Porcupine Tree — The Incident

Despite the power chords that usher in this latest release from spacey English prog rockers Porcupine Tree, the band seem to be moving away from the metallic bombast of every one of their records since 2002's In Absentia.

While heaviness was always a factor in the Porcupine attack, it started to overwhelm the spacey elements that made them stand out in the mid-'90s with albums like The Sky Moves Sideways. Back then, they mirrored a '70s-style prog band that had connected with original fans of that era. Then, all of a sudden, crunching nu-metal guitars just seemed to take over.

Thankfully, The Incident bears more than a passing resemblance to early days with the return to multi-part epics (the title cut) and more of a soothing lushness that lures the listener in rather than generic guitar heaviness that sends you running for the remote. There's still guitars, but now they're not giving you a headache.

They may finally have realized the metal approach wasn't working, or just ended up back here naturally, but sometimes it seems you have to wander off for a bit to realize that you had it pretty good in the place you originally were.

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