THRESHOLD Completes Work On 'Dead Reckoning'

U.K. progressive metallers THRESHOLD have finished recording their new album, "Dead Reckoning", for a March 23, 2007 release via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was produced by guitarist Karl Groom and keyboardist Richard West at Thin Ice Studios. The track listing is as follows:

01. Slipstream
02. This Is Your Life
03. Elusive
04. Hollow
05. Pilot in the Sky of Dreams
06. Fighting For Breath
07. Disappear
08. Safe To Fly
09. One Degree Down

Commented Richard West: "It's great to finally be finished. It felt like we could keep working forever, but Nuclear Blast gave us a Christmas deadline and that helped us focus on finishing. We started writing over the summer with the intention of modernizing our approach with a darker heavier sound. But once the writing starts the songs sometimes take over, so alongside the heavier tracks like 'Slipstream' and 'Hollow' there's a 10-minute progressive epic called 'Pilot in the Sky of Dreams', a huge PINK FLOYD-esque ending to 'One Degree Down', and the last song we wrote is a power ballad called 'Safe To Fly' which proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

"While Karl was busy tracking drums and guitars at Thin Ice Studios, I was recording vocals and keyboards at Bray Studios. It was a nice place to work; everyone from IRON MAIDEN to CLIFF RICHARD were there rehearsing for tours, and I had a steady stream of musicians and crew popping in for coffee. I'd like to think it was to see me, but it was most likely the coffee; I get it freshly roasted to order from www.justcoffee.co.uk and it's probably the best coffee in the country — I strongly recommend the Guatemalan!"

"At one stage we were going to call the album 'Pilot in the Sky of Dreams', but in the end it was more suitable as a song title; it didn't sound solid or powerful enough to represent the overall sound of the album.

"Our fans were great. They started posting their own artwork for the 'Pilot' title on our forum, based on everything from the HAMMERFALL artwork (their new album is called 'Threshold') to Dastardly and Mutley (cartoon characters). Our cover artist for the last few years has been Thomas Ewerhard and he did a great design for 'Pilot', but with the new album title 'Dead Reckoning' came a new artist called Davide Nadalin who has done a wonderful cover for us, which we'll reveal in the New Year. Thomas's artwork won't be wasted though; we hope to use that for something next year."

"We've started announcing our live shows for 2007. Originally we were going to tour before the summer, but now it looks like we'll start the summer with some festivals and tour after that."

THRESHOLD drummer Johanne James has been named drummer of the year by the Classic Rock Society. The award was presented to him by the legendary Carl Palmer and CRS president Martin Hudson at their annual awards ceremony. As well as drumming for THRESHOLD, Johanne fronts and drums for KYRBGRINDER, whose debut album, "Defiance", is due for release in January.

THRESHOLD been confirmed for the ProgPower USA VIII festival, set to take place October 5-6, 2007 at Center Stage Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. Other bands scheduled to appear include SONATA ARCTICA, PAGAN'S MIND, PRIMAL FEAR, REDEMPTION, VIRGIN STEELE, RAINTIME, FIREWIND, COMMUNIC, VANDEN PLAS and FREAK KITCHEN. THRESHOLD last played at the festival in 2002. THRESHOLD is also booked to perform at Metalcamp 2007 in Slovenia next July. Metalcamp claims to be the hottest and longest metal event of 2007, with seven days of camping and beach party, five days of live music across two stages, and more than 80 bands.