Music Review - Devin Townsend Project - Ziltoid 2

It's been about a year and I'm not reaching for this album any more. 'Tis a pity 'cause I'm part of the galactic choir or whatever he called it. Anyway, my overall impression is that these two albums are decent but won't be looked back on as a highlight of his career.

As a rule I don’t care for operas. To me it seems like the music takes a backseat so some fancy-pants singer won’t be upstaged. That’s how I initially felt about Dark Matters, the follow up to the amazingly fun Ziltoid the Omniscient. You know, the Devin Townsend metal rock opera about a coffee bean thieving alien who is actually a hand puppet? Now I’m not saying that Mr. Townsend wears fancy pants but Dark Matters has so much dialogue and narration in its attempt to tell a story that I couldn’t fully hear the music underneath.

Fortunately I purchased the deluxe set which includes a CD of Dark Matters sans dialogue and my mind has been changed. Like much of Mr. Townsends music it is an odd mixture. At times Dark Matters is heavy, flooding your ears with triple kick drums and complicated non-traditional time signatures, such as the opening track “Z2” which stands alongside his most punishing pieces on Deconstruction. Still heavy, but not as prog-thrash, is the engaging “March of the Poozers”, though I won’t spoil the album by telling you what a Poozer is and the party they play in saving the Earth. “Ziltoid Goes Home” is a speedy little number packed with distorted guitars and… ya know what? Most of the songs on this album are heavy and fast, though true to his brain all are just a bit weird. The only consistently slow (but still heavy) track is the finale, “Through The Wormhole” where Devin is joined by a choir of over two thousand fans (this dorky author included) who recorded themselves singing along to a Devin-provided guide track. It’s the largest choir ever to appear on a metal album, or so says the sticker on the album which makes me wonder if there have been larger choirs on, for instance, a reggae album.

Because Devin’s record company didn’t want just another complicated heavy album and because Devin apparently writes three songs every time he uses the facilities, Sky Blue was born. Twelve songs (four bathroom trips, if you’re keeping score) in the gossamer power pop style of Epicloud. Yes, a second fully produced and executed album as in “not demos.” Like the Ziltoid album, and despite its seemingly more simplistic songs, Sky Blue took a number of listens before it sank it. Loud volumes helped as well. While the songs span loud and quiet, fast and slow, heavy and ethereal, the overall impression is of a joyous secular church revival service with the songs drenched in Devin’s trademark wall of soft reverb plus an occasional appearance by the massive fan choir.

Mr. Townsend is one happy man, now that he’s freed from all of his addictions, and his exuberance for life shows forth on both Blue Sky and Dark Matters so much that it’s practically addicting to the listener. Whether its maniacal hand puppets bent of universal domination or positive heavy pop-rock songs pumping with energy, Devin’s world is a blast for those souls curious or demented enough to enter the celebration.

Review - Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud

Devin Townsend is one of those guys upon whom you could waste an entire review trying to describe, which means that for most people the adjective “weird” suits just fine. “Oddball” might also be allowable (the man has sold puppets on his web site… PUPPETS!!!!) During the last few years Devin did a massive personality probe, fracking it into four distinct parts and recording an album for each facet. Admitting that this was self-indulgent Mr. Townsend decided to clear the air by unleashing his “inner Def Leppard,” which in Devin’s hands turns out to be something quite different, but oddly similar to, the arena rock we all know and (go on, admit it) love.

Epicloud is that carnival view of arena rock and it lives up to its name. It’s big (epic) and it’s loud. Except the first track, where Devin apparently though it would be humorous to have a churchy choir singing a harmonious theme that makes appearances elsewhere in the album. It’s hard to kick that self-indulgent thing. “True North” follows and it’s fairly characteristic of the rest of the album. Heavy yet catchy guitar rhythms float on a spacey bed of reverb while Anneke van Giersbergen adds angelic vocals and Ryan Van Poederooyen (I’m not making that up, to steal a line) goes completely donkey kong on the drums. Now and then the band may change things around but mostly the songs are intentionally much simpler than much of Devin’s past work. This is never more evident than in the single “Lucky Animals (The New Beige)” which is so refined and streamlined that it will make a bee-line for your brain and stay there for weeks. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT watch the YouTube video Mr. Townsend made of himself for this song… in his back yard in one take. Okay, go ahead. I’ll wait. “Liberation” is another killer song, a kind of trip to the moon with Cheap Trick at the wheel and the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the cargo bay. I’m perfectly serious here. The entire album is a kind of raucous tent meeting as a full choir makes an appearance on many songs. But instead of, say, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones where a choir signifies that you’ve jumped the shark, Devin pushes past irony with his use of the choir, having them sing such glorious lines as “Rock! Let’s rock! The time has come to forget all the bullsh!t and rock!” It’s impossible to listen to this album and not smile. To keep things balanced there are a few slower songs such as the touching “Divine” which features lyrics of “Loving you is the best thing in the worst thing in my life.” I think it’s a love song. In fact, maybe the entire album is a love song. Maybe it’s to himself. Or maybe it’s an anti-love song/album. One never can be too sure about such things.

While at times a bit lean in the ideas department, at least compared to his past albums where layers exist to enhance the layers that augment the layers of layers, Epicloud is a joyous, happy album that has more than its share of highly accessible songs. Sure, it’s a little off the beaten path but it’s a journey well worth taking.

Review - Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction

Devin Townsend is either a genius or insane. Probably both. His latest album, Deconstruction, was released at the same time as his other latest album, Ghost, both of which cap off a four-part music cycle that includes Ki and Addicted, a glorious metal-pop album that easily ranks as of my top 25 albums, if I were the kind of person to make such lists. Somehow these four extremely different albums fit together but I’m not enough of a genius to figure out how. Heck, I can’t even figure out some of the songs on Deconstruction. As best as I can cipher, it’s a concept album about God, Satan, the human ego, and a cheeseburger.

Musically the album contains some of the heaviest stuff Townsend has ever committed to bits, and that’s saying something coming from a guy who was in the band Strapping Young Lads. The cover of Deconstruction is a spooky kid in front of a demented Alice-in-Wonderland-like carnival world constructed completely of metal. That about sums up the album. Dark, heavy and demented with a skewed sense of humor. As much as I loved Addicted I almost threw in the towel on this one. It is seventy demanding, punishing minutes of chaos that only now, after dozens of listens, is starting to fall into place. It’s the kind of album where you need a nap halfway through.

But I kind of like it. Especially the shorter songs, shorter here being those under nine minutes, of which there are five. My favorite on the album, and the one that first grabbed my attention, is the simplest. “Praise the Lowered” begins with a quiet techno beat, more space than notes, and appropriate introductory lyrics of “Close your eyes, get ready”, placidly sailing along until halfway through with Devin angelically basking in his sobriety (“I’m so sober”) when the music takes a mean turn, bringing the hammer down with a massively heavy version of the earlier easy-going melody and screamingly anguished lyrics of “Gimma that wine / Gimme that acid / I wanna lose everything that’s policing us.” I’m not sure who “Juular” is but the song seems to be about putting away childish things, though for all the triple-kick-drums and symphonic choirs it’s a bit difficult to tell why “Nothing ever bothers Juular.” While I’m not a fan of noise for the sake of noise, the chaotic smear of distortion that ends the song gets the adrenaline flowing. The choir serves as a Greek chorus in “Pandemic”, a frantic song that packs ten minutes of notes into three and a half minutes. And though Devin claims the album is not a joke it’s difficult not to wonder if this itself is a joke when he has this orchestral choir singing “I farted.” Oh, to have been at the recording sessions of this album! The final song, “Poltergeist”, opens with Devin shouting “Let’s finish this!” before ripping into your ears with everything he’s got, throwing angular rhythms on top of choirs and some of the heaviest riffs I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. As best as I can tell, this song is about how even though an addict may put his addictions behind him the past and the old ways tend to come back and cause problems.

Now for the big ones. “Stand” takes it’s time moving through its sections, sedately pacing for three minutes before becoming Mr. Hyde and adding a symphonic backing (with a real symphony, rented from some small European country) with lyrics of “Change the world? / You better change yourself, boy!” Although nearly ten minutes long “Stand” is, for the most part, an easy listen. Not so for the remaining three behemoths. “Planet of the Apes” magically mixes a ragged detuned guitar riff with symphonic backing, somehow keeping up with the non-rhythmic blank verse that Devin has created, coming together for a mini chorus of “I stay heavy for my God.” The song also includes lyrics of “Jesus, Jihad”, “While we all have lots of bands who influence still / We all rip off Meshuggah!” and “One is all connected / Tungsten body glowing mind.” The meaning of this song is like a name that’s just on the tip of your brain in that I almost get it and then it’s gone. The sixteen minute “The Mighty Masturbator” and the almost ten minute title track are likewise all over the place. One moment they are just voice and clean guitar, then for five seconds it’s a barrage of sweeping metal arpeggios and then it’s a full choir for half a minute and then it’s a carnival in ¾ time and then screaming and double kick drums for two measures before somehow ending up as a beat-heavy rave-up held in a stadium stocked with a marching band. It’s all very Zappa-like and ADHHHHD and very complex. The lyrics seem to be a kind of argument or internal conversation that probably should be read as a kind of opera with parts performed by different characters. Oh yeah, there are ten famous guest musicians singing the different parts (name them all and win a cheeseburger.) Devin keeps his grounding in humor, though, with Canadian voiced parts and snobby theologians discussing deconstructing cheeseburgers and whatnot. Much like the human mind, it’s just a big mess, a study in excess, but it somehow has a cohesive structure that keeps it from destroying itself as the songs gyrate wildly around an axis. The album is so rich and dense that if it doesn’t drive me insane I’ll surely be discovering new bits to enjoy six months or even a year from now.

In less skilled hands the concept and execution behind Deconstruction would be total chaos. The songs are exceedingly complex, layered beasts that scream in the pain of their birth. But ya know what… they’re growing on me. Maybe I’m losing my thin grasp on reality but I’m starting to catch on. It’s starting to make sense. It’s… oh wait. I lost it again. Nope. It’s all just crazy talk. But good crazy talk. Besides, where else can you hear an orchestral choir sing “All beef patties / Pickles, sauce on a sesame seed bun”? Totally whacked.

Current Review - Devin Townsend Project - Addicted!

This review was submitted MONTHS ago and finally saw print. It is definitely worth the wait... where most albums get a week or two of my attention before I move on to something new. This album is STILL getting regular play through my head. And I'm even more convinced that Poederooyan RAWKS!


A few years back I had the pleasure of reviewing a Devin Townsend album and found it a highly enjoyable, albeit Canadian, album. Of particular note was his drummer who had the good fortune of having the unpronounceable last name of Poederooyen. That was in 2003 and I had intended to pick up more Townsend albums but instead squandered my money on licorice bites.

However Townsend has not been idly waiting for my attention, instead forging bravely ahead and making many more solo albums. Fortunately for me I decided that I was tired of licorice and formed a mini tax shelter by purchasing his latest album, Addicted. It was good to find out that the man was still Canadian, still had Poederooyen as his drummer, and had kicked some rather nasty habits, including licorice whips and other things, hence the title.

As part of his recovery Devin has recording this smashing album full of high energy, fun, peppy metal songs. It’s almost like Cheap Trick, My Bloody Valentine and White Zombie got together outside a dance club. The title track is indicative of the entire album – a bigger than life arena rock sound with industrial metal guitars and an uplifting, melodic chorus that somehow manages to remain light and airy on top while staying dense and distorted on the low end. “Universe In A Ball!” is a spacey dance song with a caustic bass that telegraphs out a rhythm while synthy effects lend a sense of weird glee to the festivities, breaking for a brief moment of operatic calm before slamming back into the metal crunch. Cheap Trick comes to the front in the Euro Pop “Bend It Like Bender!” which wastes no time in stepping up the party vibe with a zany guitar riff and lyrics of “Hey boy / We’re ya goin’ with that little toy?” This is not overly deep stuff, just carefree music made for driving around during the summer with the windows down, injecting the joy of being alive into your veins with a cheerful dance-beat chorus sung by Anneke van Giersbergen (seriously, does he hire people based on their names?) of The Gathering.

“Supercrush!” (and yes, every song ends in an exclamation point) is an album highlight, opening with a thunderous guitar riff that builds to a symphonic crescendo before dropping off to allow Anneka to sing a calming chorus which is counteracted by Devin as the music ramps back up and he passionately sings “I don’t want to save my soul / I don’t want to lose control” against a massive rock symphony, forming an angel vs. devil duet. This emotional song explodes as Devin hoarsely and cathartically confronts his addiction with “You want me to die?” and the song crashes in a gloriously chaotic finale. As if to ease the tension a bit the next song, “Hyperdrive!” is little more than a carefree nuclear fueled party song with the message of “Everyday’s a new day” and “Ih-Ah!” is a lilting, restrained pop song of non-distorted instruments that will annoyingly stick in your head like licorice with it’s endearing nonsense chorus of “Ih-Ah” sung by both Devin and Anneka, who this time around sounds like the Wilson sisters of Heart. Well, one of them, anyway. The final track, “Awake!!” (note the extra punctuation because it’s just that good) has fuzzy, crunchy riffs and a cheerful melody to back up comforting lyrics of “That’s alright / You’re only human” before turning up the tension in the bridge, growing energy like a chia pet grows hair until Devin shouts “DECONSTRUCT!” and one by one the instruments peel away over the next two minutes until all that remains is an echo of an echo, fading into the dark.

The more I hear the songs of Addicted more I like them. The lyrics and music are both addictively simple but with enough depth that keep you coming back. Or maybe Devin Townsend is just so talented that it all sounds simple but instead has a fertile depth that can only be appreciated with more listens, depth that sneaks up on you while you are innocently enjoying the heavy jams and boundless energy that makes Addicted approximately 1052% better than that other post-addiction album, St. Anger.