Live report by David Araneda (words) and Ricardo Santos (images).
Last Thursday, the British progressive metal legend THRESHOLD visited Finland for the first time as part of their “Legends of the Shires Tour”. Their latest studio album, released in 2017 via Nuclear Blast Records, achieved great critical acclaim and served as a comeback for their former singer Glynn Morgan. While in previous concerts of the tour the band has performed “Legends of the Shires” in its entirety, the last few dates have included also some material from their back catalogue. With eleven studio albums and three different singers to date, there were high expectations regarding their live performance.
The Finnish alternative metal band KEOMA were in charge of opening the evening. Thought I wasn’t familiar with their music, I was positively surprised by their musicianship, specially the performance of bassist Jaska and the vocal range of singer Jasse, whose voice and appearance reminds of Björn Strid from SOILWORK. Their eclectic 45-minute set comprised of a few songs from their 2016 album “Synthesis” such as ‘Bloodstar’ and ‘Solaris’, but also included some unreleased tracks probably from their upcoming album. The audience responded in a very enthusiastic way and the band seemed very touched by this. A great beginning for an epic night.
THRESHOLD came to the stage around nine, with the “Legends of the Shires” album cover in the background. Their kickstarted their set with ‘Slipstream’, taken from 2007’s “Dead Reckoning”. A very energetic beginning, featuring heavy riffs and even some harsh vocals. Glynn Morgan hit all the notes without any problems. A sublime keyboard intro by Richard West set the mood for the complex twelve-minute epic tune ‘The Man Who Saw Through Time’. Morgan’s passionate vocal performance was very moving and drummer Johanne James showed his skills behind the drumkit throughout all the rhythm changes of the song.
With ‘Long Way Home’ they jumped back to 2001’s “Hypothetical”, displaying a heavier guitar-oriented sound. Based in the audience’s reaction, there were quite a few old-school THRESHOLD fans in the house. Back to the Shires and to the more melodic spectrum of their music, ‘Stars and Satellites’ was performed with a lot of soul, specially the outstanding bass intro by Steve Anderson and guitar work by Karl Groom. Glynn asked the audience if the remember the “Psychedelicatessen” era, and the answer was: Hell yeah! The chosen one was ‘Into the Light’, another complex piece which allowed them to explore darker territories.
‘Hollow’ was their second nod to “Dead Reckoning” and showed the band at their heaviest despite its melodic chorus, which was song with the fist in the sky by everyone in the room. It was followed by one of the surprises of the night, ‘Light and Space’, a track full of contrasts and which was performed very faithfully to the album’s version. ‘Trust the Process’ was definitely one of the highlights of the show, featuring one of their catchiest riffs and vocal lines. With the beautifully dark ‘Pressure’ they dived for the last time in their back catalogue.
The rest of the show was all about “Legends of the Shires”, beginning with ‘The Shire (Part II)’, a calmed tune that became of the most emotional moments of the evening. Then it was time for ‘Snowblind’, one of their finest tracks including exquisite guitar harmonies with Morgan himself backing up. A little break before introducing the band members and coming back with the multi-layered ‘Lost in Translation’, a song full on intricated instrumental sections. Radio-friendly single ‘Small Dark Lines’ was the perfect way to end a magnificent and glorious set, making everyone go crazy to its infectious melody.
THRESHOLD delivered an hour and forty minutes of pure progressive rock and metal in front of a full-house of Finnish metal heads. What makes this band so great is that despite them being brilliant musicians they are very approachable to their fans. The band seem very moved by the audience’s reaction and mentioned that this was one of the best gigs of the tour, which could sound like a cliché, but in this case I would believe their word since there was clearly magic in the air, and the connection between the audience and the musicians was something to be remembered.
Live report by David Araneda (words) and Ricardo Santos (images).
To see more photos, go here.
THRESHOLD setlist:
Slipstream
The Man Who Saw Through Time
Long Way Home
Stars and Satellites
Into the Light
Hollow
Light and Space
Trust the Process
Pressure
The Shire (Part 2)
Snowblind
Encore:
Lost in Translation
Small Dark Lines
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 