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Porcupine Tree - In Absentia CD (album) cover

IN ABSENTIA

Porcupine Tree

 

Heavy Prog

4.26 | 2774 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Treasure
4 stars ANNOUNCEMENT: Unless the song is very deserving, I'm gonna try to keep it shorter.

Porcupine Tree, my new favorites in prog rock. These guys, seriously take to another level. With the addition of Gavin Harrison, it only goes uphill from here.

Blackest Eyes, starts off with a cool little guitar line, then goes into this monster riff. This riff just takes music to a whole other level. It's basically amazing, and there's not much else I can say about it. Then it becomes this beautiful ballad with super tasty drumming from Harrison. The lyrics hint at murder I got a secret in my garden shed, I got people underneath my bed. Oddly enough these are sung at the nice softer part of the song. Overall AMAZING opening song. Epic. (10/10)

Trains is a folky little tune that really displays the band's softer side. A nice opening guitar. The chorus is very well written. (9/10)

Lips Of Ashes was pretty annoying at first, what with the weird noises. Then it became somewhat nice at the end, but not by much. (7/10)

The Sound Of Muzak, clearly an attack at the music industry. Starts off very cool with a very complex drumming line. Shows Wilson's thoughts on the world. Great song. (9/10)

Gravity Eyelids, I didn't like all that much. I found it sort of annoying. The chorus stinks. (6/10)

Wedding Nails, a mind bending instrumental to say the least. It's not annoying and repetitive like other instrumentals. Really cool. (9/10)

Prodigal is really nice ballad about a man who, I think, gets mugged and loses his faith. The chorus is really nice. I liked the ending section. (8/10)

3 is just well written and well executed. It's very interesting to listen to, especially once the guitars come in, halfway through. The orchestra at the end is nothing but beautiful. (9/10)

The Creator Has A Mastertape has easily become one of my favorite songs ever. The drumming makes me CRY. It's so intense and confusing. The bass line is amazing and the guitar effects are wicked. He's my take on the lyrics. A killer videotapes his brutal killing of an entire family and leaves the tape in a taxi cab. Random guy finds it and watches it and pretty much loses it and kills himself. Best song on the album. (10/10)

Heart Attack In A Layby is sort of a ballad/tune thing. It was pretty interesting, I think the story is of some guy who, you guessed it, has a heart attack in a layby. Maybe layby is British slang for something. Good song. (8.5/10)

Strip The Soul is starting with the bass intro, like a few songs on this record. This one is about a husband tying up his kids and being generally abusive, until he accidentaly kills one of them. Then he's trying to hide the body or destroy it. I guess he dismembers the body, due to the title being Strip The Soul. The guitar playing add an intense atmosphere, I really liked that. The drumming was pretty straightforward and the fills amazing as usual. This song is amazing. (10/10)

Collapse The Light Into The Earth is sort of random and reminds me a little of a Genesis track off of Wind and Wuthering. Didn't rub off all too well on me. (7/10)

Overall, I think Opeth rubbed off on Steven Wilson, because this record is very heavy. It deals with some heavy subjects too, like, murder, abuse and the music industry. It's a great release for them and garnered them a lot of attention in the prog community. I'm going to give it 4 Stars.

Treasure | 4/5 |

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