Devin Townsend v. Offer Your Posts

[KevShmev]

I love Infinity's production.  Yeah, it's loud and noisy, but it's also airy, allowing the music to breathe, and it has a very warm feeling overall.  The many layers it has just adds to the vibe.  For example, that giant riff in War sounds like 1,000 guitars all crushing you at once.

That is my beef with the newer version of Truth; he sucked a lot of the life out of it.  The original has this kind of frantic intensity that is completely lost in the "cleaner" Transcendence mix.

[seasonsinthesky]

I enjoy both. Transcendence has much fuller bass response, so the song has a different 'big' feeling compared to Infinity, where most of the bass information is just the kick drum. I think a lot of the bass phased out when Dev combined the 'red' and 'blue' mixes (check out the explanation in his book). Plus he did the thing with the intro riff that is awesome and wasn't on the original version. I dunno, there are a lot of positives to both.

I do miss the crazy mono summing part during the climax, though. It sounds so cool the way it folds in and then back out with musical timing.

[KevShmev]

For my money, Infinity is still his 3rd best studio album to date, behind Terria and Addicted.  My order after that is ever-changing, but I suddenly have a whole new appreciation and love for Accelerated Evolution, which I now rank higher than I used to.  Ghost and Casualties of Cool are both freaking awesome, although I kind of have to be in the right mood for both, and I still love Epicloud to pieces.  Ki and Synchesta are also sneaky underrated.  And of course Sky Blue.  So much great stuff. 

[KevShmev]

Devin and Che from the Dunlop Sessions, which was uploaded yesterday. I'm loving this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTW0Uf-34BA

I stumbled across that the other day by accident.  Pretty awesome. I want more Casualties of Cool and/or more Devin working with Ché Aimee Dorval, please.

[KevShmev]

Updated Devin album rankings (which are ever-changing):

1. Terria
2. Addicted
3. Casualties of Cool
4. Infinity
5. Epicloud
6. Accelerated Evolution
7. Ghost
8. Sky Blue
9. Ki
10. Transcendence
11. Ocean Machine
12. Synchestra
13. Deconstruction
14. Ziltoid the Omniscient
15. Dark Matters
16. Physicist

[Metro]

1. Ocean Machine
2. Ghost
3. Ki
4. Terria
5. Transcendence
6. Casualties of Cool
7. Infinity
8. Epicloud
9. Addicted
10. Deconstruction
11. Accelerated Evolution
12. Sky Blue
13. Synchestra
14. Ziltoid the Omniscient
15. Dark Matters
16. Physicist

[KevShmev]

I've stopped trying to make myself love Ocean Machine.  I like it, but I don't love it.  Its just a difficult listen from start to finish, for some reason. 

[Kwyjibo]

For me Ocean Machine is the best them. I just love, love, love that record. And Devin was never able to reach that high again.

[twosuitsluke]

First time seeing Devin Townsend tonight. I'm so looking forward to this, I'm going with a friend who is only a casual fan and I've not managed to get anyone to cover my shift at work tomorrow but it'll still be awesome!!

Really looking forward to Leprous as well as it's my first time seeing them!! All in all tonight will be banging 

[jakepriest]

I've stopped trying to make myself love Ocean Machine.  I like it, but I don't love it.  Its just a difficult listen from start to finish, for some reason.

I like the last few songs, but I can't stand Life, Sister and Funeral. It's just a tedious album to get through for me.

Deconstruction I love, but it's hard to listen to for other reasons, it's not a case of me not liking the music, but the fact that it's really long and there's a lot going on instrumentally and vocally in each song.

[Elite]

1. Terria
2. Ki
3. Deconstruction
4. Ocean Machine
5. Ziltoid the Omniscient
6. Ghost
7. Addicted
8. Physicist
9. Infinity
10. Dark Matters
11. Accelerated Evolution
12. Epicloud
13. Sky Blue
14. Transcendence
15. Synchestra

--

Something like that. I haven't heard Casualties of Cool enough to rank it. The bottom 6 are quite interchangable as well.

[twosuitsluke]

I'd probably rank something like:

1. Ocean Machine
2. Addicted!
3. Terria
4. Infinity
5. Epicloud
6. Accelerated Evolution
7. Transcendence
8. Deconstruction
9. Ki
10. Synchestra
11. Sky Blue
12. Dark Matters
13. Ziltoid the Omniscient
14. Casualties of Cool
15. Physicist
16. Ghost

Ocean Machine is really great and just a perfect example of a body of work being greater than the sum of it's parts.

[KevShmev]

I've stopped trying to make myself love Ocean Machine.  I like it, but I don't love it.  Its just a difficult listen from start to finish, for some reason.

I like the last few songs, but I can't stand Life, Sister and Funeral. It's just a tedious album to get through for me.

It's a weird album for me.  I like every song on it quite a bit, on their own, but if I try listening to the whole thing from start to finish, it doesn't keep my interest.  So many of his albums are effortless to get through; Ocean Machine feels like difficult work to get through.

Deconstruction I love, but it's hard to listen to for other reasons, it's not a case of me not liking the music, but the fact that it's really long and there's a lot going on instrumentally and vocally in each song.

The only songs I ever listen to anymore from that record are Juular and The Mighty Masturbator.  I would still say I like the majority of the rest, but with Devin having so much music, they just aren't good enough to work their way into my rotations ever.

First time seeing Devin Townsend tonight. I'm so looking forward to this, I'm going with a friend who is only a casual fan and I've not managed to get anyone to cover my shift at work tomorrow but it'll still be awesome!!

Enjoy! 

[twosuitsluke]

Managed to get cover for my shift tomorrow so I can go and have a few drinks at the gig tonight 

[The King in Crimson]

1. Terria
2. Ocean Machine - OM and Terria are pretty much perfect, with Terria edging it out for having slightly better songs.

3. Accelerated Evolution - AE has really climbed up the ranks over time. Used to be more in the middle a couple of years ago but it's such a solid album
4. Infinity - I'm not fond of the production but it has some really good songs on it. Kinda scattershot in quality, though that describes pretty much every album from here till the end
5. Ki - I'm not a fan of all of the songs on this album. Many of the quieter ones don't really stand out all that well to me, they sound very similar and just run together. However, when listened to as a whole, it's a very neat listening experience. Also, "Disruptr" is so awesome.
6. Transcendence - Solid Devin is solid. Doesn't stand out as much as Ki and is arguably a standard Devin Townsend album, but it's way more consistent and I'd be hard-pressed to say any of the songs are bad.
7. Addicted - Good, fun, but kinda one dimensional. Also, I hate the production.
8. Epicloud - Addicted v 2.0. See above.

9. Synchestra - Way too varied in quality to be great. This is an album where I much prefer to pluck out and listen to my favorites in isolation rather than listen to the whole thing. That said, the good songs are glorious.
10. Ziltoid - A fun album but I just don't connect with many of the songs here. I don't hate anything but I don't really love anything either.

11. Decontruction - TMM is almost a masterpiece but the rest of the album is... okay? The production, the length, and the density of the music just make it a hard album to enjoy. Once TMM ios over, I check out but there's still three songs remaining (two of which I don't like all that much).
12. Sky Blue - Decent, standard-issue Devin with some good songs but none that really matches up with his best material.
13. Casualties of Cool - Very nice and pretty but not really something I enjoy all that much.  Just not my type of music.
14. Ghost - Nice and pretty, but I usually just zone out when listening to it so individual moments don't stand out to me. I still honestly have no idea how many of these songs sound on their own.

15. Z2 - Ugh. A couple of decent songs but overall marred by some weak songwriting and a story that intrudes on the music too damn much. A perfect example of how not to do a concept album.
16. Physicist - Terrible production mixed with substandard songwriting. The "Victim" rerecording on Transcendence proves that even when cleaned up, the "good" songs on this album don't measure up. "Kingdom" was good, though. Everything else? Bleh.

[Elite]

Ocean Machine is really great and just a perfect example of a body of work being greater than the sum of it's parts.

That's how I feel about Terria

Have fun tonight!

[KevShmev]

1. Terria
2. Ocean Machine - OM and Terria are pretty much perfect, with Terria edging it out for having slightly better songs.

3. Accelerated Evolution - AE has really climbed up the ranks over time. Used to be more in the middle a couple of years ago but it's such a solid album
4. Infinity - I'm not fond of the production but it has some really good songs on it. Kinda scattershot in quality, though that describes pretty much every album from here till the end
5. Ki - I'm not a fan of all of the songs on this album. Many of the quieter ones don't really stand out all that well to me, they sound very similar and just run together. However, when listened to as a whole, it's a very neat listening experience. Also, "Disruptr" is so awesome.
6. Transcendence - Solid Devin is solid. Doesn't stand out as much as Ki and is arguably a standard Devin Townsend album, but it's way more consistent and I'd be hard-pressed to say any of the songs are bad.
7. Addicted - Good, fun, but kinda one dimensional. Also, I hate the production.
8. Epicloud - Addicted v 2.0. See above.

9. Synchestra - Way too varied in quality to be great. This is an album where I much prefer to pluck out and listen to my favorites in isolation rather than listen to the whole thing. That said, the good songs are glorious.
10. Ziltoid - A fun album but I just don't connect with many of the songs here. I don't hate anything but I don't really love anything either.

11. Decontruction - TMM is almost a masterpiece but the rest of the album is... okay? The production, the length, and the density of the music just make it a hard album to enjoy. Once TMM ios over, I check out but there's still three songs remaining (two of which I don't like all that much).
12. Sky Blue - Decent, standard-issue Devin with some good songs but none that really matches up with his best material.
13. Casualties of Cool - Very nice and pretty but not really something I enjoy all that much.  Just not my type of music.
14. Ghost - Nice and pretty, but I usually just zone out when listening to it so individual moments don't stand out to me. I still honestly have no idea how many of these songs sound on their own.

15. Z2 - Ugh. A couple of decent songs but overall marred by some weak songwriting and a story that intrudes on the music too damn much. A perfect example of how not to do a concept album.
16. Physicist - Terrible production mixed with substandard songwriting. The "Victim" rerecording on Transcendence proves that even when cleaned up, the "good" songs on this album don't measure up. "Kingdom" was good, though. Everything else? Bleh.

I am surprised you're a fan to the point of knowing every album if your 3rd favorite is merely "solid" and your 4th favorite is "scattershot" in quality.

[The King in Crimson]

Infinity has some great songs, but a couple I don't care for. The good songs pretty much make up for the ones I don't care so it's more than a wash.

And AE is just really, really consistent. I have nothing to complain about on it, but it wouldn't make my list of Favorite Albums Evar(!) list, whereas Terria and OM would.

One can be a fan of an artist without being overly or excessively effusive about it.

[KevShmev]

Haha, I know, I was just messing with ya a little.

To me, Devin has two all-time greats (Terria and Addicted), and then a crap load of CDs I would rank 4 or 4.5 stars.   Of the 16 we ranked, I think only the last two are ones I would give below 4 (and both would get probably only a 2.0).

[Elite]

11. Decontruction - TMM is almost a masterpiece but the rest of the album is... okay? The production, the length, and the density of the music just make it a hard album to enjoy. Once TMM ios over, I check out but there's still three songs remaining (two of which I don't like all that much).

Hmm, I disagree. TMM is very good, but not even the best song. I can understand that it's difficult to get through, because it's loud, heavy and just a TON of music. I just listened to the album again in full, for the first time in a couple of years and by the time the album gets to that minute of softer music at the end of Sumeria, you're glad that it's a little toned down

I think the album gets better towards the end actually. Poltergeist, the closer, is my favourite track, because it's so ridiculously over the top. The title-track before that is also really nice in capturing the completely insanity from all the previous tracks, turning it upside down and mashing it out again into a not-so-very-cohesive-but-very-well-executed track.

My favourites, in order, from this album are:
1. Poltergeist
2. Planet of the Apes
3. Stand
4. Deconstruction
5. The Mighty Masturbator
6. Sumeria
7. Pandemic
8. Praise the Lowered
9. Juular

^ which really doesn't say much about Juular, I enjoy that track a lot as well.

[Onno]

Bit of a Devin fanboy here. I don't think any album apart from Dark Matters and Physicist would score lower than a 7.5/10 for me  The most important part of Devin's music to me is that almost every album is a very good representation of his emotional state and views of life during the time it was made. In my opinion, this is very audible in the music and is also the main reason why Devin's music sounds so authentic. This very much influences my rankings of his albums, of course.

1. Ocean Machine
2. Terria - These two are perfect.

3. Ki
4. Deconstruction - Both masterpieces, but not quite as good as #1 and #2. These two swap places in my rankings constantly.

5. Casualties of Cool- Brilliant album, though it used to be higher in my rankings.
6. Accelerated Evolution - Had Away and Random Analysis been better songs, this album would probably have been #3 for me.
7. Ghost - One of the most peaceful albums I've ever heard, love it.
8. Infinity -  Ants pulls this one down quite a lot; a few songs here are among Devin's best for me.
9. Addicted - Definitely the best of the "DTP style albums" (the other three Epicloud, Z2 and Transcendence), but it doesn't have the same emotional depth as some other Devy albums for me.
10. Synchestra - Only has a few individual songs that really stand out (Gaia, Pixilate, Judgment),but as a whole, it works extremely well.
11. Transcendence - It's a bit too early for me to really rank this still, but I think it's a really good album, even though it has the same sound as Epicloud, Z2 etc. The title track is not that good, but the rest is really good stuff.

12. Epicloud - My first Devin album; I like it even though it sounds very alike to Addicted.
13. Sky Blue - Sounds very similar to Addicted as well, but I just like it less than Epicloud. The slight melancholic vibe saves it from being lower.
14. Ziltoid the Omniscient - Has a few flaws, but I love the concept. Story-wise, I like how there's only a rough overlying 'idea' of a story, and how there are a lot of serious undertones even though the story is so silly.

15. Physicist - Bad production is my main problem with this one; apart from that, it has a few songs which are forgettable for Devin's standards, but Namaste, Jupiter, Kingdom and Planet Rain are definitely among Devin's better songs.
16. Dark Matters - I only really like a few songs on here, and the direct storytelling makes it really feel like a musical with (to me) very little underlying emotional depth.

[twosuitsluke]

Just posted this in the 'Your Concerts for 2017' thread but thought I'd post here too:

So last night seeing DTP, Tesseract and Leprous was great. I learnt something and confirmed two other things.

First off I learnt that Leprous have one beast of a drummer. Baard was just on fire last night, he plays with such energy and really bashes the shit out of his kit. I think I realised that part of what I love so much about The Congregation, especially, is the drumming. I'm not much of an air drummer, but I am when listening to these guys. Einar was also great last night and I really love his voice. I don't know how well they went over last night, not a lot of people seemed to know them and the people I spoke to after weren't hugely into it. I'm not sure what my impression would have been if that was my first exposure to them (other than "This drummer kicks ass").

Last night also confirmed that Tesseract do nothing for me. I've tried with these guys, the music is ok, if a bit samey, but I just don't connect with them.

Finally, last night confirmed that Devin has the best crowd to artist banter between songs. He just comes across really genuine, doesn't take himself seriously and has fun. I already knew this, obviously, it just confirmed he is my favourite for this sort of thing. The atmosphere was really different from any other metal gig I've been to. I mean, for music that is, for the most part, metal, there were no circle pits and very little crowd movement. There was lots of headbanging, which I was fully involved with, but other than that it was quite reserved. That's fine and it fits Devin's music but it was just different to most gigs I go to. Either way, it was great, the set was pretty good (even though they just played the exact same set they have been playing recently, so no surprises there). I did find myself wishing Anneke had been there, for some of the songs. As my first time seeing Devin though I had a big, shit eating grin on my face throughout. There were a few nice surprises in the crowd last night as well. Turns out Paul and Craig (my step uncle and cousin I guess) were there. They don't even really now Devin's music but they are huge metal heads so gave it a go anyway  . I need to find out what they thought of it. Also, a few other friends (and friends of friends) were actually there so was good to see some familiar faces.

[Ben_Jamin]

Devin has some badass shows...and is really cool. My first gig was a meet a greet. He was a bit sick at the time, but was cool enough and a bit surprised to sign my Epicloud Bear. He actually never saw one before that. I told him its soft.

[cramx3]

Yea I caught Dev twice last fall on his US tour and plan on seeing him soon when he comes here.  He's great to hear speak between songs as he calls things as they are.  Very down to earth.  I met him at one of those concerts and he seemed genuinely interested in the story I told him.  He really liked it and had the biggest smile.  It also doesnt hurt that the band is pretty solid live.  There were mosh pits at my concerts though.

[Tomislav95]

Yes, his concert was much different than any other metal concert I attended. I love how "against" stereotypical metalheads he is, talking about love on the stage, smiling all the time, telling jokes etc. He even kissed some guy in the head. I didn't see it clearly, maybe it was security guard he kissed After the song he said he's not sorry because the guy has awesome hairstyle (bald)

[twosuitsluke]

Yes, his concert was much different than any other metal concert I attended. I love how "against" stereotypical metalheads he is, talking about love on the stage, smiling all the time, telling jokes etc. He even kissed some guy in the head. I didn't see it clearly, maybe it was security guard he kissed After the song he said he's not sorry because the guy has awesome hairstyle (bald)

Yea, I like that too. I must admit I'm pretty in touch with my feminine side and hate overtly male stereotypes. That kind of applies to stereotypes of what 'metal is'. It's all bullshit, if you want to turn up to a metal show in sportswear, that's fine. You don't have to have a metal wardrobe or act a certain way to be considered 'metal'. Everyone is welcome at a Devin Townsend show and he promotes that with his persona and attitude. I love the guy. Basically, down with all stereotypes, it fuels hatred and prejudice so lets all just embrace each other as individual human beings.

[Ben_Jamin]

Exactly....he loved our love at our show.

[NunoTenniscourt]

Yea I caught Dev twice last fall on his US tour and plan on seeing him soon when he comes here.  He's great to hear speak between songs as he calls things as they are.  Very down to earth.  I met him at one of those concerts and he seemed genuinely interested in the story I told him.  He really liked it and had the biggest smile.  It also doesnt hurt that the band is pretty solid live.  There were mosh pits at my concerts though.

Yeah, that's what stood out about him to me, too. When I met him, there was a guy next to me talking about his band to Devin, and instead of just giving him short answers like "oh, wow....cool", Devin asked him a series of questions about his band.

There was moshing at the show here, too. Nothing too extreme, though. The funny thing was, it was mostly girls. When 'Kingdom" started they went apeshit.

[NunoTenniscourt]

Yea I caught Dev twice last fall on his US tour and plan on seeing him soon when he comes here.  He's great to hear speak between songs as he calls things as they are.  Very down to earth.  I met him at one of those concerts and he seemed genuinely interested in the story I told him.  He really liked it and had the biggest smile.  It also doesnt hurt that the band is pretty solid live.  There were mosh pits at my concerts though.

Yeah, that's what stood out about him to me, too. When I met him, there was a guy next to me talking about his band to Devin, and instead of just giving him short answers like "oh, wow....cool", Devin asked him a series of questions about his band.

There was moshing at the show here, too. Nothing too extreme, though. The funny thing was, it was mostly girls. When 'Kingdom" started they went apeshit.

Fuck, that show was a blast. It would re-live it 100 times if I could.

[Elite]

In Amsterdam the moshpit started with Ziltoid Goes Home and went on until the end basically (apart ftom
Ih-Ah). I hadn't done that in ages, it was fun!

[cramx3]

Yea, Kingdom led to the place exploding when otherwise the pit was pretty small and tame.  That song brings out the energy. 

[WebRaider]

This is my list....

1. Ocean Machine
2. Addicted!
------------------
3. Infinity
4. Transcendence
5. Deconstruction
6. Accelerated Evolution
7. Terria
8. Casualties of Cool
9. Synchestra
10. Ki
11. Ziltoid the Omniscient
---------------------
12. Epicloud
13. Sky Blue
14. Physicist
15. Ghost
16. Dark Matters


Ocean Machine and Addicted! are just classics for me. Everything from Infinity to Ziltoid change positions often but this is where they would likely stand at the moment. The bottom 5 are still quite good just don't usually move beyond where they are in my Dev list.

[Nihil-Morari]

The Hummer and Devlab not getting a lot of love from you guys. I love those two, even have a signed Devlab cd.

[twosuitsluke]

The Hummer and Devlab not getting a lot of love from you guys. I love those two, even have a signed Devlab cd.

I must admit, I've still not listened to either. Surely when Dev is not at his best (which seems to be general consensus about these two albums) it's still worth a listen. Maybe I'll give them a try tonight.

[cramx3]

I'll give the rankings a go, I haven't heard a few of his albums and there's a few that I've listened to once or twice, but weren't into so haven't gone back to them so I can't properly rank them.

Albums I know well enough to rank:

Addicted!
Epicloud
Ocean Machine
Accelerated Evolution
Transcendence
Sky Blue
Ziltoid the Omniscient
Infinity
Synchestra
Dark Matters

Listened to but haven't gone back:

Deconstruction
Ki
Ghost

Haven't listened to:

Casualties of Cool
Terria
Physicist
Devlab/Hummer/Bonus tracks