Devin+townsend

All credit to DEVIN TOWNSEND – the general disarray of the pandemic has done nothing to hamper his high levels of productivity, both releasing new material online and hosting a number of livestreams throughout the last year. As the second official release in his Devolution Series (itself a catalogue of both quarantine activities and material from the vaults), Galactic Quarantine documents one of those aforementioned livestream concerts. Making up for the understandable cancellation of the Empath Vol. 2 tour – one intended to focus on the heavier side of Townsend material – Galactic Quarantine sees ‘Hevy Devy‘ accompanied by a fierce trio of metal musicians to deliver a semi-live performance of metal that skirts mostly between prog and extreme…

Devin Townsend, possibly more widely known as the frontman for the extreme metal act Strapping Young Lad, began creating solo albums in 1997. Sometimes referred to as the 'Mad Scientist of Metal', Townsend produces a wide variety of music. This ranges from soft ambience designed, as he has stated, to put the listener to sleep, to high levels of thrash and extreme metal reminiscent of SYL. His works often feature a 'wall of sound', built by adding many layers of guitars and keyboards that are playing in unison or harmony. The end result is a number of carefully produced and mixed albums that favor high-end sound systems. Devin Townsend Project is another venture of Devin Townsend, considered separate from the material released as Devin Townsend. The project was originally conceived to comprise four albums of differing musical styles, each with a different set of guest/session musicians backing Townsend, but ended up continuing beyond that.

Townsend: "So what is The Puzzle?.. well, its not technically my new record, it's more a collaborative, multimedia art project that acts as a stopgap between Empath and the next record, Lightwork (due out in March of next year on Inside Out Records). The Puzzle includes two 'soundtracks' of sorts (the highly orchestrated 'Puzzle' and the very chill 'Snuggles') along with a film, graphic novel, novel, and a huge amount of multimedia. It includes many artists (upwards of 50) that participated via Zoom during the pandemic and the experience gave me a chance to purge and be completely creatively free. As such, it is a stream of conscious, and very abstract collection of music that includes a narrative (in the form of a film) and is meant to be a documentation of what the pandemic felt like to me."

Positively intense and powerful music showing off Devin Townsend's aggressive guitar, skills at production and mixing, and perhaps his most up- front vocal performance ever. Despite the overall excellent sound of the album, it lacks the unpredictability in songwriting of Devin's most popular releases, which might make it come across as deceptively simple; after all, there are some big hooks and sing-along melodies throughout this album - which may actually make it the most accessible offering in DT's entire library. However, after a few careful listens it will be evident to fans that "Accelerated Evolution" has Townsend's mighty signature all over it, and there isn't anything simple going on here (scream along if you can!). Recommend to those interested in exploring Devin Townsend's music for the first time - it is easy to listen to and will more than likely hook you to this very talented musician's unique sound.

Positively intense and powerful music showing off Devin Townsend's aggressive guitar, skills at production and mixing, and perhaps his most up- front vocal performance ever. Despite the overall excellent sound of the album, it lacks the unpredictability in songwriting of Devin's most popular releases, which might make it come across as deceptively simple; after all, there are some big hooks and sing-along melodies throughout this album - which may actually make it the most accessible offering in DT's entire library. However, after a few careful listens it will be evident to fans that "Accelerated Evolution" has Townsend's mighty signature all over it, and there isn't anything simple going on here (scream along if you can!). Recommend to those interested in exploring Devin Townsend's music for the first time - it is easy to listen to and will more than likely hook you to this very talented musician's unique sound.

Devolution Series #2 - Galactic Quarantine was recorded between July and September 2020 in various places around the world. Originally streamed on September 5th, 2020 on StageIt.com as a replacement show for the COVID affected “Empath Vol 2 European Tour” and various cancelled Summer festivals. The show features Devin on vocals and guitars, Samus Paulicelli III on drums, Wes Hauch on guitars and Diego Tejeida on keys.

Positively intense and powerful music showing off Devin Townsend's aggressive guitar, skills at production and mixing, and perhaps his most up- front vocal performance ever. Despite the overall excellent sound of the album, it lacks the unpredictability in songwriting of Devin's most popular releases, which might make it come across as deceptively simple; after all, there are some big hooks and sing-along melodies throughout this album - which may actually make it the most accessible offering in DT's entire library. However, after a few careful listens it will be evident to fans that "Accelerated Evolution" has Townsend's mighty signature all over it, and there isn't anything simple going on here (scream along if you can!). Recommend to those interested in exploring Devin Townsend's music for the first time - it is easy to listen to and will more than likely hook you to this very talented musician's unique sound.

Strapping Young Lad's guitarist leader embarked on a solo career with the enigmatic "Ocean Machine", an album of encompassing, thrilling atmospheres in which pop, metal, progressive metal, trash and nuances of electronic blended together in a very balanced way. This atmosphere somewhat recreated the best from the 80's decade: from the mainstream heavy metal scene to the dark atmospheres of The Cure or the frantic energy of Queen. To his virtuous and somewhat prolific guitar work in the vein of Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, Devin Towsend added his inspired gift for creating remarkable melodies and outstanding choruses, while his dynamic voice and obtuse lyrics gave the album the necessary melodic profoundness…