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With amongst others Obscura and Necrophagist, Over Your Threshold is yet another progressive death metal combo from Germany. The problem I sometimes have with this kind of style is that it gets too technical and too complex. Some of these bands forget that a song needs good riffs and there has to be a clear line in the song.

Over Your Threshold is a band that sometimes is too technical for me, but on the other hand has certain songs that stick. Musical influences of bands like Death, Sadus, Atheist and Cynic can be heard in their music. The lead guitar has some late Chuck Chuldiner influences and on a regular base parts remind me of Cynic's 'Focus' album. The bass has a leading role in the music and is rather mixed up front. Christian Siegmund has to be a big fan of Steve DiGiorgio if you ask me. Also thumbs up to Julian Matejka for his drumming, with a lot of variation and fast as a shark he hammers the songs to an end. The vocals of Ludwig Walter are what you'd expect them to be; grasping and harsh ones, but rather average. The production is o.k., but sometimes sounds a bit flat, on that point the band can improve on the next album.

Summary: Progressive death metal played well and rather well arranged, sometimes a little bit over the top, they could focus a bit more on songwriting. For fans of bands like Cynic, Death, Necrophagist, and so on, but they need to improve to really outshine in this genre.

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