Infinity marked a major period of self-discovery for Devin (the first of 2 we’ll be covering). He realized his inspiration for making music, and as a fan it’s hard to imagine anything after this discovery other than a long, successful career. Of course, with Devin, nothing’s ever that simple. During the course of Infinity’s creation, Devin disbanded Strapping Young Lad after only 2 albums, believing that the second one, City, was as far as he could realistically take the project. From my perspective, I agree that City is pretty much the pinnacle of extreme music, and it was likely wise to end on that insanely high note. Freshly prescribed with medications for his bipolar disorder, Devin just wasn’t feeling the aggression anymore. Though, he presumably still wanted to make some heavier music, as he decided to collaborate with a rather well-known figure in the metal world, Jason Newsted.
Townsend’s collaborations with Newsted stretch back to 1994, when the two recorded a demo called IR8 with some rather thrashy material (and Newsted performing some of the most hilariously bad “thrash” vocals I’ve ever heard in my life). The story goes that the two reunited to start a project called Fizzicist, which Devin described as being even heavier than Strapping Young Lad (an odd descriptor, since he had also disbanded SYL for not having the aggression). Jason’s other band, the international punchline Metallica, got word of this and were “fucking pissed” that Newsted was taking his talents away from “the biggest heavy band in the history of ever” even though they let him have writing credits on 3 entire songs in his whole career with them. Makes perfect sense. Anyway, Townsend decided to say “fuck it” and write the album himself. His wayward SYL bandmates were then hired to play on it, and what we got was basically Diet SYL. It kind of tastes the same, but something’s just wrong.
As far as why it tastes so weird, it’s easy to blame a multitude of issues. First off, the mix is absolutely horrific. The drums sound extremely hollow, and all of the instruments and vocals have this weird echo to them. All in all, it’s just noisy, and not in the good way. Another issue, Devin’s vocals lack a lot of the variety that make Infinity and even City such a joyous listen. For the majority of the album, we get Devin trying to impersonate a thrash metal vocal style. It sort of works in the context of the album being mostly one-dimensional and straight-forward, but it’s disappointing knowing how incredible Devin’s voice is and how castrated it sounds here. On a similar token, there’s very little in the way of variety to be had here. By the time we get to the 11 minute Planet Rain, possibly one of the most unique songs in Devin’s discography (and that’s REALLY saying something), we’ve been senselessly beaten in the face with slightly mediocre keyboard-laden thrash metal so thoroughly that it’s hard to get excited about the change in direction. Now, I love thrash metal as much as the next guy, and I don’t hate this album nearly as much as this write-up makes it sound like I do, but barring the poppy Addicted preview in Material and the epic, sprawling Kingdom, hardly any of these songs have a memorable hook or even a head-banging riff. It all just sort of plods along.
And really, it’s not all that bad. The aforementioned Kingdom is an excellent song despite it’s horrific mix and scratchy vocal track (in the verses at least). It would become a live favorite, where the vocals were much improved, and even greater when it was redone for Epicloud with Anneke vocals. Material and Jupiter both have occasional flashes of the brilliant songwriting that we all know Devin is capable of. It’s tough to mention them in the same sentence of other catchy Townsend classics like Life and Christeen because they lack a certain polish, but they’re fine songs in their own right, and a bright spot in a sea of grey.
Planet Rain certainly deserves its own paragraph. Up until 2011, it was the second longest song in Townsend’s discography by a considerable margin, and remains a contender at number 4 to this day (behind The Mighty Masturbator, The Death of Music, and [oddly] Feather). Here, we get a slow-burning epic akin to Soul Driven, with the vocal variety we’ve come to expect. This song is the ultimate key to Physicist, to me. It’s easily the shining moment on the album, and unfortunately it’s buried under so much one-dimensional stuff that it’s hard to get to. Anyone listening to Physicist right now and not feeling it, do yourself a favor and skip over everything to get to Planet Rain. This song is hugely underrated in Townsend’s catalog, and I think the reason is because nobody’s listened to it. Imagine, listening to Physicist and hearing song after song of pounding thrash metal, but it’s just not as good as it should be. Then you see an 11 minute song closing it out and you’re like “fuck no.” It’s a damn shame, because with all the variety in the vocals and changes in mood, this is pretty much the only song on here that sounds like Devin’s solo material. It’s heavy, but it’s also atmospheric and moody. The lush, almost orchestral usage of weaving guitar lines and keyboard soundscapes make Planet Rain worth slogging through the noisy Physicist.
So, all in all, I’d say this album is a decent listen, if not a bit uninspired at times. Planet Rain is a monster of a song, and Kingdom, Material, and Jupiter are lovely. Devin considers it his worst album, and I would definitely agree. Devin made it clear even when Physicist was first released that he was unhappy with the result, promising that his next album would be better.
Boy was it.
Topic: Re: Devin Townsend Discography v. 'Cause there is always time... (Read 52010 times)