Devin Townsend pt. 1
Nov 09 '01
The Bottom Line Devin Townsend is as close to aural perfection as you are likely ever to be blessed to hear! Hard to find depending where you look, but worth the effort.
The apex of music writing and conveying of emotions through sound has been embodied in a Canadian named Devin Townsend, the best musician ever you probably haven't heard if your medium for heavy music is rock radio. The sad thing is if your radio only knew what it was missing it might throw itself into the bath water.... and though Devin's music is VERY accessible (this side of Strapping Young Lad at least) it is quite possible (even likely) that the man's music is just TOO good for the airwaves. I almost hate to think that his godly music would ever become popular (it feels like my own personal soundtrack), yet when pondering who to write about as a major performer in metal, Devin Townsend is the only one who demands to be told about, to be HEARD to be believed.
Devin actually has been heard before by the masses... as a 19 year old lad he was the lead vocalist for Steve Vai's Sex & Religion album, as well as working with the Wildhearts... if this rings a bell, stifle it... this gives you no clue of his musical mission and talent. Devin's first released band was a musical monster named Strapping Young Lad, a hellish monster of industrial flavored metal.... if an industrial band were stuck in ground zero of a coorporate wasteland stuck in fast forward looking for the prozac. The first SYL release was called Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing, a cute title that is about as accurate as calling Hiroshima a "little bitty accident." Pure giddy madness and anger, a psychotic little journey into the catchiest dissonance you've ever heard.... the soundtrack for Office Space meets Falling Down. If this doesn't get popped in after a bad day, go get mugged cause you don't have it so bad! City was the next studio offering, which to save redundancy I already covered on this site, I'll move on to his projects that are not.
Recorded at the same time as Strapping Young Lad's City, Ocean Machine was Devin's first side project/next band/parallel vision. The sheer enormity of the vocals as well as the general guitar tone and sound link SYL to Ocean Machine, though the album (titled Biomech) is much more mellow in volume... but certainly not emotional content! Ocean Machine swirls and crashes with alternating waves of happiness, optimism, depression, boredom, and loss, kind of a jaded look at dreams that still exist despite reality... deeper than the mariana trench. From the dreamily cryptic opening romp Seventh Wave to the strangely contrasting love song you wish you wrote Things Beyond Things, Ocean Machine is a soundscape of beautiful melodies, heavy grooves, spacey guitars that would make Pink Floyd jealous, and perfect vocals running the gamut from loud and screaming soft and surreal punctered with haunting and brilliantly placed samples. If the album hasn't made you shiver and break out in goose bumps in moments like the astounding Death of Music, check your pulse cause you aren't alive! Ocean Machine is the reason to listen to music, the one thing you've been wanting for but haven't found yet.... if you hear only one of Devin's works, this should be it (although I challenge you to listen to only one after you hear it!). One of the best albums of all time.
Infinity was the next band created from the mind of Devin, and this is easily his weirdest. At times Infinity seems to be a happy perky Devin Townsend, which seems extremely strange after SYL and Ocean Machine (and later albums for that matter if you don't listen in chronological order).... equal parts quirkiness and mad scientist poppy rock and beautiful Devin melodies and atmospheres. Yes, the descriptions of Ocean Machine can still be applied in a certain context (as in all his works save SYL), from the samples to varied vocals to spacey echoing guitar parts. This has some definite strangeness to it ("bopping" along in War for example) that kinda makes it difficult for me to get a handle on Infinity like his other albums, yet still it demands my cd player's attention. I'd liken the tone of the album to the title, Infinity... themes of forever throughout, from forever being there to everlasting relationships to forever wishing for such.... embodied perfectly in the duet of Devin and his guitar opening the song Dynamics. Pick up your jaw and attempt to listen to what lies beyond the basic halfway point of this work of art!
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Epinions.com ID:
supraliminal
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Location: norfolk, VA United States
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
Guitar playing song writing freak for 8 of my 22 years.
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