This is one of my favourite albums ever. Six songs spread over four sides, this is as good as it gets. Now, I’ll admit I don’t play the vinyl very often, I usually play the surround sound because it’s just insanely sonically brilliant, so it was a pleasant surprise for this one to pop up today. This album, and the one that came next (Hand Cannot Erase), are Wilson’s finest achievements of all that he has done – including Porcupine Tree’s Fear Of A Blank Planet which I also hold in high regard. It helps when you have an amazing band, and in Marco Minneman and Guthrie Govan you have two musicians who are at the top of their game. Forget Pink Floyd, Yes, and King Crimson this is the best progressive album you will ever hear.
Starting off with the incredible Luminol which starts with an incredible instrumental groove that lasts for ages before the vocal kicks in, only for the insane instrumental groove to return. I mean, how good is that to open an album with? That’s side one done.
Drive Home, which there is an incredible stop motion animation video for, is such an incredible emotive song that will have tears coming to your eyes when the song reaches the incredible crescendo of Guthrie Govan’s guitar solo. My favourite track is The Watchmaker. This song just builds, and twists, and turns until again that incredible guitar solo just blows you away.
The whole album is based around ghost stories and the eeriest of them all is the title track which just send shivers down your spine. The Holy Drinker and The Pin Drop are very similar tracks in feel and vibe, but also incredible with a heavier vibe than the rest.
Steven Wilson is an incredible artist for sure but some of his warblings in recent interviews have been annoying to say the least. To say the guitar is a dead instrument is the one that irks me the most, especially when it has been such a stand out on all his material.
I digress, this gets (as did the Van Halen first album)…
1000/10 from The Grooveman.
