This is an open forum for staff members, contributers, and fans alike to submit their reviews on the latest music releases and concerts. In an industry that is drowning with overprocessed, grossly overrated, unoriginal crap these days, this is our chance to allow the real stars to shine, if only on our humble, little stage; and expose you to some of our favorite talents.
Reviews are given 1 - 5 stars.
Fear Of a Blank Planet
My Ashes
Anesthetize
4. Sentimental
Way Out Of Here
Sleep Together
Founded in the late 80’s by multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree is one of the most overlooked bands operating today. It’s also one of the best.
Begun as a joke, the band was heavily influenced by the lush arrangements and psychedelia of Pink Floyd. The band has, over time, refined a sound you’d expect from a bastard child born out of a drunken romp between Tool and Pink Floyd. And their latest – Fear of a Blank Planet, a six-track song cycle chronicling the dangers of the modern world and the influences of media, video games, moronic record execs and anything you could point to and label The Man – is only the latest of many examples of the band’s brilliance.
The opening title-track sets an aggressive, edgy pace for the album while “My Ashes” operates at the other end of the spectrum with layers of strings, piano, and acoustic guitar. “Anesthetize” takes listeners on an 18-minute journey which vacillates between soft vocals and wispy orchestration and Tool-like thrashing and over-the-top drum work by Gavin Harrison. “Way Out Here” features Wilson’s strongest guitar work on the album while “Sleep Together” provides an eerie swan song.
While Wilson and company may not surpass the brilliance of their previous album Deadwing or its processor In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet is an addictive, complex album that yields something new each time it’s played. The top-notch musicianship to which Porcupine Tree fans are accustomed is here in abundance. Guest guitarists Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and Alex Lifeson (Rush) don’t hurt either.
I own around 4,000 albums ranging in styles from jazz to progressive rock to old-school hair metal. Yet I keep coming back to Porcupine Tree again and again. Surely that says something. At least, I hope it does.
Reviewed by: Chris Cactus | November 2007
