The album Deadwing was released in 2005 and is the second album by Porcupine Tree that I have listened to in one go. This also applies to the predecessor “In Absentia” and the successors “Fear of a Blank Planet” and “The Incident”. Reviews of the live albums „Octane Twisted“ and „Closure/Continuation“ is also from me. In 2017, Steven Wilson remastered this album. In 2021, Transmission released its spin-off in 130g black vinyl.

Steven Wilson is generally known as Porcupine Tree, the prog band of our time. And rightly so. Parts of his solo career are also worth listening to and will be followed by one or two reviews. I'll say right away that I'm an enthusiastic listener. That's why I have the double LP in the 2017 version remastered by the master himself, distributed by Transmission.

Deadwing is actually a ghost story, based on a screenplay co-written by Steven Wilson. It has not yet been made into a film, but to this recording. It is worth mentioning that Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth contributed to it.

The opener “Deadwing” is a masterpiece of prog “In a Nutshell”. It starts gently and playfully and then the driving beat sets in. Wavering guitars and then the hard ride to metallic heights. And then back to the beginning. Heart, what more could you want? “Shallow” sounds like hard rock at the beginning, then pop, then hard rock again. Good. With “Lazarus” the otherworldliness returns, with piano and gentle guitar. The song lives from the interplay of lyrics and music. For me the song would otherwise be too gentle. So pay attention to the lyrics. “Halo” lives from the beautiful bass line played by Colin Edwin. The band in general. At first congenial implementers of Wilson's philosophy, Porcupine Tree transformed from a solo thing into a band. Gavin Harrison on drums and Richard Barbieri on keyboards. Masters of their craft.
“Arriving somewhere but not here” is not only the longest song at 12:02, it is the heart of this album for me. Slightly psychedelic, wonderful lyrics and musically complex, but not over the top. There is structure behind it. And I like that! This feeling, there is work to create exactly this mood. Simply great cinema. With “Mellotron Scratch” things get calmer and more psychedelic for almost seven minutes. With a fine structure. The short “Open Car” brings us back into the world with hard riffs. “The Start of something beautifull” brings us more finely chiseled prog that can never get boring, because there is something to be said in between. Lyrics and music again on top. The last side begins with “Glass Arm Shattering” which is calmer and more dreamy. PT always manage to get a good change on Deadwing. “So called friend” is wilder again. “Half Light” is again a dreamy song and a good end to the album.

Conclusion? Buy it. If you like prog, you'll find what you're looking for here. Porcupine Tree doesn't make simple music. Everything is exactly where it should be. Every beat, every line of the song is in the right place. It suits my taste, is technically sublime and not mainstream. So check it off.

The photos are all from my LP. The rights to all motifs, logos, texts and fonts that can be seen in the photos are of course owned by the copyright holder.