The Devin Townsend Supermegathread!

[budda]

I just found out today that DTP is now on the same label as Sparrows. Super stoked to see what may come of that

 

[RLG167]

Sadly, the individual tracks being put out aren't showing up in Spotify (possibly because Canada).

Yeah, we got them here in the US...

 

[Fiction]

I've pre-ordered, excited to get it! I'm getting a real early vibe from stormbending.. Digging it all so far.

 

[coreysMonster]

If you pre-ordered you might have gotten an email from InsideOut with a digital link to the album. Check your emails, they sent them out yesterday.

 

[katsumura78]

I just preordered the digipack so hopefully they send out the digital album later today.

 

[jwade]

I absolutely love this album. Higher is one of Dev's best songs ever.

 

[Unleash The Fury]

can someone post that chart about all of Devins/SYL albums? It was like a buyers guide to his albums that gave a brief descriptions of each one....

 

[wankerness]

can someone post that chart about all of Devins/SYL albums? It was like a buyers guide to his albums that gave a brief descriptions of each one....

This, maybe? This one is bad btw since it doesn't even mention Infinity, which is easily top 3 IMO. Putting Alien over City is also ridiculous. It's not a bad starting point, I suppose.

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-07-04/the-ultimate-buyer-s-guide-to-devin-townsend

Here's my chronological overview, I'm probably off on some of the order:

Punky Bruster - I've never listened to this

SYL - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing - alright

SYL - City - one of the best metal albums ever, easily, pure ferocity on several tracks and has insane speed throughout, with a couple of lower-tempo stomping tracks

DT - Ocean Machine - widely considered his best album, it's less technical than later ones and more about walls of sound and songwriting

DT - Infinity - easily one of his best IMO, takes the Ocean Machine sound and goes into different genres on many tracks, there's a silly bluesy track with horns called "Bad Devil" and a really noodly prog track ala Spiral Architect called Ants, etc

DT - Physicist - This was the first thing he released that got shat on by fans, it was called "SYL LITE" by many people at the time, it's held up pretty well and has some great songs on it

DT - Terria - This is a fan favorite, it's a lot more plodding and earthy (hence the name) than Ocean Machine

SYL - S/T - This got a ton of bad press when it came out for sounding half-assed, time has been kind to it, it's a lot less "wall-of-soundy" than what came before and considerably simpler than City/Physicist, but about half the songs are pretty damn good

DTB - Accelerated Evolution - this has some all-timers on it like Deadhead and Storm, but is kind of more of the same from Terria/Ocean Machine

Devlab - Zzzzzz

SYL - Alien - good, has some incredible heaviness on a couple tracks (the intro of Skeksis is one of my favorite things ever), but overall is definitely leaning away from the ferocity that previously defined SYL

DTB - Synchestra - I loved this when it came out, it's much proggier than Accelerated Evolution, Gaia and Babysong are two of my favorites of his still

SYL - New Black - it's not bad, but you're better off just listening to the previous 3, sounds like a continuation of Alien but without the inspiration, "you suck" is awesome however

DT - Ziltoid the Omniscient - this was thrown together in a hurry and has fake drums and sounds a bit sparse at times, but has some really awesome stuff on it, "By Your Command" and "Ziltoida Attax" and the first version of "Hyperdrive" in particular are greatttt

DTP - Ki - I've never listened to this

DTP - Addicted - Pretty great, if you like Anneke Van Giersbergen from The Gathering, has a lot of stompy uptempo catchy stuff (particularly Bend it like Bender with its ridiculous pop electronica chorus) on it along with a couple Ocean Machine-esque throwbacks like "The Way Home"

DTP - Deconstructed - another SYL-esque throwback with a lot of heavy guitars, also has a lot of carnival-esque synths and long-ass songs, I don't think it's very good

DTP - Ghost - much more ambient, I think it's better than Deconstructed but it's definitely not a good entry point

DTP - Epicloud - More catchy uptempo stompy stuff, I have a really hard time making it through the album

Casualties of Cool - sort of a midpoint between Ghost and country beats with primarily acoustic guitar, it's pretty damn good actually

DTP - Ziltoid 2 - trying too hard to redo Ziltoid but lacks the spontaneity entirely, it's not bad but it's definitely not very good either

DTP - Transcendence - I still haven't heard this

 

[rokket2005]

I agree with most of wank's points, but to add an addendum to his list I'll throw my two cents where he had none to offer.

Ki- Super boring and plodding throughout, when it was released Dev stated it was meant as a palate cleanser so that albums following it weren't judged on the same metric as the albums prior to it. I don't know how many times I've listened through it and not heard a single strong melody in the entirety of the disc.

Epiclouder - Essentially a b-sides disc 2 to Epicloud. I far prefer this album to the actual Epicloud album. It has stronger songs and isn't trying so hard to be huge in scope and sound. The whole let's make this sound as big as we possibly can was really wearing on me when Epicloud came out, and louder was a nice juxtaposition that didn't have the same amount while still being devin in character. Great tracks:
Happy Birthday- Definitely an addicted feeling song, Anneke features, vibe and melody for days.
Heatwave - Rockabilly vibe, could've worked really well on Synchestra and been the best song on it, I don't really care for Synch though, so take it was you will. Cool chorus.

Sky Blue - Disc 2 of Z2. I got maybe 2/3rds of the way through Z2 and didn't care for it. I really understand why it took dev 7 years to revisit Ziltoid, because if the writing process was anything like listening to it, to me at least, it must have been a slog and really disheartening trying to throw in humor, where the first one had it and was zany because it felt right, Z2's humor seemed to be shoehorned in because it was "supposed" to be there. Sky Blue on the other hand is a decent DTP album, and while it maintains the mentality of "Lets make these songs as grand as possible," It didn't seem quite as forced to me as Epicloud did.
Great tracks:
Universal Flame - Almost feels like a Numbered! pt.2 to me, a little more more uptempo and happier sounding track, but very much good dev in character. Starts with a huge chorus, disco beat in the bridge absolutely kills.
Rain City - kind of a mid tempo vibey track, super heavy vibe in the chorus, really cool vocal harmonies throughout especially in the chorus.

 

[coreysMonster]

Sorry I gotta jump in and give an alternate 2 cents on Ki, it's one of my favorite albums.


Ki- Is very different. Devin said Ki was supposed to be a break in his career, to introduce the DTP and his new outlook on music and life. He wanted to have a vibe that was heavy, but without being loud. There are a couple of loud moments on the album, but it's very restrained, which makes the loud parts stand out even more. It's very different from everything else that he's done, but some of the moments on it are among the best of his career. Gato and Ki (the track) stand out as high points on the album, and of course Trainfire is always fun.

 

[Unleash The Fury]

This, maybe? This one is bad btw since it doesn't even mention Infinity, which is easily top 3 IMO. Putting Alien over City is also ridiculous. It's not a bad starting point, I suppose.

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-07-04/the-ultimate-buyer-s-guide-to-devin-townsend

Here's my chronological overview, I'm probably off on some of the order:

Punky Bruster - I've never listened to this

SYL - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing - alright

SYL - City - one of the best metal albums ever, easily, pure ferocity on several tracks and has insane speed throughout, with a couple of lower-tempo stomping tracks

DT - Ocean Machine - widely considered his best album, it's less technical than later ones and more about walls of sound and songwriting

DT - Infinity - easily one of his best IMO, takes the Ocean Machine sound and goes into different genres on many tracks, there's a silly bluesy track with horns called "Bad Devil" and a really noodly prog track ala Spiral Architect called Ants, etc

DT - Physicist - This was the first thing he released that got shat on by fans, it was called "SYL LITE" by many people at the time, it's held up pretty well and has some great songs on it

DT - Terria - This is a fan favorite, it's a lot more plodding and earthy (hence the name) than Ocean Machine

SYL - S/T - This got a ton of bad press when it came out for sounding half-assed, time has been kind to it, it's a lot less "wall-of-soundy" than what came before and considerably simpler than City/Physicist, but about half the songs are pretty damn good

DTB - Accelerated Evolution - this has some all-timers on it like Deadhead and Storm, but is kind of more of the same from Terria/Ocean Machine

Devlab - Zzzzzz

SYL - Alien - good, has some incredible heaviness on a couple tracks (the intro of Skeksis is one of my favorite things ever), but overall is definitely leaning away from the ferocity that previously defined SYL

DTB - Synchestra - I loved this when it came out, it's much proggier than Accelerated Evolution, Gaia and Babysong are two of my favorites of his still

SYL - New Black - it's not bad, but you're better off just listening to the previous 3, sounds like a continuation of Alien but without the inspiration, "you suck" is awesome however

DT - Ziltoid the Omniscient - this was thrown together in a hurry and has fake drums and sounds a bit sparse at times, but has some really awesome stuff on it, "By Your Command" and "Ziltoida Attax" and the first version of "Hyperdrive" in particular are greatttt

DTP - Ki - I've never listened to this

DTP - Addicted - Pretty great, if you like Anneke Van Giersbergen from The Gathering, has a lot of stompy uptempo catchy stuff (particularly Bend it like Bender with its ridiculous pop electronica chorus) on it along with a couple Ocean Machine-esque throwbacks like "The Way Home"

DTP - Deconstructed - another SYL-esque throwback with a lot of heavy guitars, also has a lot of carnival-esque synths and long-ass songs, I don't think it's very good

DTP - Ghost - much more ambient, I think it's better than Deconstructed but it's definitely not a good entry point

DTP - Epicloud - More catchy uptempo stompy stuff, I have a really hard time making it through the album

Casualties of Cool - sort of a midpoint between Ghost and country beats with primarily acoustic guitar, it's pretty damn good actually

DTP - Ziltoid 2 - trying too hard to redo Ziltoid but lacks the spontaneity entirely, it's not bad but it's definitely not very good either

DTP - Transcendence - I still haven't heard this

thanks! actually this wasn't what I was looking for but it should help anyways.b what I was looking for was actually a picture chart that had all the albums and brief descrip to install of them. actually I think that very graph is in this thread buried somewhere I should look around

 

[Fiction]

The ending Arps on Ki could possibly be my favourite bit of music I've ever heard from Dev, so much intensity!

 

[wankerness]

I agree with most of wank's points, but to add an addendum to his list I'll throw my two cents where he had none to offer.

Ki- Super boring and plodding throughout, when it was released Dev stated it was meant as a palate cleanser so that albums following it weren't judged on the same metric as the albums prior to it. I don't know how many times I've listened through it and not heard a single strong melody in the entirety of the disc.

Epiclouder - Essentially a b-sides disc 2 to Epicloud. I far prefer this album to the actual Epicloud album. It has stronger songs and isn't trying so hard to be huge in scope and sound. The whole let's make this sound as big as we possibly can was really wearing on me when Epicloud came out, and louder was a nice juxtaposition that didn't have the same amount while still being devin in character. Great tracks:
Happy Birthday- Definitely an addicted feeling song, Anneke features, vibe and melody for days.
Heatwave - Rockabilly vibe, could've worked really well on Synchestra and been the best song on it, I don't really care for Synch though, so take it was you will. Cool chorus.

Sky Blue - Disc 2 of Z2. I got maybe 2/3rds of the way through Z2 and didn't care for it. I really understand why it took dev 7 years to revisit Ziltoid, because if the writing process was anything like listening to it, to me at least, it must have been a slog and really disheartening trying to throw in humor, where the first one had it and was zany because it felt right, Z2's humor seemed to be shoehorned in because it was "supposed" to be there. Sky Blue on the other hand is a decent DTP album, and while it maintains the mentality of "Lets make these songs as grand as possible," It didn't seem quite as forced to me as Epicloud did.
Great tracks:
Universal Flame - Almost feels like a Numbered! pt.2 to me, a little more more uptempo and happier sounding track, but very much good dev in character. Starts with a huge chorus, disco beat in the bridge absolutely kills.
Rain City - kind of a mid tempo vibey track, super heavy vibe in the chorus, really cool vocal harmonies throughout especially in the chorus.

Hmm, somehow I missed Sky Blue, I guess cause they don't list it on the wikipedia discog that I was referring to! I liked it a LOT more than Z2.

I have Epiclouder and I don't think I ever listened to it after I loathed the first disc so much. I assumed it was B-sides and remixes or something. I'll have to listen to it sometime. I also must note that I kinda liked a couple of the Epicloud tracks they played on the Retinal Circus DVD (particularly Lucky Animals, which I know I hated on the album), I guess they just translated better in a live setting.

 

[Asrial]

^Ki is, IMHO, the best DTP album. It is such a good blend of mellow, coffee shop vibes, which just tenses up into something insanely twisted and heavy.

Epiclouder > epicloud. It's less happy, more desperate. Quietus could easily have been fleshed out and put into Sky Blue. The mind wasp has a great, fuzzy bass groove, and Happy birthday is an awesome track.

 

[The Mirror]

Wow, what's with the Deconstrucion hate? That record is like the best of the best modern Extreme Metal has to offer.

I just love the flood of guest musicians, always hearing a new style on every song.

In addition Planet of the Apes is one of the best tracks of the DTP and man, if the carnival section of The Mighty Masturbator isn't hilarious, nothing is.

 

[chassless]

Nobody sh+t on Ki and Deconstruction. Ki's power is in its restraint, it wasn't meant as a 'palate cleanser'. You should all listen to his live commentary on both these albums, they're on youtube. They just won't be the same again.

 

[Asrial]

IIRC, "Stand" is the reason Mikael Åkerfeldt stopped growling, due to him only needing to growl the title and nothing else on the track.

Also, "Praise the Lowered" and "Poltergeist" also gets too little love. Such good songs.

Ki, Acc.Evol., and Deconstruction will forever be my top albums.

 

[chassless]

^ what! I need to know more about Mike's point of view on this. There's so little info out there. And yes it's sad that there are so many guest musicians on that album yet Mike's role was so small.

 

[AxeHappy]

Ki is ....ing brilliant. Heavy as .... but without the oppressive overwhelming (which can be a good thing) mixing style of much of Devy's work.

 

[wankerness]

Wow, what's with the Deconstrucion hate? That record is like the best of the best modern Extreme Metal has to offer.

I just love the flood of guest musicians, always hearing a new style on every song.

In addition Planet of the Apes is one of the best tracks of the DTP and man, if the carnival section of The Mighty Masturbator isn't hilarious, nothing is.

It reminded me of those lousy Ayreon albums that used to come out in the early 00s.