From the start-the track “Blackest Eyes”-the band adds what are arguably the heaviest guitars they had employed to date, yet mixes it with catchy, more acoustic rock. Porcupine Tree provided this in loads on In Absentia. Certainly, The band’s signing to Lava Records allowed the band a wider commercial release but. As we know, though, that’s only half of the equation: you need solid music to match if you want true success. Earlier releases-2000’s Lightbulb Sun and 1999’s Stupid Dream-added a little more heavy metal to the band’s poppy progressive rock/space rock sound, but they weren’t exactly getting the traction and legendary status that we consider the band to have now. Although Porcupine Tree had been around since 1987, they hadn’t really had any massive hits until 2002’s In Absentia. And it remains one of the seminal progressive albums of the modern era. It set a new standard for what Steven Wilson and his band were capable of musically. It arguably blurred the lines between prog rock and metal. In Absentia was a lot of things for a lot of people. Any die-hard fan of progressive rock/metal should know this album by now: Porcupine Tree’s In Absentia-arguably the best album the band has put out to date.īut while Porcupine Tree is on hiatus, and Steven Wilson’s general focus has shifted to his solo work (and a Blackfield album that he had little to no input on), one can’t forget the impact that this album has had on the rock and metal community.

Steven Wilson’s voice fills my ears as “Trains” enters its chorus: “Always the summers are slipping away / Find me a way for making it stay.” It’s simultaneously sad and beautiful, and, in my opinion, couldn’t have been played at a more poignant time. I’m listening to an album that had come out a little over ten years ago, but to me it’s as new as if it had come out yesterday.

While maintenance starts up their front-end loaders to clear the parking lots, I walk to class, headphones on, my hair flapping in the wind. The first New Hampshire snowfall just stopped, and the college campus is now covered in the white stuff.

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