If you’ve been a metal fan at any point during this millennium, chances are good you’ve heard of Porcupine Tree. Chances are equally good that you’ve also heard them, whether you found them on their own or had one of your hip underground friends thrust them upon you. It never hurts a band’s credibility when one of your biggest fans is Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt. Ultimately, people either got it or they didn’t, embracing the band’s solid songwriting and musicianship or loathing their mellow, often trippy progressive leanings. That being said, if you fall into the latter category, there is no more for you to read here. For the rest of us, Deadwing simply continues Porcupine Tree’s legacy of greatness.
The title track kicks things off by flip-flopping between their more traditional laid-back sound and heavy passages, and in my opinion, this is where the band is at their best, blending the two contrasting, yet complementary, styles together into a seemless 9-minute journey. On the other hand, “Shallow” focuses almost entirely on the heavy, sounding a bit like a not-so-depressed Tool. This one is damn near impossible not to enjoy, instantly catchy and memorable. Time to take things back a bit with the mellow, piano-driven “Lazarus”, a stark contract to the previous two tracks, yet still sounding entirely in place here. “Halo” is next, with it’s bass-driven verses laying down a nice groove with heavier choruses and solos and a pounding outro. The 12 minute “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” has an epic feel with 6+ mellow minutes followed by 2+ heavy minutes and 4+ more mellow minutes. I wish I had a lyric sheet with me so I could tell you for sure if the music follows the story. That pretty much sums up the album, with the remaining five tracks all playing around with the same elements in different variations. Of note is another heavy track, “Open Car”, the bluesy “Shesmovedon”, and the psychedelic, Pink Floyd-esque “Glass Arm Shattering”.
In short, Deadwing is another great album from the great Porcupine Tree. Not much more need be said.
