2005-06-16
The long expected album by the band who was compared more then once to great bands like pink floyd and other prog. monsters from the 70's has finally arrived, the new masterpiece by one of the most talented musicians of our time Steven Wilson is here to get us desperately in love once more.
From the early beginning of the record making rumors, doubts and fears began up surfacing the ground, and for almost a half a year the band was revealing all kinds of clues about the new record, from short sound clips, video clips and an announcement by Steven Wilson, that this album is actually a soundtrack to a movie script that he and his friend wrote.
First track that was released from this album was a radio promotional single titled "Shallow", which In the opinion of many of the fan was indeed shallow, but fast enough the track "Lazarus" was released as a second single and allowed the fans to get their cools together. And the anticipation went on,
Two great surprises on this album are the participation of Mikael Akerfeldt (Swedish prog metal band Opeth) and the legendary Adrian Belew (from the great King Crimson).
Mikael donates his vocals on the tracks "Lazarus", "Deadwing", and "arriving somewhere but not here" in which he also plays a guitar solo.
Belew plays guitar on "Deadwing", and "Halo".
The album starts with the theme song "Deadwing", a ten minuet epic, filled with porcupine tree signature sound, from metal riffs, through Wilson tendency to ambient moods and upbeat rock songs.
This album contains about anything that the band has ever included in their styles.
This album is definitely a "grows on you" album, at the first few hearings it sounds like a totally average album, but after a while, it proves its greatness and you find out that every moment on this album is none the less then excellent..
Wilson has succeed in taking different Porcupine tree sound motives and combining them into a whole different mood and feeling then ever before.
This it more noticeable in tracks like "Open car" which is based on a kinda Tool metal riff and brakes into this beautiful melodic chorus, and the amazing "Mellotron scratch" that ends up with a great vocal part. The amazing full of fill track "Glass arm Shattering",. The more catchy tune Lazarus that has its own tendency of hitting the right spot, the groovishe Halo and the upbeat theme song - Deadwing.
Most of the tracks are nothing less then excellent but yet, it can't be counted as the bands best album yet as it still doesn't matches geniusity like "Lightbulb sun", "Stupid Dream", The very floydish "The sky Move sideways" and "Signify'" and "In absentia" ,but on the other hand, those all are albums which are hard to compete with.
It feels a bit like the band is breaking off it classic prog legacy and has been leaning more into the metal scene, but as a great man once said, if you're expecting everything to sound like your favorite album, then you should here that same album over and over again, as every album obviously is different from the other, for good or worse, but I've got a feeling that with those guys, it's always for the best..
Roy Povarchik
