IN ABSENTIA

This was one of the albums that helped me further delve into Steven Wilson's projects and progressive music in general. While I had listened to more metal-inspired progressive music, such as Symphony X and even Opeth, I was unaware of Porcupine Tree and the entire progressive rock movement from the 1970s. In that way, In Absentia is a fairly dear album to me.

My rating of this album, though, is not based solely on a sentimental nature; the songwriting is top-notch, and each track manages to flow cohesively and even stand on its own. Much of the nature of Porcupine Tree's sound here lies in the subtleties of the music, and each song possesses its own atmosphere. While there are a few tracks that are not up to par with the ones that I consider the best on this CD, I find that the entire experience is incredibly pleasurable.

Even though some may argue that the music on here is not true progressive, I find that it merits a 5 star rating even on this site because of the progressive tendencies of many of the songs and because of the simply incredible songwriting on here.