FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

'Fear of a Blank Planet' is undoubtedly Porcupine Tree's dark masterpiece, a cult album that has garnered polarizing opinions, but one that can certainly be considered the perfect album, a majestic blend of all the strongest characteristics of the band's music. And while at the same time this might not be their most innovatively sounding release, it is a massively influential album that captures the band at the height of their creative power, in a way presenting a fascinating amalgamation of Wilson & Co.'s heavier inclinations together with the strong influence of classic acts like King Crimson and Pink Floyd, and contemporary metal acts like Tool or even Opeth. The magic of this album lies in the subtle indoctrination of muscular riffs into the layers of exquisitely well-produced sonic collages, all shrouded in a tranquilizing yet hauntingly nostalgic atmosphere.

Bouncing between moments of throbbing aggression and tantalizing melancholy, the entire album becomes a mood-shifting entity that bolsters sufficiently complex compositions which are also equally memorable and provocative, yet conceptually relevant even to this day. All of this makes the album era-defining, even if some of the previous releases may be seen as creatively higher points. But 'Fear of a Blank Planet' is a finely and intelligently composed and constructed work of art, whether it be for the manic title track, the heart-wrenching 'Way Out of Here', or for the drab excursions on 'My Ashes'. The 17-minute powerhouse 'Anesthetize' is an all-time classic by the band, much like the gloomy 'Sentimental' and 'Sleep Together', as it turns out that each song on this incredibly tight album is a classic, whose sound and presentation have in a way been perfected, so as to accommodate the entire musical journey that this album is, and even quite provocatively, working perfectly as an anxiously pessimistic rock opera.