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Porcupine Tree: The Incident
Porcupine Tree The Incident Steve Wilson new review

Porcupine Tree: The Incident

Art/Progressive Rock
Rating: 4.0/5.0

Roadrunner Records
www.porcupinetree.com
www.myspace.com/porcupinetree
Review: Craig Hartranft,  09.21.2009

Warning! The Incident is technically one song spread across an entire album. Therefore I must recommend buying the entire album and listening to it all in one go. This is how the album is meant to be listened to and will help you get the full experience out of The Incident.

Art rock and the concept album have always stood hand in hand with each other. Musicians with an artistic statement to make often turn to the concept album as a way of telling a story making a point. What that point is however, sometimes seems to get lost in the shuffle.

Enter Porcupine Tree. The group has gained a lot of respect in many circles for some truly progressive music. Now with The Incident, the band continues their art rock motif. The album is in fact just one long song and will be judged accordingly. Everything starts out in an almost normal way. The first two movements set the stage for the next few minutes with a hard rock feel before descending into slow bit. It doesn't take long before the album takes a sharp turn into insanity, around the time of the title track and doesn't look back. Special notice must be given to the eleven minute movement, Time Flies for recalling a Pink Floyd Animals feel. Afterwards, The Incident plays a trick on the mind, playing the same movement that began the album. However, something is different. As the movement progresses, it give and unsettling feeling of darkness. A feeling that after the album's decent into madness, nothing is the same. This echoes one of the main themes within The Incident, telling a story without words. The album continues with the same motions it went through at the beginning of the album of hard rock followed by soft bits. The next movement felt different that anything previously on the album. A slower rock part, speeding up over time. This led up to the conclusion, a slower movement with the most singing on the album and a brilliant guitar solo.

A story without words. Porcupine Tree seem to understand that trying to tell a deep story with only a concept album is a near impossible thing to do (I'm looking at you Coheed and Cambria). While the true concept is never flushed out in the music (a quick trip to Wikipedia can fix that however) it's better let the listener try to discern the concepts. I for one could feel a something progressing and building towards something. This is entirely my personal opinion and everyone who listens will most likely have something different to say about it. In metaphor form, Porcupine Tree is holding the brush and the paint in open hands, but it's up to the listener to paint what they want with it. It's basically what The Smashing Pumpkins almost didn't completely fail at with Machina/The Machines of God.

The Incident is an intimidating listen and those not comfortable with art rock or are used to concept albums spelling the story out for you may have some difficulty. If you are intrigued at all by the genre or a Porcupine Tree fan, The Incident will not disappoint.

In Short

The Incident is an intimidating listen and those not comfortable with art rock or are used to concept albums spelling the story out for you may have some difficulty. If you are intrigued at all by the genre or a Porcupine Tree fan, The Incident will not disappoint.

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