INSURGENTES

Steven Wilson, one of modern prog's most prolific and celebrated artists. The leader of many projects like his mixes of popular bands like King Crimson and Gentle Giant, and musical experiments like Storm Corrosion and Bass Communion. He is best known for his efforts in the band, Porcupine Tree. Not only is he well respected in the progressive rock community but also in many other Music communities such as ambient fans, metal fans, even pop and jazz fans. He is really prolific and considerably so. It wouldn't be a surprise that a solo career of his would be instantly gratifying and successful. However every career starts somewhere, whether it's a slow start, or a quick scale to the top. With this release, I feel like it's the former rather than the latter.

Let's start with the positives. I really dig the darker and more melancholic sound that this album exudes. It's well thought out and free form, it's quiet but loud at the same time. I also think the experimentation on this album is pretty interesting. You can tell Steven Wilson was trying new things on this album, at least somewhat. Steven's vocals are pretty tight too, lots of highs and lows, and it captures the music greatly and the tone he clearly wants to convey. I definitely feel the emotions Wilson is showcasing on this album. It is also pretty textural, a lot more use png quieter moments rather than loud and bombastic scores of the songs on his future releases. It's quite impressive on how differently this album can go from quiet and sad to loud and angry on a dime, while other bands would prefer to have some kinda build up, which is definitely a quality of life accomplishment that Steven provides.

But this album has quite a bit of problems. One such problem is that it feels like Steven Wilson is trying to make another Porcupine Tree record instead of it's own thing. Plus a good number of songs like Veneno Para Las Hadas and Get All You Deserve are fairly boring and forgettable. I can definitely tell Steven really was passionate about this album, but it was clearly at a time when he was passionate about Porcupine Tree which mixed with this album's sounds, making it rather unoriginal. I wouldn't mind if this was just a Porcupine Tree album, but this being a solo album makes this feel a tad weird next to his later works like The Raven That Refused To Sing and 4 1/2.

This is a weird album for me. It has a good amount of moments that are memorable and nice to me, but there are just some aspects that make me scratch my head. I would recommend this if you want a little bit more of that Porcupine Tree sound, but I wouldn't recommend this as the first Steven Wilson album to check out. It's fairly good, but it's not great.