Devin Townsend v. Offer Your Posts

[Crow]

that's what I thought, ok

[Enigmachine]

Didn't know that 'Stars' would be on there. Thought that it might be a bonus track.

[goo-goo]

Bonus disc has two bonus tracks. The rest of them are demos

https://www.musicglue.com/devintownsend/products/transcendence-cd---digipack/

[twosuitsluke]

Preordered, couldn't help myself 

[Crow]

I may pre-order for the shirt if the shipping doesn't kill me

[Adami]

Is Stars the song he wrote "live" on camera?

[Metro]

Is Stars the song he wrote "live" on camera?

Yes.

[Adami]

Eh. This had dampened my hopes a bit then. I was hoping for a break form the almost factory like production of Epicloud style songs. I miss the days when he showed quite a bit of diversity. It seems he's becoming more and more into a specific style.

I hope I'm wrong. I'll buy this day of release, but if it's just more of the same, I doubt it'll get much play from me.

[Metro]

Yeah I'm hoping this isn't Addicted version 4.0

I like the Pop-Metal thing he's been doing for a while but I miss the days when every Devin album sounded different.
I guess the DTP is mainly for his Pop-Metal stuff and any other experimental projects like Casualties will just be done under a different project name.
I'm much more excited for "Moth"(the symphony he's been talking about forever) than Transcendence, tbh

[Nel]

If Epicloud is anything to go by, even the demos can stand pretty well as their own tracks. And once again, with Devin it appears that I must get the digipack to get all the songs.

I do so prefer jewel case.

[jakepriest]

Stars is a song I'll probably be skipping unless it's vastly different from the one he wrote on the livestream. It might be his most mediocre song and I found no redeeming qualities in it. 

[Mosh]

I remember him saying Stars would be on the bonus disc. I assume that he did some major reworking to it to make it main album worthy.

[Metro]

So the autobiography has been delayed.....

Rocket 88 sent out this email

As you know Devin Townsend's book Only Half There is due to publish in the UK in August and we planned to have preorder copies out to everyone in the UK and Europe this month.
 
Unfortunately though, problems with the production have delayed the book and it will now be published later than we had hoped. Devin has worked his butt off on this project and has written a phenomenal book, so our apologies go out to him and to you for the disappointment. Rest assured, it's printing right now and is going to be a truly original package that you'll love.
 
We now expect to publish in October and we will work our hardest to have pre-order copies out to everyone in the UK and Europe during September. Delivery to North America and the rest of the world will be slightly later.
 
Please let us know if you need any more information or if you want to update your order.
 
All the best,

Rocket 88

[Metro]

Disc 2:
CD 2
1. Gump   
2. Celestial Signals
3. Support The Cause
4. Into The Sun
5. Time Overload
6. Lexus   
7. Farther On
8. Victim   
9. MonkeyMind
10. Canucklehead
11. Loud

Just occured to me, I wonder if this is a re-record of Victim from Physicist?

[jammindude]

What can people tell me about Heavy Devy?

I'm going to see him with BTBAM in October, but I'm not familiar with his material.   (I heard Sex and Religion and liked it, and I remember hearing the first SYL album when it came out and thought it was really good for the genre it was)

On my last 8 CD haul, I picked up Z2 because it looked cool and was the only DT album the CD shop had.   Because there was SO MUCH in that haul (Gentle Giant re-release, new Fates Warning, a new Zappa disc) I haven't even put it in the player yet, but people are telling me it's not that great.   What's a good place to go from here?

[jakepriest]

I suggest checking out the first Devin Townsend Project tetralogy (Addicted, Ki, Ghost, Deconstruction) if you have time. It contains all of the elements of his variable body of work.

[KevShmev]

What can people tell me about Heavy Devy?

I'm going to see him with BTBAM in October, but I'm not familiar with his material.   (I heard Sex and Religion and liked it, and I remember hearing the first SYL album when it came out and thought it was really good for the genre it was)

On my last 8 CD haul, I picked up Z2 because it looked cool and was the only DT album the CD shop had.   Because there was SO MUCH in that haul (Gentle Giant re-release, new Fates Warning, a new Zappa disc) I haven't even put it in the player yet, but people are telling me it's not that great.   What's a good place to go from here?

Addicted is a great place to start.  It's like catchy metal, but retains the Devin wall of sound craziness. 

The Sky Blue disc of Z2 is very good, but the Dark Matters disc of it was a total flop.  Go elsewhere before digging into that.

[jakepriest]

The Sky Blue disc of Z2 is very good, but the Dark Matters disc of it was a total flop.  Go elsewhere before digging into that.

I think the Dark Matters disc is pretty good actually, but the no-dialogue version. The narration is incredibly bad.

[Crow]

just listen to terria lol

[Adami]

just listen to terria lol

To prep for a live show? Why? Maybe Earth Day will be played and maaaaaybe Deep Peace, but that's it.

[jakepriest]

just listen to terria lol

And never listen to Devy again after that because it's not very good

[KevShmev]

Either way, Dark Matters is not a good place for someone to start with Devin.  He has too much great material for someone to start off with a disc most thought was one of his least best ever.

Terria is the best, yes, but it might be a big mountain for a newbie to climb.

[Adami]

Either way, Dark Matters is not a good place for someone to start with Devin.  He has too much great material for someone to start off with a disc most thought was one of his least best ever.

Terria is the best, yes, but it might be a big mountain for a newbie to climb.

As long as they eat an olive first.



Since I'm apparently the only dude on earth who really doesn't like most of Terria, I'll second the suggestion to check out the Addicted/Ghost/Deconstruction/Ki run.

[Crow]

the first ziltoid is great and ocean machine is great, also

[Adami]

And Synchestra, minus the last 4-5 tracks.

[TioJorge]

Man...I never, ever got the love for Devy's seemingly diverse production other than on Ocean Machine. I think that was a perfect storm of events, emotions, mind set and production that lead to what it is but other than that, I've never had anything other than a few issues with his production (Physicist) or massive love (again, barring the aforementioned OM) for any of his albums' productions. Casualties might be another exception in the love department but even then, it works but...it's not like I was salivating at how it sounded.

It's always worked to my ears and done it's job. I get what people are saying with the recent bout of relative sameness in sound but again, I don't see it as a negative or a positive, it's just kind of there. Now if he made another album that was as somber, melancholic, encompassing and soothing all at once as OM, I'd be singing a different tune. None of his other albums sound even remotely close to what that album pulled off. If he stays with what he's been doing though, I'm fine.

I may not be right there with you on Terria, Adami, but it's certainly not anywhere near my favorite and I'm a long way off from thinking it's mindblowingly incredible like a lot of others, production or otherwise. It's got some great moments on there that I like but that's about it and I can't remember the last time I played it.

[Onno]

Ocean Machine and Infinity would be good albums to listen to fairly early on as well, I'd say.

Regarding the new album, I'm really excited! Getting the 2CD version I think, because I can't miss out on those bonus tracks.

Just occured to me, I wonder if this is a re-record of Victim from Physicist?

I was wondering that as well! That would be awesome.

[twosuitsluke]

So the autobiography has been delayed.....

Rocket 88 sent out this email

As you know Devin Townsend's book Only Half There is due to publish in the UK in August and we planned to have preorder copies out to everyone in the UK and Europe this month.
 
Unfortunately though, problems with the production have delayed the book and it will now be published later than we had hoped. Devin has worked his butt off on this project and has written a phenomenal book, so our apologies go out to him and to you for the disappointment. Rest assured, it's printing right now and is going to be a truly original package that you'll love.
 
We now expect to publish in October and we will work our hardest to have pre-order copies out to everyone in the UK and Europe during September. Delivery to North America and the rest of the world will be slightly later.
 
Please let us know if you need any more information or if you want to update your order.
 
All the best,

Rocket 88

Yea, I'd emailed Rocket 88 about this last week and got this reply as it was originally supposed to be sent out at the end of this month 

I know it will be worth the wait but damn I was looking forward to reading that soon.

[twosuitsluke]

It's funny how there is rarely going to be a consensus about where to start with Devin. My personal favourites are Ocean Machine, Terria, Infinity, Accelerated Evolution and Epicloud.

I mean, I think it's just best to listen to both discs of Z2 and if you really think you will become a fan of Devin's work after those, just throw yourself in the deep end and get a load of his albums and immerse yourself.

The alternative is to give all the pop metal albums a listen first, or watch either the Retinal Circus DVD or the Royal Albert Hall gig from last year. That will get you familiarised with the sort of stuff he generally plays live 

[KevShmev]

Either way, Dark Matters is not a good place for someone to start with Devin.  He has too much great material for someone to start off with a disc most thought was one of his least best ever.

Terria is the best, yes, but it might be a big mountain for a newbie to climb.

As long as they eat an olive first.

 

[ZKX-2099]

I wanna say Epicloud is the new Dev intro album. Little of all his styles present without being too "progressive" to digest.

[Mosh]

Terria is a horrible album to start with. I did and it put me off Devin for a long time, it's my favorite now but it took Addicted for me to want to give him another chance. It's accessible but not off the deep end on that poppy metal sound. It's still heavy and there's a bit of Devin's quirkiness. The thing with Devin is that he has a very particular sound that you might need to get used to first. So if you start with an album of denser, less accessible songs (Terria) it's going to be even more difficult for a newcomer to appreciate.

[cramx3]

I wanna say Epicloud is the new Dev intro album. Little of all his styles present without being too "progressive" to digest.

Besides being my first dev album, I kind of think this is true especially for someone who's going to see them as he might play a few songs from this and it has a full range of his music on one album.

[jakepriest]

I started with Ocean Machine. I thought it was terrible. It's still not in my top 3 but I can say it's really good now atleast. I definitely wouldn't start with his earlier albums.

[Train of Naught]

I'm preeeeetty sure I started with Ocean Machine.


It was great