How can anyone hate a face like that?

I wonder how sick you lot are of me talking about Devin Townsend? I’m sure some of you must be annoyed, but I can’t help but get excited about this man, and with all the news that he’s willing to trickle down to his fans, there’s almost always something to be excited about. It’s like as soon as there is the tiniest bit of a lull ol’ Devy goes, “Hey, Check this Shit Out”, and I DO.

Anyways, we’ve already talked about Devin’s next two projects Epicloud, a more commercial metal album, and Z2, the sequel to 2007′s grandiose rock opera, Ziltoid the Omniscient. The former rumored to be released sometime this year, and the latter coming out in about a year and a half. Given the fact that Townsend just finished a massive 4+ album concept that spanned the past three years, you would think he was going to take a bit of break, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Just this past week Devy announced yet ANOTHER upcoming record that he plans to release in conjunction with the aforementioned Epicloud. Posting on the official Hevy Devy forums, Devin Townsend outlined his three ongoing projects to the masses, including the first mention of his new project Casualties of Cool:

I found as a reaction to the complications of decon and the sheer bulk of work thats been going on (seriously, it’s insane) my writing ended up going in 3 ways recently:

1) A very commercial sounding (for the most part) but beautiful and melencholic album full of easy to digest dev songs…Epicloud. I don’t know why it came out, but it did, so I’m going to get it out of my system

2) Casualties of Cool: a duo with myself and Che (ki)… it sounds like haunted Johnny cash songs. late night music, completely isolated sounding and different than anything I’ve done. Che sings most of the leads, and it’s probably the truest reflection of who I am in life at this point. Trying to release it in tandem with Epicloud.

3) Z2 epic epic epic, complicated, musical, sci-fi, immense expense, the goal of it all I suppose.

Obviously this is very exciting news for fans of Devy and good music in general. It seems that with each announcement I just get even more riled up and excited. Ki is by far my favorite album by Devin, and while I thought Che’s performances on that record were astonishing, I didn’t think she was heavily utilized as she should have been, so this new project will probably be just the thing for someone like me. The other two projects get me excited as well, just so we’re clear.

Devin outlined some other news in his forum posts. Mostly he talked about the changing landscape of his musical career and dealing with new management and endorsement, but he also let loose a little bit of news regarding the sequel to last year’s Ghost:

Lost focus on Ghost 2, but mainly because I wanted to release it and everyone got their shit in a knot about it…so I’m trying to find a way to get it out for free, but thats a bit dicey with folks too.

I do understand why things need to be monetized, it’s expensive and everyones on salary and each month is a struggle, so box sets, dvds , vips etc are pretty important to the big picture. I still feel embarrassed about it all though and fully advocate not being obliged to buy it if you’re unsure… the bigger things get, you’d be suprised at how much control you need to give up just to stay musically creative…

Once the dust settles a bit (a year?) I hope to be able to ‘give back’ a bit with free stuff and everything..

It’s a little sad to think that Ghost 2 won’t get an official release, but free music is always a plus. You can read Devin’s full statement below, and feel free to let us know what you think of these developments in the comments. Cheers!

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