FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

Fear Of A Blank Planet (FOABP to be short) is the last (at today) studio album from PT, it comes out two years after the weak Deadwing and make what we have expected from a group who is one of the better music expression of the thing we call prog (I consider the pop parts on their discs as a trick to make the discs more easy to listen for non-progheads), so what is this FOABP? A nice intro strong as Deadwing itself, more metal than prog but there is a difference between the 2 tracks: while Deadwing is centered on metal parts in FOABP we see a nice rework in drum section, as Harrison counters the repeativity of the metal part I see here some of the best Collins/Bruford kind of sound (far different from Deadwing where Harrison was playing the same single note almost for the entire album), the other difference is the kind of sound, for the whole song here we got the feel that is growing in something different, while in Deadwing we got only the flat metal piece of music, anyway we still have a lot of influences from Dream Theater (but since DT works stop to be original after the 2002, I think that's not a plagiarism), at the end of the title track we got a slow ballade where Harrison stops for a bit (maybe to take a breathe), My Ashes comes out like a slower Trains and grows again with the enter of the drums, it's a prelude to the suite Anesthetize. The main track here enters with a strong intro of drums (again Harrison make the work for the whole band), the song keep going in this way (a lot different from what we have seen in previous works, but still PT, I like the chorus too taken from old PT - Stupid Dream maybe) till the 9-10th minute where comes the main piece, the music changes making a bit more metal than before (like title track), the last part begin with some atmosphere and then the voice of Wilson slow sing repeted and distorted with slow tunes and the drums that follow the line. Superb. After the main piece we go down till the perfect Sentimental, a piano introduction to make the carpet for Wilson to sing in Pure Narcotic/Waiting style, here Harrison play a background part but we can listen him again going for his own rhythm (the counterpoint of the whole song) till the 3rd minute where it become the main piece and the piano take the background part, (at 4th minute there is a Train part that make me feel sad, it's a mistake from PT I hope and not a plagium of their own works) anyway after that we got the 5th song (Way Out of Here) a strange one (We got Robert Fripp at soundscapes) ok... great eclectic music with synth voice (in some parts) that make couple with Wilson, the lyrics here are short and used only to make the atmosphere better, Harrison again plays his own counterpoint to the whole song as Bruford did in Fripp work's (maybe this song is the cause of Harrison being hired for next KC's album), the end is a chill out of the music that slowly fall in the last track Sleep Togheter. It doesn't fit in this album, we got a anonymous flat Harrison till almost the 2nd minute, but he's still cold and empty, here is the bass to take the lead, anyway the strong voice from Wilson make the track to sound good enough to worth a listen. The last two minutes are for the Harrison counterpoint of the track, but the other instruments overwhelm him again to put the end at the song. Nice to say that there is and end and 2-3 fast percussion like the vengange of Harrison over other instruments. Ok very long review, I've spent a lot finding the right words for this but at least I can give to FOABP a rating, I'll leave my happyness to being wrong (they are good and they are true!) to see that Deadwing was a merely mistake and put the vote on: 5 stars no bonus, only the music.

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