Let me be clear, this isn’t a review. It easily could be, but I don’t want it to devolve into that. As I’m such a huge fan of this man’s work, I doubt I could convince people into thinking any review of a boxset containing 4 discs of music that I have already bought previously could be anything other than biased, so there’s really no two ways about this, and the sooner I get this out of the way the better.
I am for all intents and purposes a Devin Townsend fanboy—just look at the damn alias I chose for this site. I love pretty much all of music, his congeniality, his humor, and his down-to-Earth personality. With that said, I don’t love everything he’s done, and I will openly discuss the various works that have disappointed or felt lackluster to me, but yes, for the most part I am a fanboy. So it was only natural that I bought his magnum opus of a boxset, Contain Us. This monolith houses the last four releases from Devin Townsend, and is a shining reminder of all of the hard work and dedication he has put into his craft, not just with DTP, but throughout the entirety of his career. So yes, this is not a review, but a reflection on this project, and the all important pieces of music that have so heavily affected me over the past 3 years.
This is where I break into the song from Team America about montages. Has to be done, right?
Heavy Devy is currently preparing for some shows at the beautiful Union Chapel (saw Andy McKee there a couple of years ago – stunning) and ULU in London to bring all four of his Devin Townsend Project albums to the stage, played in their entirety, and has posted the rehearsal footage above.
The PRP tells me they’re being filmed for a DVD release, and unfortunately they sold out months ago, so…fuck. If you can somehow nab tickets off eBay and have the financial backing of Sheik Mansoor then the dates of the shows are after the jump.
Okay, so I went to the tour Monday and after standing in line for too long I got in slightly late for Scale the Summit’s set. I believe I missed one or two songs. Anyway, they did great but whatever we have more important bands to talk about. Since I knew Devy and Cynic were coming up I pushed my way to the front. Devin’s set started up with probably 20 minutes of sound problems because of the tool on the house soundboard. To pass the time Devin got on the microphone and made conversation with the audience. By conversation, I mean making a total fool of himself in front of a crowd of people. Hilariously, I might add. The set opened with Disruptr from Ki and ended with By Your Command from ZTO. The whole set list was awesome, except for the lack of Hyperdrive. Despite Devin claiming complete awkwardness on stage he was VERY intense, especially for By Your Command. The whole band was pretty precise as far as I noticed. The same goes for Cynic, I didn’t notice a missed note and their presence was really enthralling. Very dense atmosphere and inbetween certain songs they played samples that were a cross between a self help seminar and a philosophy class. To be at a concert for both DT and Cynic is pretty crazy, considering their legendary status and how much I love them both. Between the Buried and Me were pretty disappointing, a completely average performance. Just a lot of standing and “Lets play this absolutely correct, fuck entertainment.” but also being preceded by two bands with much more widely appreciated live performances was silly anyway, but the scene kids won’t even notice so whatever.
A 5/5 concert since DTP and Cynic picked up the slack, a lot.
- MW
P.S., watch out for me rockin’ my Cynic hoody and DTP Addicted shirt.
Sorry the updates have been few and far between. I’ve been a little busy lately.
And by busy, I mean playing World Of Warcraft.
I got some time for my account. And before you ask, I’m with the Horde. Blood Elf Hunter. Going Alliance is unacceptable, especially for a guy who posts on a blog mostly about the metal.
So while I was kicking some nerdy ass, here’s what I missed:
Shadows Fall’s Retribution Artwork
The album comes out September 15th.
I’ve got nothing else to add.
New Footage of Devin Townsend Tracking Addicted
Yay, new music snippets!
Devin is always rad and never fails to impress.
New Megadeth Song Isn’t Boring | New Album Title
Megadeth released the song “Headcrusher”, and it’s better than what I expected of the ‘deth. It shreds. You too can listen to “Headcrusher” by calling 866.597.6342.
Why anyone would debut a song via phone this day in age is beyond me. Maybe to prevent early rips or leaks? The quality is obviously pretty low, you’re listening to it over the phone.
Headcrusher will appear on their upcoming album Endgame. It will be out some time in September on Roadrunner Records.
Deftones Delay Eros. FFFUUU-
But it totally has nothing to do with bassist Chi being in a coma.
“The songs recorded for ‘Eros’ are very special to us as they are the latest with Chi (and we certainly hope not the last); they have history and significant meaning to us. However, as we neared completion on ‘Eros’, we realized that this record doesn’t best encompass and represent who we are currently as people and as musicians. And although those songs will see the light of day at some point, we collectively made the decision that we needed to take a new approach, and with Chi‘s condition heavy on our minds while doing so. We needed to return to the studio to do what we felt was right artistically. Our inspiration and unity as a band is stronger than it has ever been before and we needed to channel that energy into our music, and deliver to our fans what you rightly deserve: the best DEFTONES record that we can make.
“The decision to hold off on releasing ‘Eros’ has no connection with Chi‘s condition or anything associated. This was, and is, purely a creative decision by the band to write, record, and deliver an amazing product. As a result we feel like this is the best record we’ve ever written. And although Chi is not playing bass with us, his presence is dramatically felt in our hearts and on our minds every day when we step into that studio, and you will feel it in the music.”
Well shit.
At any rate, I hope Chi makes a full recovery. From what I’ve read, he’s improving, so that’s good.
Behemoth Debut New Song With Obvious Title
New Behemoth track “Ov Fire And The Void“ can be listened to over at their myspace. Upon listening, I shrug my shoulders and I go back to playing WoW.
I shit you not. The next album to be released under The Devin Townsend Project, “Addicted”, is going to be akin to Nickelback, only “not about the penis.”
“Sex sells and I understand that but I started getting a real dark energy off of the record. It’s like “we’re making money and this is how you make money”, so this next record, I want to make it sound like the Nickelback record and I want to have chorus’s like the Nickelback record, but I want the lyrics to be about infinity and quantum mechanics.”
“The whole point of this is to say “sure, that sells but is it the aesthetics that sell or is it you singing about your penis because if it’s you singing about your penis, then I’m going to know right away”. If it’s about the penis then I’m not going to sell shit, but if it’s about the sound then maybe I’ll sell tons of it!”
Before, Devin said in an interview that he tried to make a pop record with these huge and melodic choruses, but it was out of his comfort zone as a forty year old with bad teeth and no hair.
“I wanted to write a pop record and I wrote a pop chorus and then all of the sudden I tried to write another and I was like, “I don’t want to write this shit,” you know what I mean? It’s like no one’s going to buy it anyway. I mean, my reality scheme as a musician is that I’m a 40-year-old dude with bad teeth and no hair, right? I’m not going to be a pop star any time soon, so I just have to be honest with what I do — what is it that I want to do? Do you really want to write shitty pop music and try to sell it to a bunch of people that you don’t like? Or do you want to just do what comes naturally? And do I like choruses? Hell, yeah! I like choruses and I like pop melodies, so to speak, but the more I tried doing it, the more I realized that how I really wanted to frame all of those choruses was crushing.”
Wow. The way I see it, it’s going to end up like a really heavy Nickelback album? I don’t know how this will go down. I’m conflicted here, as being generally anti-Nickelback (although I admit they are catchy). If I like this Devin Townsend album, I’ll have no real excuse. I’ll just tell people what Devin told us: “Well, these songs aren’t about Chad Kroeger’s penis.”
Update: I just found out that Devin has also said that “Some parts of it sound like Meshuggah, some parts of it sound like Boney M,”whoever that is. Addicted will also include a new version of the song “Hyperdrive” from his album Ziltoid the Omniscient with lead vocals by Anneke van Giersbergen, a female dutch singer. I <3 me some Hyperdrive. This sounds like it’ll be a fun record after all.
