MM,
A younger friend who is one of the few jazz pals I have in town got me started on those two bands. I'm a big fan of the work that Steve Wilson has been doing. His solo album "Insurgentes" is my favorite of all the Porcupine Tree, No Man, etc. stuff he does. I think Wilson is a sort of a genius.
Opeth I got interested in through the Wilson connection too, he produced several albums for them, and they learned a lot from hm and their albums after that are influenced by Wilson's art. Wilson brought some progressive rock practices and sounds into Opeth, and he took away death metal elements from Opeth into his own work with Porcupine Tree.
It's interesting music to me that sounds like an outgrowth from the bands that I was into when I was younger and into rock far more heavily.
Right now