Do you like Nevermore, and wish you owned more albums by bands that sound like Nevermore? If the answer is yes, you can go ahead and stop reading this review right now, and instead use your time for more constructive things, such as buying this album. This is as close as anyone can get to playing in the same style as Nevermore without sounding like a clone, and Twelfth Gate does an admirable job of creating a dark blend of power and heavy metal to call their own.

There’s nothing particularly atmospheric about Threshold Of Revelation, but listening to it irresistibly brings to mind a scene from a futuristic, dystopian film; all filthy, oily mechanical parts moving in endless, futile efforts. The riffs are all mechanical in one way or another; either deep and muttering like the sound of dirty wheels and cogs moving in concert, or higher and clanking. However, this doesn’t mean the songs are repetitive; on the contrary, there’s quite a bit of variety in sound, both between the different songs and within the songs themselves. Delving Too Deep is an excellent example of this, with a bass line and guitar line that build an image of an infernal machine that gets fully realized a little less than two minutes from the end of the song, when we’re suddenly assaulted with a sliding riff that sounds more overtly mechanical and inhuman than a Meshuggah song.

The overall structure of the album works quite well; Loyal and Come Alive bookend it nicely. Loyal begins things with one of the more energetic riffs to be found on the album, backed by drumming that starts off prominently, then drops back to let the bass and guitar take over. Come Alive is the slowest and most atmospheric song on the album, and boasts the most prominent melody. Although there’s still plenty of dark chunkiness, a softer melody floats over top of it, and even the solo is softer and slower than what’s generally found on the rest of the album.

Despite the overwhelmingly mechanical quality of Threshold Of Revelation, there’s quite a bit of melody to be found throughout, although it doesn’t reveal itself to a casual listen. Human Swine and Together Divided both start off with a combination of bass drumming and a higher, faster riff that sounds like a swarm of mechanical insects attacking you; there’s a subtle, smoother pattern in the movement of the machines. This sort of effect is what drives the album; machines moving toward some incomprehensible goal.

The only complaint that could be made about Threshold Of Revelation is the production. While it’s not tin-can-in-the-woods dirty, there’s a level of fuzz found in the album that detracts from the mechanical quality. To continue the machine metaphor, there’s a thin film of organic dirt clogging the works that should be cleaned off.

I said before that Twelfth Gate bear significant similarities to Nevermore; it must be noted that in addition to playing in the same style, the vocalist for this album, Scott Huffman, sounds extremely similar to Warrel Dane. However, Huffman recently departed Twelfth Gate, to be replaced by Brent “Red” Erickson. Whether Erickson’s vocals will add to or detract from this similarity remains to be seen.