FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

Wow. Deadwing was quite a dissappointment (only by PT standards that is), but this one's much better. Maybe even better than In Absentia?[edit: no it is not] It's probably their heaviest album to date. It's best to listen to in one go, since the songs kinda flow together and create a 50-minute entirety.

The title track starts quietly and slowly gets heavier. Verrry nice chorus, and some memorable moments. My ashes is a beautiful acoustic track, sound like it could be from the 70's, with a modern twist. The masterpiece Anesthetize is the centerpiece of the album, a 17-minute epic of pure awesomness. Everything about it is just comletely perfect. It could be divided into three sections: the first one is kinda spacey an cool, reminds me of the early days but still has the "new" PT sound. There's also a solo by Alex Lifeson. The next section is probably the heaviest thing PT have and will ever accomplish.The last part is very mellow and calm, opposed to the the middle section. Sentimental is a beautiful track. Is very piano driven, and has kinda distorted sounding drums, that really fits the mood. It also shares the chorus with Normal, wich in my opinion is a better track than this one (but I agree with SW, this one fits better here). Next up is Way Out of Here, the other masterpiece of the album. It's a depresssive and dark track. My favourite parts are the chorus and the whole end part, where it just keeps getting heavier, and it really suits the feeling and the lyrics (wich appear to be about suicide if I'm not comletely mistaken). Nice. The closer, Sleep Together, is probably the weakest track here, still very good though. It starts with an eerie section thet gradually turns into a hard rock song, with some cool strings that really adds some color to the otherwise kinda samey song.

I can't think of a single bad thing about the record, and that's usually the sign of a very good record. The production is great, as on all PT albums. This is almost a masterpiece of prog so it will receive 4 stars from me.

Fans of this record, make sure to check out Nil Recurring. The songs there are just as good as these ones.