Influential prog-psyche-pop-metal group Porcupine Tree has posted several cryptic videos to their YouTube channel over the past week. The latest from this morning, titled “01.11.21,” strongly hints at a comeback album from the band fronted by Steven Wilson.
Although in years past Wilson stated no desire to reconvene his band, the circumstances following the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 might have changed his mind. Specifically, his solo album The Future Bites was to arrive in tandem with a multimedia extravaganza of a tour that, due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, could not be carried forward.
Interestingly, Wilson has been a part of several reunions that seemed unlikely over the past two years. These may have been created as digital convos, not as in-studio collaborations. Regardless, with the No Man release Love You To Bits with Tim Bowness and Blackfield’s For The Music with Aviv Geffen, the potential for the Porcupine Tree moniker to rise again seemed far less impossible.
Not much is clear about any of this other than each video ends with “P/T/C/C.” Given that these are hosted on the Porcupine Tree channel, clearly “P/T” stands for either “Porcupine Tree” or “Porcupine Trio,” a rumored regroup with keyboardist Richard Barbieri and drummer Gavin Harrison. The “C/C” could stand for the email-related abbreviation for “carbon copy,” but this is pure speculation.
We won’t know for sure until this Monday when the announcement seems poised to be made, but we’ll let you know what transpires.