Coexistent philosophies in Threshold

[ManipulatorGeneral404]

Addressed mostly to Karl and Rich, but also to any other members and the most devoted (and opinionated) Threshold fans. In official interviews, Rich has accepted the appellation “intellectual band” regarding Threshold’s heavy concentration on lyrical quality and thoughtfulness, and also explained how the varying writers were exploring their own particular philosophies and concepts, such as Jon’s explorations of reincarnated people’s thoughts in Critical Mass and Rich’s religious and political views, pushed into the spotlight since Subsurface. To some extent, the Jeary and West lyrical threads on Critical Mass fit together as one, with some struggles and feelings (such as the direction of life and the feeling of stagnation) shared by the album’s characters despite coming from different writers who may have entirely different points of view. A singer’s ability to connect to and interpret lyrics may also be shaped by his or her own personality and opinions, and yet I feel that Mac was able to connect with any lyrical situation while I listen to Critical Mass, the one I would most commonly cite as displaying the band’s intellectual synergy.

Threshold, as I study closely, appears to be very diverse in its “intellectual” sprawl, yet very open-minded and respectful of these differences while creating the music to convey its messages; it was just in recent interviews that Karl acknowledged what topics and viewpoints Rich supplements Groom music with and that West writing, as much as Jeary's in the past, is a vital and recognized signature of Threshold's aesthetic. To all the band members, I applaud you on coexisting so seamlessly; writing music together and taking what the music has to say as seriously as Threshold does would no doubt lead to engaging and lively discussions between the band members about the music’s intellectual content, and judging by how well the band gels in studio and live, they have been productive. Comments and perspectives from the band are welcomed, because I love how you all think.

 

[LavagesOfTime]

Lyrically speaking, I really enjoyed the whole Clone. If you know the story behind (and I hope they added an explaination in the definitive edition booklet, since it was only published on the old Devoted magazine) it flows great. If some of you have missed , this is an extract from the Threshold fan club magazine "Devoted" Issue 3 - Winter 1998 (the beginning gives you also a possible hint about the meaning of Eat The Unicorn):

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After the completion of the last CD "Extinct Instinct", with its vague concept of "dreams", the band sat down to try and think of a fresh new concept for the next album. At the time the news had been filled with stories about Dolly the artificially created sheep, genetically modified food, and a mouse with a human ear, so they chose a working title of "Sheep", before changing it to the more sober "Genetic".

Months later they got together again and realised none of them had anything to say about genetics or sheep, so Jon added a subtle twist to the plot, suggesting that it could be about a genetically created human who, on discovering that he's been made too perfect with extreme intelligence, insight and telepathy, forms a rock band who go on to write a whole album about him. The rock band idea was dropped in favour of his alternative plot, which under the new working title "Clone", probably goes something like this:

The story starts with the opening track on the album called "Freaks", where scientists discover they can clone humans from artificially created genes. Our protagonist's mother enters the story in "Angels", who decides to have a clone baby after a rather bad argument with her parents. In "The Latent Gene" the baby is formed, and quickly grows up to discover in "Lovelorn" that he is totally superior to everybody, resulting in loneliness, isolation, and lots of people not appreciating being told how stupid they all are. In "Change" he soon realises that only his creator can help him so he vows to go in search of him, resulting in a far more positive outlook and the realisation that actually "Life's too good".

Unfortunately the world around him isn't too good at all, so with the immortal cry "Goodbye Mother Earth" (post-ironic "Wounded Land" references notwithstanding) he jumps aboard "Voyager II" and heads off for the read planet, as previously depicted on the cover of "Extinct Instinct" (allegedly). On arrival at his destination, he realises that this was where he was supposed to be all along, meets up with his creator and they sit down together to watch "Sunrise on Mars", totally unaware that they were nothing more than the product of a bass player's over-active imagination.
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