About the band: Porcupine Tree were a British progressive rock band formed by musician Steven Wilson in 1987. Originally their sound was more like psychedelic rock, but after 2000, it turned more to heavy prog. After ten well received and highly influential studio albums, the band split up in 2010, allowing frontman Steven Wilson to develop his solo career. Both the band and Steven Wilson solo are among my all-time favourites. Porcupine Tree currently have four songs in my list of about 200 best pop/rock songs of all time.
About the song: Anesthetize is a song from the 2007 album Fear of a blank planet, one of my five favourite albums of all time. Nicknamed "The Beast" during their inaugural tour for the new album, this is the first Porcupine Tree song exceeding the 15 minutes mark since The sky moves sideways of 1995. A devastating picture of a boy who is completely depressed, with impressive lyrics that really need to be read in full. Musically, there are a number of different segments, but they are very well held together in the best prog rock tradition, and with striking melody lines (especially the Only apathy... refrain). There is the short flirt with metal that we have come to expect but overall there is a mixed feeling of resignation and urgency that is very difficult to describe. Run time 17:42.
