DEADWING

I find Deadwing to be a significantly better release than anything Porcupine Tree has done in its past. They really pull of the melodic metal edge with excursions into space-like atmosphere's better than they do fully exploring a psychedelic sound like they attempted in the past. Also, while I can't deny that Deadwing has its poppy moments, those moments are greatly outweighed by the prog and simply beautiful moments of themselves. With that said, I find previous efforts In Absentia and Stupid Dream to be much more mainstream than Deadwing.

What really hooks me on this album is the blend of acoustic/distorted guitar sounds. Wilson creates fantastic contrasts throughout the album with plenty of shifts between heavy/soft moments to keep it interesting. The melodies on this disc are very layered and sharp. It's not the most challenging you music you'll encounter by far, but that's supplemented by the quality of the melodies.

This would probably be a perfect disc, but Porcupine Tree have this uncanny ability to have one song on ever album that I absolutely despise. Here that song is "Halo". It's very mainstream and the riffing just plain irritates me. The song begins to redeem itself in the last 30 seconds, but by then I've already gone to take my piss break. In my opinion, Deadwing recieves far too much criticism, barring Fear Of A Blank Planet, I feel it offers the best of PT from either of the band's syllistic periods.