Thresholds

I've always been surprised by the amount of death metal fans who don't like the second album by the legendary American death metal band Nocturnus, it's true that the bar was set incredibly high since "The Key" is easily one of the best albums of the early scene, and it's also true that in some aspects Thresholds was a step backwards compared to the debut, but in others it's a clear improvement.

If I had to sum it up briefly I would say that "The Key" is a more complete album that works better when it is exposed in its entirety, listening to it from beginning to end in order to appreciate its full impact and possibilities, Thresholds is less balanced, it has weaker moments but it also has very very high peaks, I would even dare to say that those peaks are the best of Nocturnus' brief discography.

The level of technicality increases exponentially on this album, Mike Davis is much more unleashed and the songs are full of insanely virtuosic solos, but not only him, each instrument is simply in a kind of permanent apogee to bring out their most technical and advanced side, if you compare it with the debut you can appreciate that although this was full of technical flashes there was a control, probably Mike Browning's hand, that here seems to be missing, I don't say it's a good or bad factor in itself, the uncontrolled creativity can be beneficial or negative depending on the use that is made of it, here we have examples of those two parts, certain parts of "Climate Controller" with its exaggerated intro and its style with constant breaks, the extreme melodism in the solo of "Arctic Crypt" that seems taken from the swedish deah metal scene or the little necessary "Nocturne in B m" are some of the samples of that uncontrolled creativity. However when we see the full display of all skills integrated to perfection on tracks like "Subterranean Infiltrator" or "Aquatica".

Songs like these mentioned are the best Nocturnus have given in my opinion, both have an ambient intro followed by a spectacular performance by all the musicians, where the compositions set up a moment for each piece of the band to shine, even the vocalist has a brilliant moment in "Subterranean Infiltrator" as well as the bass player. But all of that is nothing compared to the level of the keyboards and above all, the guitars, not only the solos and the technical flashes of Mike Davis, the level of the riffs on which the songs are centred are spectacularly consistent, and they know when to use it as the main focus and when to leave room for Louis Panzer's keyboards to lead the composition when he plays. This is what makes Nocturnus' compositions on this album really interesting, I've always used this album as an example when I want to explain what happens when you take skilled musicians and they have clever songwriting.

Although the best exponent of this is to be found in the aforementioned tracks, the rest are not far behind, even without being perfect, I find precisely well timed and measured moments where the keyboard comes in at just the right moment, the percussion suddenly uses a more tribal style, and all sorts of other tricks that give the album a changing style that always has something new to offer from beginning to end.

In the end, if you think about it, it's surprising that the album saw the light of day, Mike Davis, Sean McNenney and Louis Panzer were taking more and more creative control away from Mike Browning, surely the environment wasn't the best in the world and the result of the production was a complete disaster, there are many, and rightly so, who complain about the general sound of the album, the overall tone of the album seems buried and muddy. For me personally as time goes by it bothers me less, I have heard worse productions and it is true that thanks to the sci-fi theme it seems that the sound of the guitars has a futuristic atmosphere, this will serve as an excuse for some but not for everyone of course. Although it has a few flaws, all of them in my opinion are highly outweighed by its strengths, hiding them over a halo of genius and musical excellence, elevating Thresholds to one of the best death metal albums I've ever heard and one to which I return very very often. A work of genius despite the disadvantages.