FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

"Welcome to the nightmare ladies and gentlemen! It is a blue nightmare indeed, and a scary one. On the stage, we can find the members of Porcupine Tree, accompanied by the legendary guitarists Alex Lifeson of Rush and Robert Fripp of King Crimson! Welcome.. and SUFFER!"

I woke up with sweat tangling down my chin. It was early in the morning and the sun wasn't up yet. I couldn't sleep after this nigtmare because it was the day I was getting my hand on the FoaBP by Porcupine Tree. As I approached the record shop, I could feel my stomach turn upside down because I had Fear of a Nonsense Album. I put the CD in my stereo, flipped through the pages of my booklet, ad felt my journey began... It was an old model plane. I could feel it from the beginning as the first notes from the engine started humming. The riffs of the propeller was shouting "Deadwing, Deadwing, Dea.." and we took off. The captain began to speak. He said great words, but in a very monotonous way, so it began to bore me. Then he started to sing a little and his melody seemed nice, but I knew this trip from before. This wasn't a deja vu... This was the way of the Deadwing! I woke up and found that I already passed to the second song. I heard the intro and said "Damn I was going to listen to the PT album, not Led Zeppelin's "House of the Holy" album!" I stood up and checked the CD, but it was PT. What a coincidence, I said, and continued to listen. It was a sog a la Feel So Low and Heartattack in a Layby. Skip. The third song. I was shivering, because I was about to hear how Alex Lifeson contributed to this album, and it was the longest song PT ever made. The song started great, but then became a little boring, but then held itself together. Alex Lifeson really added a lot with his great guitar riffs and it was amazing to hear the beautifl melodies. 17 minutes passed quick. Fourth movement... Skipped instantly! The worst song PT has ever written. A copy-paste of Lazarus and Collapse the Light into the Earth, ended with the exact same riffs from Trains from In Absentia album, with a twist on the solo that came after it (if you can call it a twist, IF you can even call it a SOLO, just bunch of notes played) Fifth degree... Again something original in the guitar and drum solos, because Robert Fripp is in the play. Other than that, I still have this feeling that I have heard this song somewhere else before... The final... Sleep Together and Stop Swimming really remind each other by their names.. well here is the new deal: they even resemble each other by the flavor. Take one earful of Stop Swimming, increase its speed, add more repetitions, make it a little bit heavier in tune, add more synths... and Ta-daa! Your Sleep Together is ready to serve!

I started bleeding because I was pinching myself to wake up from this nightmare.. but it wasn't a nightmare, it was the reality itself. You can call this a compilation album for PT as it offers nothing new but some smooth melodies and an original idea of having two great guitar heroes accompany them. If it wasn't for them, this album could have stopped swimming and drown forever! The best thing about the album was Davin Garrison's drums: he really showed his full potential, but the album cancelled his efforts. The worst thing was the album itself, but Richard Barbieri was Way Out of Creativity himself as he added nothing but bunch of strings and some easy synth effects at the last song. Yes, this album can sound brilliant to those that just began to hear PT since it has the original soud that PT has and beautiful vocals of Steven Wilson, but it is not original at all, and you can even hate one of the songs in the album, which is unlike the previous PT albums. PT fans like me, just stay away and get it from a friend that made the mistake of buying it. Newcomers.. you will just throw the CD out of the window after you hear Deadwing and In Absentia and see what these guys can do!