Devin Townsend v. Offer Your Posts

[DoctorAction]

Enjoyed it much more today. The only track that made me feel how I did the first time round was Heavy Burden, which is still a bit of a head-scratcher.

The rest of it sat nicely. It's a pretty cool direction, actually. I was expecting something more typically structured, like DTP, but it's not that at all.

[DoctorAction]

Now at the end of the second disc. Well, I predict I'll be doing s full 180 on my initial impression!

That's a lot of great stuff on Nightwork. The last three tracks are quiet magic.

[PixelDream]

Lightwork is a cool album although I feel the production, especially drums, is a bit sterile. Also all those layers kind of make it less powerful. On the other hand all those layers make it sound immersive and rather pleasant to listen to. I don’t know - I like it in any case. There’s some heavy sections on the bonus disc that would benefit from dirtier sounding drums. I mean, it’s all so controlled and neat. It’s a taste thing but Dev’s music almost sounds too perfect.

Weird thing about Call of the Void: at 04:05 there’s a chorus where the first part of the sentence sounds a bit too low in intonation. I always forget about it but it catches me off guard every time.

[DoctorAction]

I agree about the production.

[cramx3]

Giving the album some listens and it's much better upon more listens.  The album is just typical Devin "oddness".  I'm not sure how else to put it, the songs are just not easy to digest.  I'm not sure I would rate this as near top end Devin, but it's definitely growing on me to become something enjoyable.  I've also listened to Nightwork a couple times and while some tracks did stand out as pretty good, I'm not sure I agree with others saying Nightwork is better than Lightwork.  I still need more listens though, it's a lot of dense music when you consider both albums. 

[Metro]

https://twitter.com/dvntownsend/status/1592360862249254913

We start writing on Saturday. (Hi
@CheAimee
 

Dev starts writing the next Casualties of Cool record Saturday.
And if anyone missed it, here’s a COC demo he and Ché started working on a while back.
https://youtu.be/p2GF-k-V_yU

[Buddyhunter1]

https://twitter.com/dvntownsend/status/1592360862249254913

We start writing on Saturday. (Hi
@CheAimee
 

Dev starts writing the next Casualties of Cool record Saturday.
And if anyone missed it, here’s a COC demo he and Ché started working on a while back.
https://youtu.be/p2GF-k-V_yU

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

https://twitter.com/dvntownsend/status/1592360862249254913

We start writing on Saturday. (Hi
@CheAimee
 

Dev starts writing the next Casualties of Cool record Saturday.
And if anyone missed it, here’s a COC demo he and Ché started working on a while back.
https://youtu.be/p2GF-k-V_yU

[KevShmev]

Call me a slacker, but I have finally gotten around to giving Lightwork dedicated listens lately.  Not sure what I think of it, to be honest.  It's definitely different, and I give Devin a lot of props for that, but not sure I like many of the results.  2014 was really the last time Devin made an album that blew me away from start to finish (Casualties of Cool), so the days of him knocking it out of the park on a consistent basis may just be a thing of the past, for me anyway.  Still a huge fan of his, but this album makes me a little sad.

[cramx3]

Call me a slacker, but I have finally gotten around to giving Lightwork dedicated listens lately.  Not sure what I think of it, to be honest.  It's definitely different, and I give Devin a lot of props for that, but not sure I like many of the results.  2014 was really the last time Devin made an album that blew me away from start to finish (Casualties of Cool), so the days of him knocking it out of the park on a consistent basis may just be a thing of the past, for me anyway.  Still a huge fan of his, but this album makes me a little sad.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you here.  He's made good songs since then (I would say Transcendence in 2016 was his last good album) but the consistency of making music I'm not into is there. I'm willing to think a lot of it was the Pandemic, but I'm starting to think his break up of DTP was a mistake (at least in terms of making music I personally enjoy, I think the break up might have been good for Devin's personal situation)

[DoctorAction]

After posting opposing opinions of it, I've not been back to Lightwork much, for whatever reason. Nothing bad there but isn't calling me back.

I'm not convinced of the habit of releasing two albums at once, either. "Here's my artistic statement." is what I want. A succinct album of great stuff you really mean. The right music and the right running time. Regardless of song quality, the extra disc of stuff that didn't make it to the main album weakens the whole, for me.

(Felt the similarly about The Absolute Universe. "Here's a big dump of music we recorded. We can't edit or work out what to do with it. Maybe you can make sense of it...")

I get that Dev has the right intentions but I'd prefer an outstanding EP, tbh.

[Buddyhunter1]

I'm not convinced of the habit of releasing two albums at once, either. "Here's my artistic statement." is what I want. A succinct album of great stuff you really mean. The right music and the right running time. Regardless of song quality, the extra disc of stuff that didn't make it to the main album weakens the whole, for me.

That's always what the "main album" is. The other is clearly just bonus stuff / leftovers (with the exception of maybe Snuggles which was intentionally meant to be a contrast to The Puzzle) and I don't see how it affects the proper album at all.

[cramx3]

I'm not convinced of the habit of releasing two albums at once, either. "Here's my artistic statement." is what I want. A succinct album of great stuff you really mean. The right music and the right running time. Regardless of song quality, the extra disc of stuff that didn't make it to the main album weakens the whole, for me.

That's always what the "main album" is. The other is clearly just bonus stuff / leftovers (with the exception of maybe Snuggles which was intentionally meant to be a contrast to The Puzzle) and I don't see how it affects the proper album at all.

And Nightwork isn't meant to contrast Lightwork? I don't know, I see both sides of this.  I think it's great for the fans to get to hear all the music created, but I also do think that releasing basically a separate album of bsides, it's almost too much at once and takes away some focus on the main album.  Especially when a lot of people consider the left over tracks to be better than the album tracks, which I think is the case for some songs over the last few albums.

[Buddyhunter1]

but I also do think that releasing basically a separate album of bsides, it's almost too much at once and takes away some focus on the main album.

Yeah, I don't disagree there, though I think listeners have some responsibility to pace themselves if that much music is too overwhelming for them, and to focus on what's clearly the non-bonus material. My initial reaction to Empath was so surprisingly negative that I did enjoy the bonus disc more at first, and I still think some songs on Transcendence should have been swapped out for some songs on the bonus disc, but apart from that I merely view each of them as neat little extras that give hardcore fans such as myself a handful of good songs that otherwise wouldn't have seen the light of day. None of them work well as standalone albums, even though the sequencing and the seamless transitions help. If there's one thing I think Devin should do differently is maybe present and talk about the bonus discs in a way that doesn't make them sound like extra albums, which he does tend to do. I don't view them that way, because they'd be pretty lackluster albums if they were.

[Ben_Jamin]

but I also do think that releasing basically a separate album of bsides, it's almost too much at once and takes away some focus on the main album.

Yeah, I don't disagree there, though I think listeners have some responsibility to pace themselves if that much music is too overwhelming for them, and to focus on what's clearly the non-bonus material. My initial reaction to Empath was so surprisingly negative that I did enjoy the bonus disc more at first, and I still think some songs on Transcendence should have been swapped out for some songs on the bonus disc, but apart from that I merely view each of them as neat little extras that give hardcore fans such as myself a handful of good songs that otherwise wouldn't have seen the light of day. None of them work well as standalone albums, even though the sequencing and the seamless transitions help. If there's one thing I think Devin should do differently is maybe present and talk about the bonus discs in a way that doesn't make them sound like extra albums, which he does tend to do. I don't view them that way, because they'd be pretty lackluster albums if they were.

Nightwork VS Lightwork (part six of seven)

He explains what defines a record for him, and that Nightwork represents how disjointed his life was and that he felt lost, which led to him asking GGGarth to help him out with this album.

[Metro]

Posted this in the Discography Discussion Tracker Thread, posting here for more visibility


Would anyone be interested in a redo of the Devin Townsend discography discussion thread? Ultimetalhead did one back in 2014-2016 covering most of his major releases up to Z2, seen here: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=41621.0
 
Ultimetalhead did a great job, but he left out a lot, and Dev's been busy since then. I'd love to do my own take on this starting from the beginning and covering EVERYTHING. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
I'm talking Grey Skies, Noisescapes, Strapping Young Lad, guest appearances, bonus discs, live albums, Contain Us. You name it.
I made a list of everything I'd like to cover and it's a whopping 62 releases. Not everything warrants its own post of course, and some stuff would be lumped together. For example: Epicloud/Epiclouder/The Retinal Circus would all be one post, all of the Quarantine-era stuff would be one post, etc.

It's a heavy undertaking I'm prepared to undertake, but obviously if there's no interest, then I won't waste my time.

[Buddyhunter1]

I’d certainly follow!

[Fonzie]

Me too. Big fan here

[Zantera]

I've been getting into Devin more in the last few months (the albums I didn't know before) and I saw him live so I would also follow. Been converted from a casual fan into a big fan.

[cramx3]

Go for it. It's an incredible amount of content to go through and I may personally not be able to follow it all but if you have the desire I think you should do it. Maybe there's some gems to be discovered

[Stadler]

I'd follow; I have no interest in the Strapping Young Lad stuff, but as he aged, matured, and started wearing suits (haha!) I got into it more and more. 

[twosuitsluke]

I'd follow; I have no interest in the Strapping Young Lad stuff, but as he aged, matured, and started wearing suits (haha!) I got into it more and more.

Don't forget shaving off the skullet

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Posted this in the Discography Discussion Tracker Thread, posting here for more visibility


Would anyone be interested in a redo of the Devin Townsend discography discussion thread? Ultimetalhead did one back in 2014-2016 covering most of his major releases up to Z2, seen here: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=41621.0
 
Ultimetalhead did a great job, but he left out a lot, and Dev's been busy since then. I'd love to do my own take on this starting from the beginning and covering EVERYTHING. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
I'm talking Grey Skies, Noisescapes, Strapping Young Lad, guest appearances, bonus discs, live albums, Contain Us. You name it.
I made a list of everything I'd like to cover and it's a whopping 62 releases. Not everything warrants its own post of course, and some stuff would be lumped together. For example: Epicloud/Epiclouder/The Retinal Circus would all be one post, all of the Quarantine-era stuff would be one post, etc.

It's a heavy undertaking I'm prepared to undertake, but obviously if there's no interest, then I won't waste my time.

Are you also going to go over the various albums that he did production, engineering, and mixing?

[Metro]

Posted this in the Discography Discussion Tracker Thread, posting here for more visibility


Would anyone be interested in a redo of the Devin Townsend discography discussion thread? Ultimetalhead did one back in 2014-2016 covering most of his major releases up to Z2, seen here: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=41621.0
 
Ultimetalhead did a great job, but he left out a lot, and Dev's been busy since then. I'd love to do my own take on this starting from the beginning and covering EVERYTHING. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
I'm talking Grey Skies, Noisescapes, Strapping Young Lad, guest appearances, bonus discs, live albums, Contain Us. You name it.
I made a list of everything I'd like to cover and it's a whopping 62 releases. Not everything warrants its own post of course, and some stuff would be lumped together. For example: Epicloud/Epiclouder/The Retinal Circus would all be one post, all of the Quarantine-era stuff would be one post, etc.

It's a heavy undertaking I'm prepared to undertake, but obviously if there's no interest, then I won't waste my time.

Are you also going to go over the various albums that he did production, engineering, and mixing?

Sure. Albums like that aren't included in my overall list of releases, but I'll touch on them along the way

[Kwyjibo]

Although I know most of them I really like only couple of his records. But I would follow nonetheless, to see if I‘m missing something.

[Metro]

Glad to see there's some interest! I've already started writing the first few entries for this series.

[billboy73]

Nice! I'm in for this.  I know all of his stuff (and enjoy a good bit of it), except for the ambient releases.

[goo-goo]

Been revisiting Empath since I love Lightwork so much. When Empath was first released, I just didn't get it. It's one of those chaotic Devin albums (kind of like Deconstruction). So I really got deep with Lightwork, I think it's his best work and I loved the idea that he worked with a producer to kind of control that "chaos". Fast forward till yesterday and Empath is clicking...it's slowly clicking to the point where I can actually listen to it in one single sitting.

[Buddyhunter1]

Empath is still the only album I can think of that I flat-out disliked my first listen and gradually grew to love. That process was even documented in this thread.

[Zantera]

Empath is amazing. One of my favorites he's done in the last decade if not more.

[twosuitsluke]

Empath is amazing. One of my favorites he's done in the last decade if not more.

Couldn't agree more. It's not all solid gold but with songs like Why? you can't really go wrong.

Empath is still the only album I can think of that I flat-out disliked my first listen and gradually grew to love. That process was even documented in this thread.

I don't flat out dislike the last three, but I hope that I will come to enjoy them more than I currently do.

[Zantera]

I was actually surprised to find out Empath had some mixed reception (i just heard it a few months ago first time) but I guess I can sort of see it. If you prefer a Devy album that has a specific mood, Empath is all over the place. But on the flip side it feels like a greatest hits album almost. It covers a lot of ground from what he does musically but there's just so much good stuff on there. The fact that Singularity is so good as a 23 minute closer is just the cherry on top after everything else is so great.

[Buddyhunter1]

It's definitely underappreciated, and my favorite of his since Epicloud.

[Ben_Jamin]

Singularity is among the best songs he has ever done.

[Metro]

I'm sure this has been shared before but it's hilarious 
Amazon Echo: Devin Townsend Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5FVxyWuO-Y