THE INCIDENT

Despite releasing a string of consistently very good/excellent albums over the years the current decade has seen Porcupine Tree find a place they're comfortable with and hardly wandered from it. This is all well and good to a point, at least you know what to expect and if you enjoy their atmospheric heavier blend of prog, sometimes venturing into metal, then you're bound to find something you enjoy as the trend continues with The Incident.

The Incident is a double cd with the second disc being more of an EP consisting of four shorter songs, but more of this later. It's the first disc that's understandably going to get most attention and as has been highly publicised, consists of a single piece titled you've guessed it, The Incident. In reality it's more a sequence of shorter tracks segued together. The main meat and potatoes of the piece is made up of a number of tracks, often around the five minute mark joined by shorter sometimes atmospheric and occasional ambient sections. Only one part breaks the ten minute barrier (Time Flies) which sometimes leaves the listener wanting a bit more of certain bits as it disappears for good after a short stay. Time Flies allows the ideas to be extended a bit further but it's by no means a startling piece of music. A decent enough acoustic guitar led verse/chorus leads into Floyd territory with a guitar sound reminiscent of Dave Gilmour on Time from Dark Side Of The Moon which develops into an admittedly excellent guitar solo but you have to say they've done better.

The Incident does have some excellent moments though, none better than early on when The Blind House comes in after the heavy crashing, sustained chords of opening mood piece Occam's Razor. It's built around a dark riff, reminiscent of Opeth with a contrastingly melodic verse/chorus. Great Expectations, though short has a King Crimson style guitar riff and melodic vocals and it's one of those areas you wish they'd expanded on a bit more as after only one and a half minutes it's over and we're into the almost as short Kneel And Disconnect which is not half as good.

Drawing The Line is one of the weaker songs with its grating chorus but much better is The Incident where a sequenced keyboard gives way to an extremely dirty riff with some excellent drumming from Gavin Harrison, who incidentally as always plays impeccably but seems to get fewer opportunities to shine than usual on this album.

Some of the stronger moments are towards the end of the album with the lovely; to begin with at least, Octane Twisted which could have sat nicely on Stupid Dream until the metallic riffing starts and it's a dark piece of contrasts. The Séance sees a return to the mellower strains of the start of Octane Twisted which leads into the powerful riff of Circle Of Manias. The Incident closes on a high with a suitably melodic ballad, I Drive The Hearse.

Getting back to the four shorter tracks on the second disc, although a welcome addition to the main body of work, they do seem somewhat out of place. It might have worked better with another full disc. Still all four are pretty good but pick of the bunch goes to Bonnie The Cat with its inventive rhythmic structure as Wilson talks in synch over it.

There's no doubt The Incident is another very good album from Porcupine Tree but in the pecking order of their back catalogue it is their weakest since Lightbulb Sun. Still most fans of the band will not be overly disappointed; there is much to enjoy here. 3 ½ stars.