DEADWING

This is hands down my favorite Porcupine Tree album and one of my favorite albums in existence.

I am a great fan of the abundance of genres mixed in to a cohesive fashion, but with the hard rock and accessible music being in the forefront. In other words, a great rocker album, which is exactly what Wilson and his buddies pulled off here.

The same line-up from before is brought here, with Wilson's partner in crime Mikael Akerfeldt doing some harmony vocals on a few track and a guitar solo in the epic 'Arriving Somewhere But Not Here'. Also, Adrian Belew from the King Crimson fame lays down a solo on 'Deadwing' and 'Halo'. I found it funny that the solos kind of had a 'Wilsonish' feel to them, which kind of makes it seem he is the influential artist.perhaps a sign of how far Steven Wilson has accomplished himself.

Every track on this album clicks in my eyes, whether it is prog or not is left open to interpretation but it doesn't matter to me, I am rating this as an album. If one were to say this was not a prog album.they can certainly state it is at least related, which should be good enough for anyone. I feel that the melody on this album has been the strongest in PT's long career and this release is up their as far as melancholy goes. There is an abundance of some real slow tempo tracks on here like 'Lazarus', 'Mellotron Scratch' and 'Glass Arm Shattering'. The most proggiest tracks on the album would have to be 'Arriving Somewhere But Not Here' and 'The Start of Something Beautiful' which both has some nice ambience, great choruses, short but sweet verses and plenty of space stuck in the middle where a guitar solo or buildup would fit right in. They are both more hard rock approaches and less of a psychedelic approach then 'Russia on Ice'. Nearly half of the album contains some strong intricate rock tracks which are 'Deadwing', 'Shallow', 'Halo' and 'Open Car'. Each of these songs is really nice tracks that just feel like some really good jams. 'Open Car' is the best out of these featuring some great vocal melodies. 'Deadwing', which is the opening track, really sets the stage for the album with some great relaxing chords put into the intro and some laid back vocals carrying the music. During the verse, it nearly sounds like some techno Porcupine Tree, collapsed by a hard rock chorus. A great way to open the album right up.and just smooth sailing from there.

I'd like to say that this album is essential, though I feel like some fans could find it offensive or some hardcore proggers would just denote this as crap. I listen to mostly prog because I just haven't been impressed by the things I have heard outside the genre. If this wasn't here, I would still love it just as much, I find this to be just a masterpiece of music. A very exceptional hard rock album.

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