DEADWING

The latest entry from this outstanding band shows them further fine-tuning their musical vision. Judging by many reviews on this site, I was concerned that they had completely changed their sound. On the contrary, this is a natural evolution of their music, on a straight line drawn from Signify through In Absentia. PT have always had the harder rocking numbers on their albums, such as Signify, Tinto Brass, Lightbulb Sun etc. The ones here seem to turn it up a notch, and for a few moments here or there you are wondering if you are listening to Black Sabbath or Metallica. But there are plenty of soothing ballads too, my favorite is Mellotron Scratch which is deceptively simple and seductive. Glass Arm Shattering is amazing, and even the "hit" candidate "Shallow" is top notch. Adrian Belew turns in some nice guitar solos, and Opeth's singer contributes some good backing vocals. If you like PT, you really can't go wrong...this is as good as any of their stuff in my opinion.