Theshold – Surface To Stage

artist website

impulse buy

NSM
Produced by Karl Groom & Richard West

Threshold have a very fine tradition of producing excellent “direct-to-fan” releases available exclusively via their website for their fanbase to get extra music between new studio albums. Surface To Stage is the latest of these, recorded live at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland on the European tour for the band’s last album Subsurface.

Threshold’s fan-only releases (releases for which no membership to a club is required in order to be given the right to then spend more money on the exclusive CDs… listening, Metallica?) have provided followers (or, “the devoted”, as they’re known) with otherwise unreleased material, be it live recordings such as this and Concert In Paris, collections of rarities and alternate versions (Replica and Decadent), or something complete different like Wireless; a live-in-the-studio acoustic album. Every one has been of the highest quality, with exclusive artwork and liner notes etc. and well worth their place in every fan’s collection. Surface To Stage is no different.

The sound quality and mix on this is slightly better and clearer than Concert In Paris, which instantly brings the dynamics of the band’s music to the forefront of the listeners consciousness. As good as Concert In Paris was, the sound was a little muddy at times, and not a patch on the commercially released double live album Critical Energy. Surface To Stage is up to the same standard as the commercial release, meaning it’s the perfect companion to it. Critical Energy was recorded on the tour for the then-current album Critical Mass, and therefore doesn’t include any of the excellent new tracks from Subsurface. In fact, only two songs are duplicated across the two releases; Long Way From Home, one of the band’s finest ever songs and Light And Space.

In terms of the set we get six songs from Subsurface plus the two previously mentioned songs, Into The Light and Echoes of Life. Clocking in at over 70 minutes, the CD is excellent value for money, but presumably their actual set on the night was a little longer. This release, when originally announced many months ago, was initially planned as a double CD. Time constraints delayed the mixing and mastering, with the band members being heavily involved in production and recording with other artists, so perhaps time was too tight to complete two discs of material within a sensible deadline. Or perhaps it was just decided a single disc containing the best/most worthwhile songs would be a better idea.

Either way, the disc captures Threshold’s unique ability to merge astonishingly heavy traditional metal values with progressive metal and the clarity of sound shows off their immense talent to perfection. If I’m honest, I prefer this disc to the commercial double live album. The power, performance and fluency are undeniable.

“ highest quality ”

Tracklist: Mission Profile / Ground Control / Into The Light / Echoes of Life / Long Way Home / Opium / The Art of Reason / Pressure / Flags And Footprints / Light And Space

Written by Andy Lye
More: Live Albums, Progressive, Threshold