{"id":42898,"date":"2012-12-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/octane-twisted\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","slug":"octane-twisted","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/octane-twisted\/","title":{"rendered":"Octane Twisted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confession time: I feel like I\u2019m getting away with something by reviewing this album, inasmuch as, by the time Porcupine Tree\u2019s 2009 opus The Incident<\/i> drew my attention\u2014and blew my mind\u2014it had already been reviewed, and reviewed well<\/a> , by not one but two of my DV brethren. But Octane Twisted<\/i>, the new concert album consisting of a live rendering of the entire Incident <\/i>album, plus a second disc of highlights from PT\u2019s past, plus a concert DVD? Fair game, and off we go\u2026<\/p>\n

Porcupine Tree, the prog collective led by maestro\/songwriter\/producer\/singer\/guitarist\/sometimes-even-keyboardist Steven Wilson, feels like it draws from the same well of dark disillusion, studio trickery and guitar heroics as classic Pink Floyd, while evolving it to deliver tighter focus and a fair bit of prog-metal muscle. For its part, The Incident<\/i> is Wilson\u2019s most complete and powerful artistic accomplishment to date, a 14-part, 76-minute modern prog epic rife with imaginative arrangements, dramatic mood shifts and superb musical dynamics. Octane Twisted<\/i> captures a full rendition of The Incident<\/i> played for an appreciative Chicago crowd in April 2010.<\/p>\n

The opening \u201cOccam\u2019s Razor\u201d (like its later echo \u201cDegree Zero Of Liberty\u201d) is elegant in its simplicity, a sort of musical overture leading into the alternately driving and melodic \u201cThe Blind House.\u201d From there, the epic cycle unfolds with one stunning moment after another, an early climax arriving with \u201cDrawing The Line.\u201d This magnificent creation opens with principal keyboardist Richard Barbieri and drummer Gavin Harrison executing a gorgeous duet that builds tension steadily as Wilson comes in and they build to the crashing, cathartic chorus. The live version is every bit as propulsive as its studio counterpart, but with an added grit in the vocals that dials the emotional stakes of the track up yet another notch. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Incident\u201d follows in similarly spectacular fashion, a beautifully discordant and disorienting piece full of bravura musicianship, fueled by a fierce intensity. From there \u201cYour Unpleasant Family\u201d unfolds, an acid scrap of dialogue segueing into a gorgeous, keening guitar solo from guitarist\/background vocalist John Wesley. Then \u201cThe Yellow Windows Of The Evening Train\u201d offers a quirky cleansing breath leading into the highlight of the album\u2014one of the highlights of the decade, if you ask me\u2014\u201cTime Flies.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the rest of the band constructing a shimmering, tension-filled musical canvas behind him, Wilson deploys driving acoustic rhythm guitar and his most evocative vocals and lyrics. Featuring a stunning chorus melody and a middle section as memorably moody and atmospheric as anything Pink Floyd ever recorded, \u201cTime Flies\u201d is a triumph in every respect and the beating heart of The Incident<\/i>. (Trivia question for the superfans: is the lyrical reference to \u201csmoking a cigar\u201d just a coincidence, or a conscious nod to Floyd?)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s honestly hard for this listener to think of the rest of the first disc as much more than extended outro to \u201cTime Flies,\u201d although \u201cOctane Twisted\u201d surely earns its place as the title track for this particular set with an emphatic performance. Farther on, \u201cCircle Of Manias\u201d crashes about in head-banging mode, before the band shifts gears completely and \u201cI Drive The Hearse\u201d finishes up with bassist Colin Edwin anchoring this airy, beautiful denouement.<\/p>\n

Disc two of the CD set is comprised of a collection of older PT numbers played at a London show six months later. My guess is this part of this package was likely intended as a bonus for the fans, to add to the impact by carrying this album beyond a simple reiteration of The Incident<\/i>. It had the opposite affect for me.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Not that these aren\u2019t quality tunes; they are. \u201cHatesong\u201d is suitably frenetic and features what I can only describe as a psychotic break guitar solo. The medley of \u201cRussia On Ice\u201d with \u201cThe Pills I\u2019m Taking\u201d positions the former\u2019s slow-building menace as prelude to the latter\u2019s dark churn. \u201cStars Die\u201d is a nice rarity, a single-only release with a pleasant melody. On the darker side of the tracks, Incident<\/i> bonus cut \u201cBonnie The Cat\u201d is a creepfest, a herky-jerky song with almost spoken vocals, that at 3:20 explodes into volleys of riffs.<\/p>\n

The highlights of disc two are the long tracks\u2014\u201cEven Less\u201d and \u201cArriving Somewhere But Not Here\u201d\u2014offering a bit of the dreaminess and melody largely missing from the first half of disc two. The former features a long, spacy, searing transition leading into the second half, in which Wilson unleashes an armory of jagged, stabbing guitar figures. The latter is one of PT\u2019s more straightforward songs despite its length, title, and thunderous middle section. Still, disc two lost me a bit with its frequent focus on the heavier side of the Porcupine Tree catalog, songs that feature more bludgeoning riffs and less musical variety. <\/p>\n

On the subject of the DVD\u2014which covers only the first disc of the CD version, featuring The Incident<\/i>\u2014 let\u2019s keep it simple, shall we? This is one of the best concert films I have ever seen. The visuals are top-notch, the sharp camera work and kinetic editing is outstanding, and the sound is pristine while still capturing the freshness and vitality of a live performance. The film manages to capture at least some of the impact of the evocative video projections in the theater itself, while still keeping the viewer\u2019s focus on the musicians themselves. I can offer no higher compliment than this: when I was done watching the DVD, I felt like I had actually been there in the hall, experiencing this terrific show.<\/p>\n

If I was terribly hard-nosed about rating this album, I might knock it down a notch since disc two of the CD set didn\u2019t quite measure up to disc one. But the rest of this package comprises one of the most absorbing and impressive concert documents I\u2019ve ever experienced, capturing a complete live performance of one of the best albums of the modern era of progressive rock. Putting aside disc two\u2019s less essential nature, there\u2019s no question that Octane Twisted<\/i> is among my favorite releases of 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7098],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-porcupine-tree","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}