PORCUPINE TREE — Spiral Circus (review)

PORCUPINE TREE — Spiral Circus album cover Promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs) · 1994 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
Originally put out on cassette in 1994, the first Porcupine Tree live album extracts material from performances in the early December of 1993 - a period when Porcupine Tree was evolving from a Steven Wilson bedroom project into a proper band, and the group which would eventually bring us The Sky Moves Sideways was playing some shows as part of the process of getting on the same page.

As you might expect from its age, it comes from squarely in the band's space rock era, and since they'd only put out two "proper" albums at this point (On the Sunday of Life and Up the Downstair) they don't have a deep bench of material to draw on. You get a short take on Voyage 34, you get Radioactive Toy from On the Sunday of Life, and then everything else is from Up the Downstair - and since Voyage 34 had been considered for inclusion on that, you end up with a sound very much focused on the style of Up the Downstair, albeit with moments here and there where the band seem to be evolving towards the approach of The Sky Moves Sideways.

The sound quality is OK but not pristine, and given the tight focus of the setlist how much you enjoy this will likely hinge on how much you like Up the Downstair. I'm keen on it, so for me it's a four star release, but if you don't think Porcupine Tree got good until after this then shave a star off.

(Note that Porcupine Tree have subsequently put out a recording of the entire Nag's Head show - their very first live gig, from which the latter half of this is sourced - as a download.)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Galaxy888 (Lightmatter EP Pt. 1) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 3 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 4 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed