Devin’s voice hardens, whispers: “Ready?”, and thick guitars appear, along with a hammering snare drum that gives the song a new intensity. Then come Mikael Akerfeldt’s (Opeth, Bloodbath) big death voice, deep choirs and an assortment of overlapping voices.

This made me wet.

That does indeed sound epic

Devin’s voice hardens, whispers: “Ready?”, and thick guitars appear, along with a hammering snare drum that gives the song a new intensity. Then come Mikael Akerfeldt’s (Opeth, Bloodbath) big death voice, deep choirs and an assortment of overlapping voices.

This made me wet.

This made me queasy.

Devin’s voice hardens, whispers: “Ready?”, and thick guitars appear, along with a hammering snare drum that gives the song a new intensity. Then come Mikael Akerfeldt’s (Opeth, Bloodbath) big death voice, deep choirs and an assortment of overlapping voices.

This made me wet.

This made me queasy.

This made me lulz.

Well, probably won't be too long now, but I'm buying it anyway, so I won't feel bad.



Overall, it's gonna be kinda sad for me when these 2 records come out, as they're the first Devy records to come out since I became a fan (right after Addicted was released), & I've never been this excited about any other release by any band.

Oh well, at least we'll have Z2 soon after.

Same here for me; right down to becoming a fan after Addicted came out. It will be kind of sad, in a way, because I've been anticipating Deconstruction and Ghost since January 2010... I was so ridiculously pumped up, too, when I found out Dev had finally gotten the ball rolling on recording them in August. When June finally comes around, my mind'll be blown, but... I won't have any musical masterpieces to look forward to, possibly for a long while. The only other time I was even close to being this excited over new music was when Porcupine Tree released The Incident in 2009... though, somehow, I don't think Decon and Ghost will be disappointments to me like that one was. No matter how sad I'll be for no longer being able to anticipate them... it'll all be made up for by being able to actually listen to them, I'm sure.

(IMO, The incident is pretty lackluster and jumbled - good album, but it's no where near the quality of In Absentia/Deadwing/Fear of a Blank Planet)

Decon cover.

I lol'd, haha.

The Incident was a pretentious mess and I'm upset that it was the album it was.

Likewise, I have some faith in Steven's songwriting after hearing a few tracks from the new Blackfield. I do think the days of him writing masterpieces may be very, very limited from here on out though.

The Incident was a pretentious mess and I'm upset that it was the album it was.

Likewise, I have some faith in Steven's songwriting after hearing a few tracks from the new Blackfield. I do think the days of him writing masterpieces may be very, very limited from here on out though.

Agreed. Fear of a Blank Planet was pretty great (I thought); Anesthetize being one of my favorite songs of all time... but what happened after that? It's like he worked on and released Insurgentes (once again, a great album) way, way too close to The Incident, and it just left the latter burnt out and lacking in good ideas as a result. I'm not even sure if I'd call it pretentious; just... disorganized and rehashed, really. The 55 minute 'epic' just feels like a million smaller songs pieced together, and even after hearing the whole thing live, it still strikes me as pretty unimpressive. Themes aren't elaborated on and original ideas are few and far between... just left me disappointed and yearning for more, basically, being a huge PT fan.

Haven't heard the new Blackfield album yet, but I'm hoping it'll renew my faith in Steven's abilities. He's got his next (double!) solo album coming out in September, so that should be a pretty good idea as to what we can expect him here on out. Hopefully, his 'break' of sorts from releasing new music last year gave him time to recharge, so he'll be back strong as ever this fall, with all the projects he's been involved with coming out.

...on-topic about Deconstruction - the description of the title track in the review got me thinking... anyone ever see that video on Youtube where Dev was playing Decon samples to a crowd? I'm pretty sure it was at one of his acoustic shows; he was air-guitaring along with one of the riffs, and there was a sample of someone puking at one point; people were laughing. Pretty sure that might be from title track, though it's just a hunch. I'll have to try and find the clip; it was forever ago when I watched it...

really unsure how anyone can enjoy Porcupine Tree from In Absentia onward and not get a lot out of "Blind House," "Drawing the Line," "Time Flies," and "I Drive the Hearse." cohesiveness of the whole be damned, they're some of the best songs in the PT catalog from a compositional standpoint.

re: Deconstruction, i'm extremely excited about "Praise the Lowered" beginning with the ambient stuff from the end of "Awake." i had been assuming it was gonna open up like an SYL record or smth, with heaviness up front; sounds like the musical cohesiveness of this tetralogy is going to be unrivalled!

really unsure how anyone can enjoy Porcupine Tree from In Absentia onward and not get a lot out of "Blind House," "Drawing the Line," "Time Flies," and "I Drive the Hearse." cohesiveness of the whole be damned, they're some of the best songs in the PT catalog from a compositional standpoint.

re: Deconstruction, i'm extremely excited about "Praise the Lowered" beginning with the ambient stuff from the end of "Awake." i had been assuming it was gonna open up like an SYL record or smth, with heaviness up front; sounds like the musical cohesiveness of this tetralogy is going to be unrivalled!

Never said I don't enjoy those tracks; I was just saying the lack of cohesiveness overall is something that really bothered me, because it's something that PT is normally VERY good at incorporating into their albums. It's one of the band's biggest strengths, IMO; thus, why it's absence on The Incident was such a disappointment, to me. The Blind House, The Incident (title track), Time Flies, Octane Twisted/The Seance/Circle of Manias, Bonnie the Cat and more are all great songs on their own, but... even then, there's precious little 'new' material to be found in them. I'm not asking for PT to reinvent themselves with every album (leave that to Ulver), but whenever I listen to any of those songs, I just feel... sort of like I've heard them before, on other PT albums. It's probably just me, but it's how I feel. I do agree, though, when taken on their own - with no comparison to any of PT's past work, or the role they play in-album - they're all pretty awesome.

I second being excited about Deconstruction beginning where Awake!! left off, too. Dream Theater can be a little overly pretentious at times (I think) but I thought it was really cool how each album began with the last note of their last effort, and ended with (what would become) the first note of their next effort. I was kind of hoping Decon would begin quietly, too, for some reason or another... just makes the build-up to the inevitable 'WHAM' moment (where you're hit with the wall of sound for the first time) even more exciting. Not to mention making the intro to the 'musical' all the more epic...

I wouldn't base the future of Steven Wilsons songwriting on the new blackfield album. I think he wrote just one of the tracks

I wouldn't base the future of Steven Wilsons songwriting on the new blackfield album. I think he wrote just one of the tracks

Yeah, he just wrote Waving which is sounds like a song he could have written in his sleep. It's still an ok album though.

The Incident was a pretentious mess and I'm upset that it was the album it was.

Likewise, I have some faith in Steven's songwriting after hearing a few tracks from the new Blackfield. I do think the days of him writing masterpieces may be very, very limited from here on out though.

Agreed. Fear of a Blank Planet was pretty great (I thought); Anesthetize being one of my favorite songs of all time... but what happened after that? It's like he worked on and released Insurgentes (once again, a great album) way, way too close to The Incident, and it just left the latter burnt out and lacking in good ideas as a result. I'm not even sure if I'd call it pretentious; just... disorganized and rehashed, really. The 55 minute 'epic' just feels like a million smaller songs pieced together, and even after hearing the whole thing live, it still strikes me as pretty unimpressive. Themes aren't elaborated on and original ideas are few and far between... just left me disappointed and yearning for more, basically, being a huge PT fan.

Haven't heard the new Blackfield album yet, but I'm hoping it'll renew my faith in Steven's abilities. He's got his next (double!) solo album coming out in September, so that should be a pretty good idea as to what we can expect him here on out. Hopefully, his 'break' of sorts from releasing new music last year gave him time to recharge, so he'll be back strong as ever this fall, with all the projects he's been involved with coming out.

...on-topic about Deconstruction - the description of the title track in the review got me thinking... anyone ever see that video on Youtube where Dev was playing Decon samples to a crowd? I'm pretty sure it was at one of his acoustic shows; he was air-guitaring along with one of the riffs, and there was a sample of someone puking at one point; people were laughing. Pretty sure that might be from title track, though it's just a hunch. I'll have to try and find the clip; it was forever ago when I watched it...

There is a clip on youtube of him playing the first 2 mins of the title track as part of a guitar dual with ziltoid. i can tell its the title track coz its on the 1st decon update and u can make out the background vocals repeating "cheeseburger". Just the 1st 2 mins were enough to blow my head off, and according to the review it gets more insane and intense

^If anyone of you could locate that clip, I'll be forever thankful!

^If anyone of you could locate that clip, I'll be forever thankful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMp3cyA0Vw

Wade through the first minute or two, and then things start getting interesting. Quality isn't the greatest, but this is the only complete one I ever remembered seeing. The title track sounds predictably awesome/chaotic.

THANKS!

Wow... just wow. I think I should get in a coma or something until June 20th. Then again, reading for exams is pretty much just that.

THANKS!

Wow... just wow. I think I should get in a coma or something until June 20th. Then again, reading for exams is pretty much just that.

No problem man.

I wouldn't base the future of Steven Wilsons songwriting on the new blackfield album. I think he wrote just one of the tracks

Really? I had no idea... not especially familiar with all of his work with Aviv; I just figured he dominated the project, seeing as he tends to do that with a lot of other stuff he's involved in. I guess his solo album coming out in September should give us a pretty good idea of where he is these days, musically; it's supposed to be two 40 minute discs worth of material, and darker than his previous solo outing, Insurgentes. Should be interesting how it turns out; I thought tracks like Abandoner and Salvaging were pretty dark to begin with...

On-topic about Deconstruction - I remember reading somewhere that Dev demoed some bits from Poltergeist in a video on Youtube (not one that he uploaded), but I have no idea where to look... anyone have any ideas?

Any word on a possible single from the album to be released?