PORCUPINE TREE

Non-Metal / Metal Related / Alternative Metal • United Kingdom
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Porcupine Tree is a progressive/aternative rock band formed in England.

Porcupine Tree began as a joke between Steven Wilson and Malcolm Stocks in 1987, the joke being Porcupine Tree being a long-forgotten 70's space rock band. This joke was shown on their debut 'On the Sunday of Life'. Soon, Steven Wilson had Porcupine Tree evolved from a joke to a heavy space rock band.

After four releases, Porcupine Tree took an alternative rock/progressive rock path with the releases 'Stupid Dream' and 'Lightbulb Sun'. These albums still contain metal influences and space-rock atmospheres, but are mostly based in prog/alt rock

In 2002, Porcupine Tree released their 'In Absentia' album. This album showed Porcupine Tree including even more metal elements. This in turn led to 2005's 'Deadwing', their heaviest album up until that point. The band continued with their metal style until they went on hiatus in 2010 after the release of 'The
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Thanks to The Angry Scotsman for the addition and Lynx33, Unitron, adg211288, Bosh66 for the updates

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PORCUPINE TREE Discography

PORCUPINE TREE albums / top albums

PORCUPINE TREE On The Sunday Of Life album cover 2.80 | 21 ratings
On The Sunday Of Life
Non-Metal 1992
PORCUPINE TREE Up The Downstair album cover 3.01 | 23 ratings
Up The Downstair
Non-Metal 1993
PORCUPINE TREE The Sky Moves Sideways album cover 3.76 | 27 ratings
The Sky Moves Sideways
Non-Metal 1995
PORCUPINE TREE Signify album cover 3.61 | 23 ratings
Signify
Non-Metal 1996
PORCUPINE TREE Stupid Dream album cover 4.13 | 29 ratings
Stupid Dream
Non-Metal 1999
PORCUPINE TREE Lightbulb Sun album cover 3.99 | 35 ratings
Lightbulb Sun
Non-Metal 2000
PORCUPINE TREE In Absentia album cover 4.34 | 91 ratings
In Absentia
Metal Related 2002
PORCUPINE TREE Deadwing album cover 4.37 | 76 ratings
Deadwing
Metal Related 2005
PORCUPINE TREE Fear Of A Blank Planet album cover 4.22 | 85 ratings
Fear Of A Blank Planet
Metal Related 2007
PORCUPINE TREE The Incident album cover 3.93 | 57 ratings
The Incident
Metal Related 2009
PORCUPINE TREE Closure/Continuation album cover 3.87 | 10 ratings
Closure/Continuation
Metal Related 2022

PORCUPINE TREE EPs & splits

PORCUPINE TREE Moonloop album cover 3.19 | 4 ratings
Moonloop
Non-Metal 1994
PORCUPINE TREE Staircase Infinities album cover 3.81 | 11 ratings
Staircase Infinities
Non-Metal 1994
PORCUPINE TREE Nil Recurring album cover 3.86 | 29 ratings
Nil Recurring
Metal Related 2007
PORCUPINE TREE IA / DW / XT album cover 4.00 | 1 ratings
IA / DW / XT
Metal Related 2023

PORCUPINE TREE live albums

PORCUPINE TREE Coma Divine: Recorded Live In Rome album cover 4.34 | 9 ratings
Coma Divine: Recorded Live In Rome
Non-Metal 1997
PORCUPINE TREE XM album cover 4.00 | 5 ratings
XM
Metal Related 2003
PORCUPINE TREE Warszawa album cover 4.17 | 9 ratings
Warszawa
Non-Metal 2004
PORCUPINE TREE XMII album cover 4.30 | 6 ratings
XMII
Non-Metal 2005
PORCUPINE TREE Rockpalast album cover 4.03 | 6 ratings
Rockpalast
Metal Related 2006
PORCUPINE TREE Atlanta album cover 4.65 | 8 ratings
Atlanta
Metal Related 2010
PORCUPINE TREE Octane Twisted album cover 3.97 | 6 ratings
Octane Twisted
Metal Related 2012

PORCUPINE TREE demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

PORCUPINE TREE Tarquin's Seaweed Farm album cover 2.71 | 3 ratings
Tarquin's Seaweed Farm
Non-Metal 1989
PORCUPINE TREE Love, Death & Mussolini album cover 3.00 | 3 ratings
Love, Death & Mussolini
Non-Metal 1990
PORCUPINE TREE The Nostalgia Factory album cover 3.07 | 3 ratings
The Nostalgia Factory
Non-Metal 1991
PORCUPINE TREE Radio Active album cover 3.36 | 3 ratings
Radio Active
Non-Metal 1992
PORCUPINE TREE Spiral Circus album cover 3.74 | 4 ratings
Spiral Circus
Non-Metal 1994
PORCUPINE TREE Insignificance album cover 4.16 | 6 ratings
Insignificance
Non-Metal 1997
PORCUPINE TREE Metanoia album cover 2.84 | 11 ratings
Metanoia
Non-Metal 1998
PORCUPINE TREE Coma Divine II album cover 3.81 | 4 ratings
Coma Divine II
Non-Metal 1999
PORCUPINE TREE Stars Die: Rare And Unreleased album cover 3.17 | 3 ratings
Stars Die: Rare And Unreleased
Non-Metal 1999
PORCUPINE TREE Transmission IV album cover 4.08 | 3 ratings
Transmission IV
Non-Metal 2001
PORCUPINE TREE Futile album cover 3.71 | 9 ratings
Futile
Metal Related 2003
PORCUPINE TREE Delerium EP album cover 3.12 | 4 ratings
Delerium EP
Non-Metal 2003
PORCUPINE TREE Porcupine Tree Sampler 2005 album cover 2.00 | 1 ratings
Porcupine Tree Sampler 2005
Non-Metal 2005
PORCUPINE TREE Porcupine Tree Sampler 2008 album cover 2.00 | 1 ratings
Porcupine Tree Sampler 2008
Non-Metal 2008
PORCUPINE TREE We Lost The Skyline album cover 3.71 | 5 ratings
We Lost The Skyline
Non-Metal 2008
PORCUPINE TREE Ilosaarirock album cover 3.88 | 4 ratings
Ilosaarirock
Metal Related 2009

PORCUPINE TREE re-issues & compilations

PORCUPINE TREE Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape album cover 3.96 | 3 ratings
Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape
Non-Metal 1994
PORCUPINE TREE Voyage 34: The Complete Trip album cover 3.65 | 10 ratings
Voyage 34: The Complete Trip
Non-Metal 2000
PORCUPINE TREE Recordings album cover 4.39 | 9 ratings
Recordings
Non-Metal 2001
PORCUPINE TREE Stars Die: The Delerium Years 1991–1997 album cover 3.88 | 4 ratings
Stars Die: The Delerium Years 1991–1997
Non-Metal 2002

PORCUPINE TREE singles (14)

.. Album Cover
3.75 | 2 ratings
Voyage 34
Non-Metal 1992
.. Album Cover
2.75 | 2 ratings
Voyage 34: Remixes
Non-Metal 1993
.. Album Cover
4.12 | 4 ratings
Waiting
Non-Metal 1996
.. Album Cover
3.83 | 3 ratings
Piano Lessons
Non-Metal 1999
.. Album Cover
3.83 | 3 ratings
Stranger By The Minute
Non-Metal 1999
.. Album Cover
3.12 | 4 ratings
Pure Narcotic
Non-Metal 1999
.. Album Cover
3.83 | 3 ratings
Four Chords That Made A Million
Non-Metal 2000
.. Album Cover
3.31 | 4 ratings
Shesmovedon
Non-Metal 2000
.. Album Cover
3.50 | 3 ratings
Lazarus
Metal Related 2005
.. Album Cover
3.67 | 3 ratings
Shallow
Alternative Metal 2005
.. Album Cover
3.00 | 2 ratings
Fear Of A Blank Planet
Alternative Metal 2007
.. Album Cover
3.00 | 2 ratings
Way Out Of Here
Metal Related 2007
.. Album Cover
3.00 | 2 ratings
Bonnie The Cat
Alternative Metal 2010
.. Album Cover
3.00 | 2 ratings
Time Flies
Non-Metal 2011

PORCUPINE TREE movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

.. Album Cover
4.40 | 12 ratings
Arriving Somewhere...
Metal Related 2006
.. Album Cover
4.85 | 11 ratings
Anesthetize
Metal Related 2010

PORCUPINE TREE Reviews

PORCUPINE TREE Octane Twisted

Live album · 2012 · Metal Related
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Warthur
The Incident had a somewhat mixed reception as far as Porcupine Tree albums go, and heralded the start of the hiatus which was only alleviated just recently with the release of Closure/Continuation. Octane Twisted, then, is one of the last documents of the pre-hiatus version of Porcupine Tree, hailing as it does from the Incident tour and leading off with the 55-minute song cycle which formed the first CD of that album in initial versions. (More recent rereleases take the less wasteful and more economical approach of putting all the songs on one CD - for they will fit.)

As it stands, I think I faintly prefer this live rendition of the epic to the version on the album - it feels a bit looser, more organic, the band a little more comfortable with the direction it represents. Following this up with a nicely selected clutch of tracks from across the Porcupine Tree back catalogue, Octane Twisted is about as good a presentation as this material had.

Nonetheless, I don't find it as compelling as, say, the live albums from the Fear of a Blank Planet period, the band feeling perhaps a touch tired at this point - suggesting that the hiatus was, perhaps, a creatively necessary and inevitable thing at this point. It's also hard to deny that things perk up a bit on the second half; The Incident has its merits, but it still feels like it wasn't quite the album it could be, that something was a little askew in the process which prevented it from hitting the standards of preceding albums.

PORCUPINE TREE Atlanta

Live album · 2010 · Metal Related
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Warthur
Recorded on the Fear of a Blank Planet tour, this show from (as the title implies) Atlanta was one of several considered for a live release, before the band eventually settled on the show from Holland to form the basis of the Anesthetize live album and blu-ray.

Eventually, Atlanta would see release on a download basis (initially to raise some money to help Japan bassist Mick Karn's family during his final illness), and whilst its set list has much in common with Anesthetize, the atmosphere here is so absolutely electric that many Porcupine Tree fanatics will want to have both shows to hand, and the slightly shorter track list makes the thing more digestible to boot.

This is absolutely the sort of thing you could put on to instantly hook a curious listener on the late 2000s sound of Porcupine Tree, with an excellent group of songs drawing heavily on In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet, with a pinch from Nil Recurring and some archival dives into Stupid Dream and Signify to round out the running time.

By this point, Porcupine Tree had honed their sound wonderfully, intensive gigging having refined the Blank Planet material to perfection. Whilst prior phases of the band could be pigeonholed as space rock or indie-prog, here the group were in a sonic realm all of their own, following no bandwagon or genre and guided only by their own inspiration. The result is marvellous.

PORCUPINE TREE We Lost The Skyline

Promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs) · 2008 · Non-Metal
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Warthur
This is an intriguing live release sourced from a Porcupine Tree appearance at a Florida record shop. Due to the constraints of the venue, a full band performance proved impossible, so the band adapted and instead offered up a trimmed-down unit of just Steven Wilson and John Wesley, performing trimmed-down arrangements of some of their material.

Though this is not quite an "unplugged" set - Wesley is backing on electric guitar, Wilson uses electric guitar at points - there's enough focus on Wilson's acoustic guitar to give it that sort of vibe, and this casts the material in a very different light, like a matured take on the indie rock-influenced direction the band took around the time of Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, and Recordings. Still, despite that point of comparison it's a unique entry in the band's discography, and it's perhaps a strength of these songs that they lend themselves to this sort of very minimalistic interpretation just as much as the lusher incarnations we are more used to.

PORCUPINE TREE Ilosaarirock

Promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs) · 2009 · Metal Related
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Warthur
This is one of several live releases which capture Porcupine Tree performing in the wake of Fear of a Blank Planet, perhaps the height of their 2000s powers before 2009's The Incident split opinions and took a little of the shine off the band.

As the title implies, it's taken from their appearance the Isolaarirock Festival in Finland, and as is often the case with festival sets that makes it a somewhat different beast from live releases sourced from a concert where the act in question is headlining. The necessity to stick to a festival running time prompts Porcupine Tree to pick out a setlist tightly focused on more immediately gripping songs, and whilst it also limits the extent to which they can zoot off on flights of fancy, this nonetheless is a capably performed set performed for a clearly appreciative crowd.

Save for Lightbulb Sun, only songs from In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet are included, and on the whole the setlist makes a good case for the band's 2000s-era output.

PORCUPINE TREE Nil Recurring

EP · 2007 · Metal Related
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Warthur
Nil Recurring is a fairly simple EP to review in some respects. Did you like Fear of a Blank Planet? Would you like more Porcupine Tree in that particular vein, consisting of a brace of songs (some devised in those sessions, some only coming together afterwards)? Does the idea of Robert Fripp paying a visit to lend his guitar and some blessing to a band as important to progressive rock in the 2000s as King Crimson was in their heyday appeal to you? Then you probably already have listened to Nil Recurring - but if you haven't, don't snooze on it, because whilst some secondary Porcupine Tree releases are a little ancillary (Metanoia, for instance, is an acquired taste), Nil Recurring is of much the same standard as the album that preceded it.

Or do you think Fear of a Blank Planet was rubbish? I don't agree with you... but Nil Recurring won't persuade you to like this phase of Porcupine Tree any more than you already do.

PORCUPINE TREE Movies Reviews

PORCUPINE TREE Anesthetize

Movie · 2010 · Metal Related
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Warthur
Porcupine Tree's live performances in the wake of Fear of a Blank Planet are pretty well-documented - as well as this live release you also have live albums like Atlanta, Ilosaarirock, and We Lost the Skyline from this era - but Anesthetize deserves to stand head and shoulders above all but Atlanta, which is close to the same standard but a mite shorter. Released both as audio and as a DVD of the performance, it's a stunning performance which sees them offering a host of compelling tracks from what at this point was a very rich repertoire indeed. After this would come the Incident and then the hiatus, but for my money this perhaps represents the peak of what Porcupine Tree were doing in the 2000s.

PORCUPINE TREE Arriving Somewhere...

Movie · 2006 · Metal Related
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Warthur
Focusing on the more metal-oriented material from Deadwing and In Absentia - though notably steering it back in a more rock-oriented direction in order to allow this material to sit a little more comfortably beside the "indie prog rock" stylings of Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun and Recordings (picks from all of which surface here). Fans of their earlier psychedelic and space rock styles might be disappointed that those aren't represented, but on the plus side there's a liberal sprinkling of rarities here such as the glorious Buying New Soul as well as Revenant, So-Called Friend and Mother and Child Divided, those three songs having only appeared on various special editions of Deadwing. Not the definitive Porcupine Tree live experience, but a pretty decent one nonetheless.

PORCUPINE TREE Shouts

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more than 2 years ago
Their heavy stuff is heavy enough for inclusion in the MMA. Note that the MMA is album-based, so, even though PT are not a metal band, they are included because of their metal-oriented albums. And I fully support their inclusion.
Metallica999 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Their later stuff is heavier, but they are not really a metal band. Definitely worth checking if you are a fan of prog music though.
m@x wrote:
more than 2 years ago
OK, which albums is more metal ?

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