Band:	Porcupine Tree
Album:	Voyage 34 - The Complete Trip
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	April 2000
Guest review by:	Spyroid

01. Voyage 34 (Phase One)
02. Voyage 34 (Phase Two)
03. Voyage 34 (Phase Three)
04. Voyage 34 (Phase Four)

A bit funny - this album isn't metal. I can bet it's the most non-metal album on this website. It's hardly even rock, guitars are only used in probably less than 25% of the 70 minutes and 38 seconds (at least in my version, which is a re-release). This band is hardly metal at all, except from the last two, maybe three albums. But instead of complaining I am going to review this album.

The album is almost as long as an album can be, but there are only four tracks. These tracks are named 1, 2, 3 and 4. The album is about the drug LSD; the first track is an epic about one single trip, and the others contain people talking about their trips or about science and studies of LSD. These sentences you've just read should give you a pretty good image of the whole album. I have not listened to much music of this kind but this album gives you a drug trip-like experience that certainly not many other albums can do. I have actually never heard the whole last track to the end - I always fall asleep. And this music is perfect to fall asleep to. The first track is one of my favourite Porcupine Tree songs, driven a lot by guitars and atmosphere, and as told before - has a very epic touch. But the second track is getting more and more electronic and keyboard-based, and when the third song (almost 20 minutes, almost only one single melody repeated) starts, you will certainly feel tired. Guitars disappear (or starts to sound like keyboards...) somewhere in the second track, and are not used much in the first half anyway.

To the rating - the performance is marvelous although I think much of the secrets behind this album (and this band) lies in the production (don't forget that I'm talking about the re-release). I haven't heard anything like this and since nothing else sounds like Porcupine Tree I don't think I ever will. The rating goes high and I recommend the album a lot - especially if you love acid, electronic elements, atmosphere and slightly scary music, or maybe if you have problems with falling asleep.