Devin Townsend

[H-O-W-L]

Fucking great, isn't he?

In case you haven't heard him before, some choicers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nubJjB95VdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6gPl_6mI2A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPNIpxiqBbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRMcr9Cy7U

Really prolific and broad-spectrum artist who focuses mostly on metal but has drifted between metal, acoustic, opera, country, jazz, and funk in his long career. Probably one of my favourites. Right chum to his fans too -- my brother met him and he was surprisingly down to earth & very funny! (but for real).

Just wanted to have a HevyDevy wank, is all. I'll get me coat.

[Twit 2]

Been a massive fan for nearly 20 years. I cannot even begin to describe what Ocean Machine does to me. So I won't. All I'll say for now is that I dislike people being called a genius when they're clearly not, and he's one of the very few artists alive who I'd unhesitatingly call a genius.

Some faves (loud on good speakers, natch; his engineering and production skills are legendary):

https://youtu.be/cTIMlGub4F4
https://youtu.be/HqZ0ta-JYVU
https://youtu.be/2zd6DrceGyI
https://youtu.be/iPk02nz5eRU
https://youtu.be/2m2JTtu4uGU
https://youtu.be/BW9WUCJSK1E
https://youtu.be/wN6Z6miEDNc
https://youtu.be/RDSaodyiBQo

[H-O-W-L]

Been a massive fan for nearly 20 years. I cannot even begin to describe what Ocean Machine does to me. So I won't. All I'll say for now is that I dislike people being called a genius when they're clearly not, and he's of the very few artists alive who I'd unhesitatingly call a genius.

The beauty of Ghost's final track (As You Were) makes me agree unflinchingly.

[Twit 2]

DEVIN TOWNSEND

[Noodle Lizard]

I'd say I was a huge fan, but I honestly haven't gotten on too well with anything he's done since Deconstruction/Ghost (both of which are phenomenal).  He's definitely doing what he wants to do, can't fault him for that, and he's insanely talented - it's just a shame that it tends to all be C-major opera metal at the end of the day.  It's odd that he keeps sort of flouncing for a bit, claiming he needs to take a break, find a new direction, even change the entire "project" etc., but then coming back almost instantly with something that sounds ... the same.  I felt terrible for finding his latest album (Empath) so boring, especially after he lamented that he'd spent something like $170k of his own money on it in hopes that it'd be the big'un.

That said, I've seen him a bunch of times and he always puts on a phenomenal live show, and the sheer amount of amazing music he's made over the past thirty years or so is enough to keep him on a pedestal forever.  And to echo the OP, I've met him a handful of times and he is absolutely surprisingly down to earth and VERY funny.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Does it with an intensity that moves me to tears at times, made metal interesting for me,  that city album - oh boy! Fair ducks to him for taking breaks and being a dad, if deconstruction was the high water mark, thatl do pig. That's more legs than many. If all he ever did in his life was shit in Steve Vai''s guitar case, that'd be enough

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah, I realised after I posted that that came off a lot harsher than I meant it to.  I think if I'd listened to any of the recent albums as a first exposure I'd be incredibly impressed, but I suppose the problem with having done so many different things so well in the past is that it can spoil the audience a bit.

[H-O-W-L]

I have to concur that his style has become a lot more constrained, but I will say his quality level is still plenty high. He's not doing much that's different from each other, but at the same time it's not bad samey stuff, if that makes any sense. I still listen to it.

[thugler]

Not that into the humour, but has made some amazing stuff. Particularly love city and ocean machine (which I'm pretty sure i heard via someone raving about it on here.) newer stuff is a little dull maybe

[madhair60]

Love Epicloud, Ziltoid and Addicted. Also love SYL. Not sure what else to listen to

[Twit 2]

Love Epicloud, Ziltoid and Addicted. Also love SYL. Not sure what else to listen to

That's funny, as I don't rate any of those solo albums particularly highly in comparison to his other stuff (love SYL though, particularly City and Alien).

For me, Ocean Machine and Terria are his two supreme masterpieces and just unrelentingly brilliant. Infinity has a similar feel but more unhinged and dense. Those 3 albums are pretty much 'peak Devin' and along with the SYL album 'City' gave him the stature and clout he has today. Since Terria the only album I truly love is Ghost, although I love large portions of Ki. So give all those a try if you don't already know them.

Also, based on your list above, you'd probably like Accelerated Evolution. It's very stripped down for him, but is a great album.

[H-O-W-L]

I would also suggest Deconstruction if only for the sheer thrill of listening to something that's constructed with such complexity.

[Noodle Lizard]

Deconstruction, yes - I don't know if you'd need to be a bit more familiar with his career for that one to really sink in, though.  It's an amazingly-composed, yet occasionally completely mental, analysis (or deconstruction, I guess) of what drives people to make heavy or wanky/pretentious music - presumably a bit of a "fuck you" to those who complained he'd gone soft since ditching Strapping Young Lad.  Very funny, too.

Agreed with Terria, as well.  That's a beautiful album.

[H-O-W-L]

It's an amazingly-composed, yet occasionally completely mental, analysis (or deconstruction, I guess) of what drives people to make heavy or wanky/pretentious music - presumably a bit of a "fuck you" to those who complained he'd gone soft since ditching Strapping Young Lad.  Very funny, too.

It's a bit of that and also a continuation of SYL's trend of ripping the piss out of metal trends and stomping right in the fucking mouth of pretentious wankcunts that write turgid shit and act like they're the second coming of Dio.

Regularly have to make people actually read the lyrics of Rape Song from SYL's self-titled (it's about wanting to murder literally every rapist and how pro-rape metal songs are garbage, for the unitiated/casual reader; a piss-rip of the exact sort of thing it's titled after.) whenever they see it in passing and assume it's yet another TRVE BLVCK MVTVL band.

I've honestly grown tired of Terria's heavier tracks, but the softer/faster ones in the midpoint of the album like Down and Under and Fluke, Tiny Tears, Canada, Nobody's Here... fucking hell they make me tingle even now.

[Noodle Lizard]

Oh, another thing to mention about Deconstruction is that the cameo list is incredibly impressive for anyone with a cursory knowledge of modern metal.

I remember going to this sort of "premiere" for the DTP's 'By A Thread' DVDs (playing each of those first four albums in their entirety - sadly the DVDs were terribly produced) at the Prince Charles Cinema in London.  He'd basically rented the whole cinema and hosted this really fun, informal viewing party where he showed us around the DVDs and played some highlights with live commentary, sometimes rushing around to hand us all popcorn.  Then he'd take breaks and mingle, chatting with anyone who wanted to.  It was really fascinating for me at the time to see such a "legend", and someone I admired so greatly, being quite as accessible as that.

Anyway, I'd seen the Deconstruction show live, and knew he was about to show some of that.  When I was talking to him about it, he seemed weirdly down on the whole thing - almost as if he wasn't especially proud of the performance, or maybe the album in general, and sure enough he skipped through that DVD pretty quickly before moving onto Ghost.  Then I got the 'Contain Us' box set, which includes his running commentaries for each album, and he seems far less interested in (and a little morose about) Deconstruction than any of the others.  Perhaps his intentions with it (i.e. kind of parodying that style of music) didn't land the way he wanted to with his fanbase.  Maybe SYL refugees seemed more interested in that one than the others, maybe he thought people missed the point.  I guess he still plays songs from Deconstruction live, so he can't hate it too much.

[H-O-W-L]

Deconstruction is basically the run-off of the other two albums (Addicted! and Ki) so I'm not surprised there. If you look around you can find the demos, the names of which elude me, which are slightly more elaborate than Deconstruction's final version, while also still stripped-down; if that makes any sense. He wanted more but also less for the album at the same time. It seems like Lucky Animals -- he knows the fans like it, and he likes the idea of it, but the final product is a letdown.

Also yeah, his accessibility is weirdly disarming yet comforting at the same time. I haven't attended a live gig myself because my hearing is just too fucked to visit a live gig without being deaf at the end of it, but my brother attended a tiny acoustic set with Devin playing at it, and afterward he just spent hours mingling with people at the bar (drinking coke, no less, rather than booze). My brother returned several hours later, just before the last train, to snatch his friend, and he jokingly said 'You're STILL HERE?!' to his friend. Devin overheard, and then said to my brother "Of course, dude." jokingly, laughing it off as if he'd spoken to him.

To see that kind of humility and willingness to just.. mix is... shocking really.