Porcupine Tree: The Great Debate - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Boring-ass, overrated, uninspiring HEAVY PROG.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021

richardh wrote:

They were never really Progressive Metal although SW himself did at one time post a few messages on the site and admitted they got very close to it on Deadwing but still not all the way. I would love to see him post a response to those who think that PT were Neo Prog. Knowing his well documented objections to that movement it would be hilarious I expect!

I went for Heavy Prog although they have moved through at least 2 other genres early days - Psychedelic Rock/Space Rock and in between that and Heavy Prog I would go for the more vague Alternative Rock/Indie Rock

I also heard the same thing about Steven Wilson not wanting his band to be labelled as Neo-Prog, which is perfectly understandable when you consider they're a multi-genre band with a diverse range of musical styles which constantly changes from album to album. I could probably pick a Porcupine Tree album to closely match each of those very different eight genres listed above. For instance, I'd consider two of their more recent albums, "Deadwing" and "In Absentia" to be Progressive Metal, compared to some of their earliest albums which could be described as Post Rock or Psychedelic/Space Rock.

Hard to define, since they had quite a few different facets. I'll go for option number 1, but is not easy to define which category fits them best.

The last option

Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.

As the Silly Pup said, Heavy Prog fits best. If we were to break up the PT career in sections, it would be Psychedelic/Space Rock from "On the Sunday of Life" up through "The Sky Moves Sideways" (including all of the subsidiary albums like Voyage 34 and Moonloop), Heavy Prog from "Signify" to "Lightbulb Sun", Progressive Metal from "In Absentia" through "Fear of a Blank Planet", and finally back to Heavy Prog for "The Incident". That seems to fit it pretty well. Overall, Heavy Prog.

I've just twinned Psychedelic Rock with Space Rock in the poll, which is the same way those two genres are listed on ProgArchives, because it's not always easy to tell the difference between the two similar genres.

YESESIS wrote:

Neo-prog! No, in actuality I have no idea. But it's good that we're finally gonna get to the bottom of this. Right on OP.

I'm guessing Heavy Prog will win the poll, mainly because that's what Porcupine Tree are labelled as on ProgArchives, although strangely, I was tempted to vote Neo-Prog.

There's been a lot of healthy debate recently about Porcupine Tree and music genres generally. This is what it says about Porcupine Tree on ProgArchives:-

"Porcupine Tree are incredibly hard to describe because their music doesn't fit into any one genre. I like the description on the back of the album "Signify" (one of my all time favorites). It says "Porcupine Tree have managed to defy genres and blend together numerous ambient, rock and avant-garde styles to create a musical landscape that is both refreshing and compulsively seductive".

Porcupine Tree have been described as all of those genres listed in the poll on various websites, so if you had to choose just one genre from the above list which best describes Porcupine Tree's diverse musical range as a whole, which genre would you choose?

I'm going for Heavy Prog as a whole, although I think there are elements of all eight of those listed genres in Porcupine Tree's dynamic, ever-changing musical landscape.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - October 21 2019 at 08:17

Poll Question: Which music genre best describes Porcupine Tree?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Alternative Rock/Indie Rock	5	[13.89%]
Art Rock	1	[2.78%]
Experimental Rock	0	[0.00%]
Heavy Prog	22	[61.11%]
Neo-Prog	4	[11.11%]
Post-Progressive	1	[2.78%]
Progressive Metal	0	[0.00%]
Psychedelic Rock/Space Rock	3	[8.33%]
You can not vote in this poll