THE INCIDENT

Porcupine Tree

Heavy Prog

3.68 | 1693 ratings

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Fear of a Blank Planet represents Porcupine Tree at their peak. Steven Wilson's favorite themes of sensory overload, social alienation and influence of mass media are given free rein, especially in the brutal 17-minute piece, Anesthetize, which takes the name of the Atlanta concert in the promotional tour of the album, the band's best ever concert.

Where do you go from here?

Porcupine Tree's next studio album features their 55-minute musical suite, The Incident" and a bonus EP disc of four songs. There really are only three memorable numbers in the 55-minute suite, "The Blind House", "The Incident" and "Time Flies". "The Blind House" is a typical pop flavored Steven Wilson song with a blistering start, a catchy guitar melody and slow fade out. "The Incident" is a deeper harder fleshed out Porcupine Tree piece. Its concept is of being stuck in a traffic jam at the scene of an accident where someone has died and experiencing a surreal episode of imagining the dead spirit of the person entering into the car and sitting next to you. "Time Flies" is the uplifting piece in the suite and the longest, totaling eleven minutes in length. It is autobiographical and the most progressive with changes of pace and time and liberally quotes from David Gilmour's rhythm guitar section from the Pink Floyd classic, "Dogs" from the Animals album. Quoting is a legitimate form of musical expression from an improvisational artist like Steven Wilson who is tracing the steps of his musical influences growing up, but understandingly may grate with some listeners who want to compare it with Pink Floyd.

The remainder of the 55-minute suite is Steven Wilson doodling, while the remaining members of the band work on their resumes for their post Porcupine Tree careers.

As a parting gift for Porcupine Tree fans, Porcupine Tree have released a bonus disc of four pretty, decent songs on a second CD. "Bonnie The Cat" is the best piece here and may in fact be the best song off the entire album. The fear is you may struggle to get through the first CD and then choose to ignore the bonus songs, which are all good.

The Incident isn't the masterpiece fans of Porcupine Tree might have hoped for from the band's last album, but who's complaining when you have a repertoire as good as In Absentia, Deadwing and Fear Of A Blank Planet?

iluvmarillion | 3/5 | 2020-8-27

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