DEADWING

The hardened sound developed by Porcupine Tree on "In Absentia" also sets the tone for their subsequent work, "Deadwing", the British band's eighth album. With the collaboration of Mikael Akerfeldt of Sweden's Opeth and Adrian Belew of King Crimson, the album is the reflection of a ghostly and dark script designed to be taken to the cinema, which Steven Wilson wrote together with the also British artist and director Mike Bennion, among other facets related to art.

From the opening "Deadwing" and Wilson's powerful guitar riffs backed by Gavin Harrison's consistent percussion and crowned by Belew's crimsonian solo, the musical proposal of the album flirts permanently with the most decibelic side of the genre, as for example with the virulent "Shallow" and its intoxicated volts, an unprecedented exercise for the band's standards, or with the excellent "Arriving Somewhere but Not Here", an extensive piece that moves between the intriguing synthesizers of Richard Barbieri and the megaphonic voice of Wilson, in a development that grows progressively and ends in an explosive and metal instrumental section complemented by the very good guitar solo of Akerfeldt, in one of the best pieces of the album, or with the forcefulness of "Open Car" and "The Start of Something Beautiful", both built on solid instrumental walls.

And to contrast the demanding pace of "Deadwing", the long-suffering and warm "Lazarus" with its peaceful piano and angelic vocal development, and the exhausted and atmospheric "Glass Arm Shattering" that doesn't lose its composure at any moment nor seems to have the strength to do so, give the calm and paused touch to one of the heaviest albums of the band.

Very good.

4 stars