DEADWING

For those that don't know, Porcupine Tree started out as a Psychedelic/Space rock group with a very obvious Floyd influence but in more recent years they have been moving towards a more metal style but still maintaining a very melodic sound. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that they have been able to maintain such high standards of writing and composing that they displayed on 19995's The Sky Moves Sideways, though they are definitely more of a band now than a solo project of guiding hand Steven Wilson.

Sadly, I don't seem to be able to see the "quality" in the music that convinced many of my fellow prog-reviewers and collabs to vote this as album of the year 2005. To these ears, Deadwing comes across as largely being boring. The heavy, energetic and very good opener and title track proves to be one of only two really decent songs on this album, along with Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, and they certainly are good songs, but Deadwing flatters to deceive and most of the album cant hold pace with it. The (very) low points are the cringworthy Lazarus and the simply mundane Glass Arm Shattering. The rest of the album just comes across as being rather middle of the road with a few sparkling moments, most notably the middle section of Mellotron Scratch, without ever exciting. I think the main problem is that the music never really seems to grow or evolve during a song, sure there's a couple of changes but nothing that really feels or sounds like the track is organically moving on, its a case of "we must play heavier/softer now to avoid boredom", at least that's how it comes across to me.

Overall I generally find this album boring and a strain to listen to more than once a week and I can imagine that people who listen to prog for more complex or challenging music than the norm will probably find this disappointing. I'll give it 2 stars because there are some interesting parts, but not many.