PORCUPINE TREE: The Incident

Produced by Porcupine Tree
Released: September 2009

With The Incident, Porcupine Tree continue to their affirm their status as the pre-eminent progressive rock band in the world today. While their style continues to creep closer and closer into metal territory thanks to Steven Wilson's growing obsession with that genre's more experimental outfits like Opeth and Gojira, they remain a band with a style uniquely their own and one which refuses to be pinned down.


Porcupine Tree paint with a broad palatte and over the course of its 55 minutes the 14-part title track journeys through rock, folk, metal and industrial elements. This part of the album is an exploration of the modern media phenomonon of dehumanising traumatic events, a suite of tracks about the beginnings and endings that erupt from sudden and often violent life-changing events. Musically then, this first CD is like a modern reimagining of Pink Floyd's Animals album crossed with Hemispheres by Rush, blended with bombastic guitar outbursts and grooves borrowed from TOOL ("Occam's Razor", "Circle of Manias") occasional Reznor-ish electronic moments ("The Incident") and extended introspective passages like "The Seance" and the middle section of the 12-minute "Time Flies", a track that in itself represents a microcosm of the entire album. After erupting with explosions of guitar, the first part of the album closes with "I Drive the Hearse" drifting quietly away on rafts of synths and electric pianos. Throughout, Porcupine Tree ties everything together virtually seamlessly by relying on the power of Wilson's songwriting rather than overindulgent displays of their obviously vast musical ability, and while it's very apparent that "The Incident" is very much Wilson's project, he never overplays his hand, always allowing his fellow bandmates plenty of space to add their own individual touches.

The album's second CD contains four songs totally unrelated both of to "The Incident" and to each other, however they all share the same sense of weary foreboding. They also explore Porcupine Tree's heavier and (if that's possible) even darker side, particularly "Bonnie the Cat" with its menacing guitars and Wilson's equally threatening, whispered promise: "I know what will be". These tracks, while never approaching the same level of heaviness, to some degree do reflect Wilson's Opethian muse and prehaps foretell the coming of an even heavier and bleaker Porcupine Tree to come. Whatever the case, The Incident maintains the band's place at the forefront of intelligent rock music and easily matches it with the best releases of this year.

CD 1:

1. The Incident - i. Occam's Razor ii. The Blind House iii. Great Expectations iv. Kneel and Disconnect v. Drawing the Line vi. The Incident vii. Your Unpleasant Family viii. The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train ix. Time Flies x. Degree Zero of Liberty xi. Octane Twisted xii. The Seance xiii. Circle of Manias xiv. I Drive the Hearse

CD 2:

1. Flicker
2. Bonnie the Cat
3. Black Dahlia
4. Remember Me Lover

Rating: 95%