Porcupine Tree: «In Absentia» альбомының тарихы мен эволюциясы

In Absentia is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the first to move into a more progressive metal direction, contrary to past albums' psychedelic and alternative rock sounds. Additionally, it was their first release on a major record label, Lava Records. It was very well received critically and commercially, with it often being considered the band's crowning achievement, and selling three times as many copies as any of the band's earlier albums.

In the band's earlier years, while under Delerium Records, the band's music typically possessed more extended and abstract qualities typically associated with psychedelic rock and space rock. The band shifted their sound in the late 1990s when signing to Kscope/Snapper Record labels, to a more commercial, radio friendly sound that entailed shorter compositions and traditional song structures, while retaining progressive rock qualities as well. However, by around 2001, they had again outgrown a smaller record label, and after changing labels again to Lava Records, decided to move in a more progressive metal direction. The band had originally been opposed to major record labels, believing that most labels didn't "get" the band, and their emphasis on albums over singles approach in this era of music. However, they chose Lava because they appeared to support this philosophy, frontman Steven Wilson attributing this due to other bands, namely Tool and Radiohead, achieving success with the same mindset. Furthermore, Wilson would end up meeting Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, which occurred when the two were separately interviewed by an interviewer who had interviewed both of them. Impressed with their music, Wilson eventually agreed to produce the next Opeth album, Blackwater Park, which inspired Wilson to move Porcupine Tree in a more metal direction as well. Another factor in the change of the band's sound was due to Wilson's meeting of Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen. The two met when Geffen, a fan of Wilson's music, invited Porcupine Tree on a tour in 2000 in support of the band's previous album, Lightbulb Sun. Touring together lead to a separate musical collaboration named Blackfield. Geffen, not being a fan of metal music, kept that project in more of a pop rock genre, sounding more like prior Porcupine Tree albums Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun. This gave Wilson an outlet for that side of his music, allowing him to concentrate on more metal sounds with Porcupine Tree without abandoning the prior genre altogether either. Wilson summarized the band's changes at the time as: <blockquote>In Absentia was all written before Gavin came on; even the drum parts were kind of programmed. But it's one of those times sometimes in life when everything comes together. I'd written these songs and I was very much more interested at that time—having worked with Opeth—in the idea of combining a more kind of brutal or metal aspect back again into the fabric of the music. At the same time Gavin came along and Gavin was a very different drummer to our previous drummer, Chris Maitland. He was much more of a powerhouse and he was much more technical. He had more of a contemporary edge to his sound so it was just one of those really lucky things that he just came in and he played those songs and just blew everyone away and everything just kind of came together. And of course it was the first record we made for our new label and we got signed to a big American label for the first time [Lava Records]. Gavin was the final piece of that equation in a way—he just totally raised the bar in terms of not just the drumming but just the musicianship right throughout the band. Everyone was listening to Gavin and saying, "Fuck, wow. We really need to step up our game." Wilson said of the title:
"It comes from It's related to some of the lyrics. It's about people on the fringes, on the edges of humanity and society. I have an interest in serial killers, child molesters, and wife beaters Not in what they did, but in the psychology of why. What caused them to become unhinged and twisted? Why are they unable to empathise? It's [In Absentia] sort of a metaphor there's something missing, a black hole, a cancer in their soul. It's an absence in the soul." The album's title evokes the same theme, with the phrase being Latin for "in absence" or "in one's absence", a term often used in relation to criminal proceedings that occur despite the absence of the defendant.

The album was released on 24 September 2002 on CD and vinyl formats, the latter containing bonus track "Chloroform" after "The Creator Has a Mastertape." A few weeks prior to the album's release, a sampler containing "Blackest Eyes" and shortened versions of "Trains" and "Strip the Soul" was released. The opening track, "Blackest Eyes", was picked up for airplay by major rock radio stations, and it was released in April 2003 for US, although it didn't chart. During this tour, in July and August 2003, the band released the Futile EP, which included songs recorded during the In Absentia recording sessions. On 21 February 2020, Kscope released a four disc deluxe edition of In Absentia. The first disc features Steven Wilson's 2017 mix of the album, the second disc features additional studio recordings omitted from the finished album, the third disc comprises over 70 minutes of demos recorded at Wilson's home studio, and the fourth disc is a Blu ray that features a 109 minute documentary chronicling the making of the album. The entire deluxe edition is housed in a 100 page hardback book filled with exclusive content.