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Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet CD (album) cover

FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

Porcupine Tree

 

Heavy Prog

4.28 | 2827 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Mr. Mustard
5 stars Porcupines Tree's impressive run of strong albums continues with Fear of a Blank Planet, which is arguably their most progressive effort. This is pretty much sonically identical to their past two albums, so their isn't much to discuss regarding the style. Instead the interest is in the individual songs.

The title track Is the metal anthem of the album, much as 'Deadwing' was for the previous. It contains a steady, rocking, and powerful drum groove with a driving bass and heavy guitar riffs. By now this is a standard Porcupine Tree tune, but is engaging from beginning to end.

'My Ashes' has a strong Pink Floyd undertone to it, as well as Zeppelin's No Quarter-like opening. It builds fantastically with a dramatic section filled with strings and Wilson singing a melodic vocal line. This is probably one of Porcupine Trees more serious attempts at symphonic prog, and it works perfectly.

The real treat here is the epic 17-minute 'Anesthetize.' The song is very structurally diverse and the parts are quite different from each other, yet as a whole mesh so wonderfully. You get the tense, dark opening, an Alex Lifeson guitar solo, a Pink Floyd-esque jam-like section, a heavy, Metal riff oriented middle, and the beautifully flowing ending atmosphere all in one song. This is without a doubt the band's strongest song of their entire catalogue, and of the progressive rock genre in general.

'Sentimental' also has a dramatic and symphonic undertone to it, including a flawless build-up which makes this one of their more emotionally charged songs.

'Way Out of Here' is a very dark song with some deep bass lines and a few heavy riffs. The powerful synth-filled chorus is heard throughout by Wilson, who also has some tasteful guitar solos.

The album concludes with the very dark and ominous 'Sleep Together,' which is probably one of the most unique and interesting songs the band has done. The song is built around a drone melody that repeats throughout the entire song. The build-up is very good in this one, with the climax being a dramatic strings melody.

Overall, I would say this is just as strong as the band's last two releases, and is probably the proggiest one at that. I remember an interview where Wilson said he rather liked the shorter album length of about 50 minutes, as it keeps the attention of the listener longer. No doubt he was correct in this regard, as this is 50 minutes of amazing, thoughtful music.

9/10

Mr. Mustard | 5/5 |

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