Porcupine Tree
The Incident

Porcupine Tree - "The Incident"

What could we ever expect from the successor to "Fear of a Blank Planet"? An album that probably contains some good ideas and might even be pleasant to listen to, but from musical minds like Steven Wilson's, I'd say we should demand much more. That's the case with "The Incident," which makes its predecessor seem like a rather rough draft, probably also due to pressure from the new contract with RoadRunner Records.

The album is divided into two CDs, of which the first is entirely occupied by the title track, "The Incident," a long suite of a full 55 minutes composed in fourteen chapters, even though the division between chapters is quite distinct, not continuous as one might expect. The second disc can be considered a kind of EP alongside the main album, (which isn't meant to be a pejorative definition, on the contrary) probably to act as a complement, since making an album with a single suite would probably have been simply "too much."

If you've been to England, you certainly won't have difficulty associating landscape variety with the music on this album. Certainly not a novelty, but I think this reality is much more accentuated in the album.

Describing the suite in detail would be an overly prolix and verbose task, I'll just say that in this nearly hour-long "journey," we explore on one side all the territories where good Steven Wilson has already set foot, whether they are acoustic, ambient melodies or his typical (and I would dare say ingenious) riffs, heavy or not. On the other side, we also explore territories perhaps already hinted at in previous works, which are further explored, and others that are yet to be discovered. In short, a "cycle" that suite enthusiasts will certainly enjoy.

While the first disc probably had the role of a "typical gray and cloudy English day," the second disc delves into more nocturnal and ambient atmospheres, which sometimes touch on "Silent Hill-esque" peaks. "Flicker," "Bonnie The Cat," "Black Dahlia," and "Remember Me Lover" all represent that classic vein of Porcupine Tree, which, as Steven Wilson said in an interview, "the saddest music is also the most beautiful." Sad music is also the most beautiful.