on technicality but it sure works fine for me.

Paradox. Probably my least favorite track here. It's still ok but too cliché FM-rock, and way too Market Square Heroes! But it's the only lighter piece in this otherwise dramatic album, so it adds a little variety and a bit of playfulness to the gravity that surrounds it.

Like it or not but this album has that trademark Threshold glossy sound that they basically wouldn't stray away from anymore. But, contrary to their later works, they were still full of ambition and good ideas here. Threshold would continue to create great songs in the 90's but with the turn of the century they gradually turned into a slick commercial format that got them more fans but has little to do with their initial charm.