Infinity is our first taste of a “unified” Devin Townsend album. Many times, Devin will get particularly inspired by a certain style and run with it, producing an album’s worth of content (usually more) in the process. This practice is evidenced in nearly everything the man does, especially in recent years. The ambient songs became Ghost, the poppy songs became Epicloud and Addicted. The country songs became Casualties of Cool. You get the idea. Infinity is comprised of many songs in varying styles. It’s spastic as all hell, but remains an extremely entertaining and satisfying listen.
Starting off with Truth, we have one of the most epic opening tracks ever crafted. Largely instrumental, Truth tells you everything you need to know about this album. It’s going to be heavy, it’s going to be dense, and there’s going to be a little bit of silliness here and there. And you’re going to like it. A lot. As the album goes along, we have a few wonderfully catchy tunes in Christeen and Wild Colonial Boy. We have a few slow-burning epics in War and Soul Driven, two utterly batshit insane songs in Ants and Bad Devil, and one of the most epic finishing punches with Dynamics and Unity. Noisy Pink Bubbles tacks on the end as a bonus track. Judging by the minute of silence separating it from Unity, I don’t believe it was intended as a part of the album, but it’s a great song in its own right, and doesn’t feel even remotely out of place. Like Things Beyond Things, it does a good job of unifying all the madness from the album and ending it on a high note.
Listening to this album for the first time, it may seem like Devin is fighting with a serious identity crisis. Like Ocean Machine, it changes moods on a dime, but it’s even more jarring. Ants is pretty much 2 minutes of circusy shredding and lunatic singing. Bad Devil predated the Swing-metal of Diablo Swing Orchestra by about 10 years, and sounds delightfully goofy. Really, the only times this album seems to take itself seriously are during the closing tracks. By that point, it becomes extremely spiritual, and I tend to find myself having incredibly powerful experiences with Dynamics alone nearly every time I hear it. It might lead some to think “Gosh, those closing tracks are so insanely good, but the impact might have been more effective without the silliness of Ants, Bad Devil, and Wild Colonial Boy breaking it up.”
If you’re ready to climb down the rabbit hole, unplug from the matrix, or whatever “otherworldly” metaphor you want to come up with, let’s go on a trip back to early 1998.
Devin has been recently discharged from a mental hospital, freshly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It was clear now where the two “extremes” of his music had come from. The loud, vicious anger of SYL and the quiet desperation of Ocean Machine was directly mirroring his condition. After being discharged, everything just “clicked” for Devin and he went to work again. Like normal, Devin wrote about a billion songs. Some of them he deemed fit for the album gestating in his mind, some he tossed aside for demo compilations or to be reworked for future projects. Then, something very unfortunate happened.
The record label needed an album in their hands. As much as I wish Devin would have said “fuck you it’s not done yet,” he decided instead to give them the most complete product he had at the time. That album is what we listen to as Infinity. If the album had been finished according to plan, things would have been very different. Very different indeed. Have a look at this.
Infinity (Original Sequence)
1. Truth
2. Processional (Welcome Home/Metamorphosis/Infinite Waltz)
3. Christeen
4. War
5. Starchild Rise
6. Soul Driven
7. Om
8. Dynamics
9. Unity
What did we notice? Correct. All of the “silly” songs are gone. Now, I love the silly songs as much as the next guy, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that this is an EXTREMELY different beast to the version of Infinity that we all have on our hard drives. Even from day one listening to this album and loving every second of it, Bad Devil, Ants, and Wild Colonial Boy just felt...strange, like they didn’t quite fit. Wild Colonial Boy especially stumbles before the all-out epic of Dynamics without any sort of build up. It’s still a great record, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no doubt this looks like a potentially better version of an already amazing disc.
Here’s some good news: A dedicated and talented member of another forum took the demos released later of the songs that weren’t included initially and mixed them together more or less perfectly. Everything was mixed to the same levels of quality. So, while the original tracks still sound a little better than the demos, everything blends together fine. Because I feel it is very important to this thread that everyone hear this alternate version of Infinity, I’ll ask that anyone who is interested PM me and I’ll uh...point you in the right direction.
If you want to avoid spoilers of how different and friggin’ awesome this version is, don’t read the following paragraphs until you’ve heard it.
Seriously. Last chance. I highly highly recommend formulating your own opinion before reading mine.
Okay. Holy FUCK. I mean, honestly, Infinity in its current form was already way high on my list of favorite albums, but this original version is absolutely unbelievable. I fell in love with the mood swings and apparent lack of direction in the retail release. I found it to be a great example of Devin’s bipolar tendencies. But the original sequence is such an incredible picture of someone struggling with mental issues. The serious atmosphere throughout the album brings such an emotional maturity to the proceedings, and it flows so much better. Furthermore, the already-awesome closing duo of Dynamics and Unity are given an equally epic pre-treatment in the stellar Om.
One thing I’ll admit about the original sequence: Processional is way too damn long and doesn’t do enough in the time it takes up on the album. I’ve heard many people say that this was intentional, and represents a wandering mind. Personally, I think it’s just another of Devin incessantly repeating a section because he liked it a lot. He’s been on record saying during his heavy drug using times that he would often write songs by playing the same riff over and over again for 4-5 minutes until he got tired of it. Of course, the Devin fanboy in me would like to think Processional simply wasn’t finished yet, and that he would have gone in adding more layers and vocals to the mix. I really wish he would have finished it, because I think it could have easily been the most incredible thing Devin ever produced. Still, in its mostly instrumental stage, it gives Christeen a ton of impact, being the first time we hear any sort of extended vocal passages with lyrics. Also, there’s a certain part at the end that should feel awfully familiar to anyone who’s listened to Deconstruction.
I’m extremely curious to read what everyone else thinks about the original sequence, and if it’s a more complete and realized album than the retail release. It was tough for me to swallow at first (months of listening to the retail version will do that to you), but I’ve certainly come around to the sweeping beauty of the original sequence. It’s absolutely fantastic stuff, and I think we’d be looking at a very different reception to Infinity had it been released as was initially intended.
Topic: Re: Devin Townsend Discography v. 'Cause there is always time... (Read 52044 times)