Album Rating: 3.5

Raven and Heritage are bland.



Let's bear in mind that Wilson has written more shitty songs with more shitty bands than Akerfeldt

@Talons: Yeah I like Up the Downstair and The Sky Moves Sideway and parts of Signify but that's about it (unless we include EPs, Staircase Infinities is great).

The criticism/bashing in my comments on Wilson is usually exaggerated somewhat just because I enjoy the reactions haha.

Album Rating: 4.5

Raven and Heritage are interesting because both are essentially tributes to 70's prog with the frontmen's songwriting style modernizing the sound, and while they're both very interesting and different, they do come across as pretty bland in a lot of ways

Album Rating: 3.5

Rave was a completely unnecessary album. If it were more like The Sky Moves Sideways, than fuck yeah, I'd be all over it

Album Rating: 2.0

Raven was full-on tribute, but it was done incredibly well. 4.5'd it. No regrets.

Album Rating: 3.5

I don't see why you would. It's your opinion after all



How could you 2 this?

Album Rating: 4.5

I'd probably 4.2 Raven. It's not very original and parts are cheesy but I really enjoy pretty much all

the songs

Album Rating: 3.5

But the softer songs are so boring :'( luminol is pretty good though. I'd say it's a 2.8 off the top of my head

Album Rating: 4.5

Drive Home sounds like a decent PT ballad, t/t is cool but forgettable, I love The Pin Drop, and the three epics are amazing especially The Watchmaker

Album Rating: 3.5

Well it's the best out of his solo albums, but that's not saying much cos I don't particularly love any of them.

Album Rating: 4.5

I've only heard Grace for Drowning once and remember really liking it, but looking back all I remember is a bunch of ambient weirdness

Album Rating: 2.0

"How could you 2 this?"



The songs drag onward without any semblance of songwriting logic. It feels contrived and "arty" for

the sake of being contrived and arty.

Album Rating: 4.5

This isn't supposed to be conventional prog rock/metal album, it's atmospheric and dreamy and hypnotic. Whether you dig that or not is just a matter of taste, but a 2? That's pretty harsh. Even if this style of music isn't your thing, it should be a 3 at the least

Album Rating: 3.5

I didn't like this at first becuase there was no build up, but then I got used to it and loved the idea that it was more abstract than that

Album Rating: 2.0

It sounds to me as if any organic chemistry the two may have had was replaced by an ill-advised attempt to meticulously plot out every detail of the most avant-garde record possible instead of just allowing a natural songwriting process to produce music of any substance. There may actually have been a natural songwriting process here. I'm not going to pretend to know how the sessions went, but that's just how it sounds when I listen to it. Despite loving both of these artists, I'm left cold here, and I even typically love experimental music.



The highest I could ever see this going for me is a 2.5.

Album Rating: 4.5

Sorry, I'm going back to the Raven debate. I just think that we have to in a certain degree, stop living in the past and telling ourselves no prog will ever be as good as Yes or Floyd. To me, The Raven is the proof that modern prog is still alive and inspired as ever, as the album is one that I'd almost put alongside Close to the Edge, Animals, Thick as a Brick or Foxtrot. It represents imo that we can achieve what the prog legends once did, and I don't see it as a tribute to those bands, but simply as a proof that the genre isn't dead. So for me it's a 5

Album Rating: 3.5

If anything, this IS what their natural song writing capabilities are like. Very little structure and one idea flows directly after another with little thought for any climaxes that they could have put in instead. But yeah, I know what you mean. First listen really left me wanting

Album Rating: 3.5

I'm gonna make a confession and say I grew up with PT and DT and other prog bands that were influenced by the 70's bands, and I've never looked back. I actually don't listen to Led Zeppelin, Yes or Floyd, and I've never even heard a Yes song. People always tell me to, but I have issues with the production and I just prefer who those bands influenced, like the bands themselves.



The same works for The Ramones. Revolutionary or not, I hate their debut, but I love the shit it influenced.



In response to you, Onirium, I have no problem with people imitating the style of the 70's, but the minute you imitate and don't put your own twist or a modern twist to it, then you might as well do a cover album. In the case of Raven, I'm just not a fan of it and I dislike how Steve does barely anything to try to make it his own

Album Rating: 4.5

"Very little structure and one idea flows directly after another with little thought for any climaxes that they could have put in instead"



Yeah, I could say that about Luminol I guess. But man, this album IS climaxes! Drive Home, with one of my favorite guitar solos ever, tell me it's not a climax! And The Watchmaker too has a wonderful build-up, just like The Pin Drop, and especially the title-track, which is one of the most beautiful thing SW has ever written imo. Anyways, that's my opinion at least

Album Rating: 4.5

@Choccy: You probably know I really disagree with him not putting his own twist, or at least some more modern influences in it. For example, The Pin Drop, The Holy Drinker and Drive Home never could have been made in the 70s. That's what I find so awesome about the Raven, it's that it's like a 70s prog album done in a modern context. But you know my opinion about it.



And yeah, I perfectly get why you might not dig the 70s prog classics, but once you get over the production (which is, imo, very cool, as people - including SW - do lots of remixes to make the sound quality of these albums better), I find this period one of the most interesting ones in rock music. However, I agree with you on the fact that we must stop living in the past and saying nothing ever reaches the heights of the classics. I mean, to me, PT, Steven Wilson, Opeth, The Pineapple Thief and Gazpacho (for example) are sometimes as good as their influences.