Vai - Sex and ReligionReleased July 27, 1993
Tracklisting
1. An Earth Dweller’s Return
2. Here & Now
3. In My Dreams With You
4. Still My Bleeding Heart
5. Sex & Religion
6. Dirty Black Hole
7. Touching Tongues
8. State of Grace
9. Survive
10. Pig
11. The Road to Mt. Calvary
12. Down Deep Into the Pain
13. Rescue Me or Bury Me
14. Just Cartilage (Japanese Bonus Track)Personnel:
Steve Vai - Guitar, Vocals
Devin Townsend - Lead Vocals
T.M. Stevens - Bass
Terry Bozzio - Drums
In 1992 Steve Vai was putting together a new band, simply called “Vai”, to record a follow-up to his 1990 album, “Passion and Warfare”. He had chosen drummer Terry Bozzio and bassist T.M. Stevens for the lineup, but needed a vocalist. Cliff Cultreri of Relativity Records had shown Dev’s Noisescapes demo to Steve, and Steve really liked it. Cliff asked Dev if he’d be interested in singing on Vai’s next album. Dev, being a fan of Steve Vai, accepted the offer and the label flew him down to L.A.
The recording of this album was a weird experience for Dev, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the material. He was by no means a professional singer. He went from being a kid in Vancouver singing along to Faith No More and Jane’s Addiction albums while washing dishes at a restaurant, to singing in a professional studio in L.A. for a band comprised of world-class musicians. All at the age of 20. Vai’s attempts to inspire him by telling him about past vocalists he had worked with(David Lee Roth and David Coverdale) only made Dev even more nervous. In spite of this, I think Dev delivers a good (not great) performance.
Musically, the album is more song-oriented than Steve Vai’s previous album, “Passion and Warfare”, but there’s still plenty of guitar wankery. To me this album sounds like slightly Proggy Hair Metal. With the music landscape changing at the time and stuff like Grunge on the rise, it’s no surprise this album didn’t find much of an audience. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this one. Never been a Steve Vai fan outside of a couple of songs, and the inclusion of Dev on this record doesn’t change that.
The album was released on July 23, 1993, and reached #48 on the US Billboard 200. The record went Gold in Japan.
In My Dreams With You and Down Deep Into the Pain were released as singles, the former featuring lyrics co-written by Vai, Desmond Child, and Roger Greenawalt.
In My Dreams With You is a very cheesy and creepy love song. It reached #36 on the Billboard Charts.
Down Deep Into the Pain features actual samples of Steve Vai’s wife, Pia, screaming while giving birth. This single did not chart.
Music videos were filmed for both singles.
In My Dreams With You:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbiQNM0HrrIDown Deep Into the Pain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twi28xWoLxcVai was intended to be a supergroup of sorts, but Bozzio and Stevens would only stick around for the album recording and did not tour, though Stevens did appear with the band on The Tonight Show for their performance of Still My Bleeding Heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ynEpNTcVQ
Dev toured with Steve Vai throughout 1993, occasionally playing rhythm guitar in addition to singing. He and Steve were joined by Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, Scott Thunes on bass, and Will Riley on keyboards. Abe left the tour after a disagreement with Steve over a time signature. He was replaced by Toss Panos. The Wildhearts opened for the band on the European leg of the tour.
Here’s a video of the band playing in NYC on 10/15/1993:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3h2YIEfC0Dev continued to work on on his own music during this time. Some of those songs can be found on the Ass-Sordid Demos:
Thick Stock (Track 11 on Ass-Sordid Demos II. Features T.M. Stevens on Bass and Greg Price on drums)
L.A. (Track 4 on Ass-Sordid Demos I)
My Girl (Track 8 on Ass-Sordid Demos I)
That’s Life (Track 10 on Ass-Sordid Demos I. No year is given for this track, but it’s safe to assume it was written around this time.)
Thick Stock is the standout track from this batch. It’s a heavier number featuring a really cool slap bassline played by T.M. Stevens from Vai. In return, Dev sang on a song from Stevens’ 1994 solo album “Boom”. Dev is credited as: Devon “Screaming” Townsend and performs “Inspired vocal scream effects & attitude” on the song “By Any Means”.
The other three songs here aren’t really anything special in my opinion.
At the end of the Vai tour Dev expected to continue production on his Noisescapes album. However, Cliff Cultreri informed Dev that the Vai band was ending, and Relativity Records would be dropping him, claiming that his music was “too schizophrenic” to be successful. Realistically, the only reason they showed any interest in Dev’s music was to get him to record and tour with Steve Vai. Dev returned home to Vancouver. Bitter, broke, and disillusioned with the music industry. He went back to his old job, singing along to Faith No More and Jane’s Addiction albums while washing dishes at a restaurant.
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Post-Vai ProjectsDev stayed busy during this time writing his own music, as well as doing session work on other people’s albums. He played guitar on 3 songs on the Front Line Assembly album, “Millennium”. He sang on a cover of the Rush song Natural Science for a covers compilation. (Love Dev, Love Rush, but this cover is not great). Roadrunner Records reached out to him with a potential record deal, which they rescinded after hearing his demos. One day Ginger Wildheart, of the band The Wildhearts, reached out to Dev asking if he’d be interested in replacing their guitar whom they just fired. Dev accepted this offer and joined as a touring guitarist for a European Tour. While on tour, Borivoj Krgin from Century Media offered Dev a 5-album deal, claiming “No one else wants your shit. Take it or leave it.” Dev accepted the offer and began working on material for his next projects: Strapping Young Lad, and Ocean Machine.
Around this time, Dev was contacted by Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, who wanted Dev to audition for a new band he was putting together. Dev flew to England to audition. He was still bitter from the experience with the Vai band, and was not excited at the thought of joining up with yet another rock star, fronting their band, and singing their lyrics. He intentionally made an ass of himself at the audition, singing lyrics about how he thought Geezer was an asshole. Dev has said he deeply regrets his behavior to this day. Obviously he didn’t get the gig, and he flew back home.
Upon returning home, he received a letter from Judas Priest. Rob Halford had recently left the band and they invited Dev to audition. Dev declined the invitation, thinking no one would be interested in a version of Judas Priest fronted by some kid. (As cool as it would have been, he's right.)
One day, through a mutual friend, he was introduced to Metallica’s then-bassist, Jason Newsted, who was interesting in collaborating with Dev.
This brings us to…
IR8 vs Sexoturica - 1994Recorded in 1994, not released publicly until 2002
1. Colossus
2. Nothing
3. Black on Black
4. Alone
5. Zone of Death
6. Dead Soul at SleepTrack 1-3 Personnel (IR8)
Jason Newsted - Bass/Vocals
Devin Townsend - Guitar
Tom Hunting - Drums
Track 4-6 Personnel (Sexoturica)
Jason Newsted - Bass/Vocals
Andreas Kisser - Guitar
Tom Hunting - Drums
Jason, Dev, and Tom Hunting from the band Exodus met up to jam at Newsted’s studio, The Chophouse, and recorded three demo songs together under the name IR8. This would be the first of four projects involving Dev and Jason. IR8 was a metal side project that was just for fun, and was never going to be a serious band. Jason enjoyed collaborating with Dev, but James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich from Metallica found out about his side project and shut it down, forbidding Jason from working on music outside of Metallica. Eventually Jason left Metallica in January 2001, and hoped to revive this project with Dev, but Dev wasn’t interested. Jason eventually released the demos in 2002, along with three additional songs from a similar project recorded in 1995 featuring Andreas Kisser of Sepultura on guitar instead of Dev. This project was called Sexoturica. A clever-ish combination of the three members’ main band names.
Next update comes out Friday the 17th and will cover the first SYL album and Dev's first solo album.
Topic: The Devin Townsend Discography Thread v2: Addicted (Read 7206 times)
