CLOSURE/CONTINUATION

Overall: This is a pretty hard album to review, mainly because of the way it flows. At first I thought it was due to not having Colin on the lineup, but in reality is the way songs conform the album. There at least four or five songs abusing of the exchange noisy-quiet sections in an abrupt manner, which makes it repetitive and noisy by the time you get to Herd Culling. Honestly, I feel this is a shame, because there are many good songs in here.

High points: Walk the Plank and Never Have. The latter is a callback to In Absentia's Drown with Me, but with a hopeful tone. Walk the Plank is a beast on its own, and the closest song to PT's staple psychedelic open sound-wall sound, last found in songs like What Happens Now? and Cheating the Polygraph. I hope PT recovers this open sound down the road, because that's what makes PT much more than a Steven Wilson solo production.

What's new?: The two main new things in comparison to previous PT albums are, on the one hand, Steven's solo production and, on the other hand, enhanced minimalistic song-writing. Steven's solo production and arrangement style is counter producing to PT's sound, which is based in open songs, like C/C's Dignity, Never Have and Walk the Plank. All other songs have a very tight sound, quite the opposite to The Sky Moves Sideways or Even Less, which are some of PT's juggernaut songs. The minimalistic composition style can be much appreciated in Chimera's Wreck, which is a song you'd expect more from Metallica than from Porcupine Tree, and starts eerily similar to Nothing Else Matters.

I think I'll give you a tentative list of how to approach this disc for a better experience, though I recommend listening these songs separately: 1. - Harridan 2. - Dignity 3. - Population Three 4. - Rats return 5.- Of the New Day 6.- Love in the Past Tense 7.- Herd Culling 8.- Walk the Plank 9.- Chimera's Wreck 10.- Never Have