COMA DIVINE

Coma Divine is the first live album from british prog rockers Porcupine Tree. It was recorded in in Rome while touring for the Signify album. A large portion of the songs are taken from that album while there is also a couple from the previous album The Sky Moves Sideways and one song from the second album Up the Downstair (Not beautiful anymore) and one from the debut album ( Radioactive toy). I´m not the biggest fan of Porcupine Tree and it´s mainly because of their long jamming ambient songs which leaves me a bit cold in the studio versions. After listening to Coma Divine I understand that Porcupine Tree is a band best heard live. Some of the songs that I didn´t appreciate in the studio versions are very good when played live. Judging from this album Porcupine Tree is an excellent live band.

Coma Divine starts with the heavy energetic Signify right after the intro Bornlivedieintro. This song works even better live than it did on the Signify album where it was one of the best songs. Waiting which are also from Signify is a song in two parts. Part 1 has vocals and are a very atmospheric Porcupine Tree song while Part 2 is an instrumental jam like song. The studio version is boring IMO but this live version is so alive and fresh that I am sold. The sky moves sideways from the album of the same name is a very Pink Floyd influenced song that also works much better live than in the original studio version. Again the instrumental part just works wonders here on Coma Divine. Dislocated Day is one of the vocal tracks from The Sky Moves Sideways. It´s very enjoyable in the live version. The Sleep of No Dreaming is from the album Signify and like Dislocated Day it´s a vocal track and one of the songs I enjoyed from that album as well as in this live version. Moonloop from The Sky Moves Sideways is a bit too long and ambient for me and it doesn´t help that the song is played live. Radioactive toy is from the debut album and it´s a dynamic song which has both excellent parts and a few ambient lowpoints. Not beautiful anymore from the second album Up the Downstair is a Jamming song where too much of the time is spend with making noises.

The musicianship is really a highlight on Coma Divine. We really get to hear Porcupine Tree in their right environment. Great jamming from all four musicians. They are really a tight band.

The sound quality is excellent. Very enjoyable and clean while still maintaining a live feel.

The cover isn´t very exciting.

So it took a live album for me to really start enjoying Porcupine Tree. I´ve always felt that they lacked that last something on their studio albums ( at least on the early ones) to make me clap my hands in excitement. Live they really prove that they are an exceptional band though and I would recommend that you listen to Coma Divine before using your time on the first four studio albums from the band. What a great surprise and well worth a 4 star rating even though the quality does drop a bit towards the end of the album.