LEGENDS OF THE SHIRES

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.