The Devin Townsend Project - TranscendenceReleased September 9, 2016
Tracklisting:
1. Truth
2. Stormbending
3. Failure
4. Secret Sciences
5. Higher
6. Stars
7. Transcendence
8. Offer Your Light
9. From the Heart
10. Transdermal Celebration
Japanese Bonus Tracks:
11. Sophie’s Boobies
12. Young Gods
13. WolvesPersonnel:
Devin Townsend - Guitar, Vocals
Dave Young - Guitar
Brian “Beav” Waddell - Bass
Ryan Van Poederooyen - Drums
Mike St. Jean - Keyboards
Additional Personnel:
Anneke Van Giersbergen - Vocals
Ché Aimee Dorval - Vocals (Lexus)
Tigers in a Tank - Backup Vocals
After the Royal Albert Hall show, Dev planned on a taking another hiatus from writing, recording, and touring for a year. However, he changed his mind, and in 2015 started writing the next DTP album: Transcendence. Transcendence is different from past DTP albums in that it’s a group effort this time around. The rest of the band was very involved in the writing process as opposed to Dev just coming in with completed songs. Dave Young describes the album as “very much Devin songs, but with a little extra Project flavor”. The theme of Transcendence is, according to Dev, “Getting over myself”
The album was written in the DTP’s rehearsal space and recorded at The Armoury studios in Vancouver. Anneke Van Giersbergen once again sings on the album, and Dev also recorded a 6-piece choir, the “Tigers in a Tank”, at The Farm Studios. Adam “Nolly” Getgood (ex-Periphery) co-produced/mixed the album with Dev.
Mike Zimmer, a friend of the band, shot a documentary of the making of the album.
NOTE: The playlist is backwards sdrawkcab si tsilyalp ehT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQTlvovdaEs&list=PLpA5ThqzxTYWoNFLutNNiwNlBdzyAuxy_ Truth is a re-record of the song from Infinity. Much like the redo of Kingdom, Truth had become a live staple and Dev wanted to do an updated version of it.
A music video was made for Stormbending
https://youtu.be/YhcoLO8vZZU Stars was written and demoed during a livestream for ToonTrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bxzr9n_HK8 Offer Your Light was meant for Sky Blue.
From the Heart is based on Baba Hanuman, by Krishna Das.
Transdermal Celebration is a cover of a Ween song from their album “Quebec”, which just turned 20.
Ween is the greatest band of all time and I will not acknowledge any differing opinions.
This list from the writing sessions shows some songs that didn’t make it on the album.
Blowdozer and Knuckledragger were likely renamed.
Time is possibly Time Overload, from the bonus disc.
A song called Starchasm appears on the Puzzle, though I doubt it’s the same song intended for Transcendence. Starchasm, Pt.2 appears on Nightwork, the bonus disc for Lightwork. I think this is probably closer to what was meant for Transcendence.
Gump appears on the bonus disc.
Total Collapse would show up on Tests of Manhood, the bonus disc for Empath.
The Occupation was originally going to close the album. Dev describes this song as “very grim and foreboding”, and ultimately left it out. It remains unreleased.
The Japanese edition of the album came with 3 additional bonus tracks.
Sophie’s Boobies is an excerpt from one of the Ziltoid Radio broadcasts.
Young Gods is Dev rambling over some electronic music.
Wolves is a demo that has a callback to Ziltoid Goes Home, from Z².
Transcendence was released September 9, 2016. Some consider this album to be yet another attempt at redoing Epicloud, like Sky Blue was. I don’t see it that way. In revisiting this album, think Transcendence holds up well on it’s own, and is by far the best DTP album since the original 4. I love the production and atmosphere of this album, and I think a big part of that is due to Nolly. This album just sounds massive, and Ryan’s drums have never sounded better.
Transcendence is not without its flaws, there’s some clunkers here like Stars. Having watched the livestream when it aired, it was cool to witness Dev’s creative process in real time, but Stars as a completed song is just ok. I think it should have been on the bonus disc.
I’ve never thought much of the title track. There’s nothing truly bad about it, but there’s nothing special about it either, and I never listen to it unless I’m listening to the full album.
I really like the cover of Transdermal Celebration, but in hindsight, it’s an odd note to end the DTP on.
Zimmer also went on tour with the band and filmed daily tour vlogs on the road. Definitely worth a watch.
NOTE: Once again, the playlist is backwards sdrawkcab si tsilyalp eht ,niaga ecnO
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpA5ThqzxTYX-RrY2NjqWVty7CbpSfCjS You can spot me at a meet and greet in one of these videos, if you know where to look.
Here’s a picture from that meet and greet.
Here's a cool little bonus. In 2017, Dev played at the
Starmus Festival with Steve Vai, Grace Potter, Derek Sherinian, and Nuno Bettencourt.
Here and Now (From Sex and Religion)SupercrushGet the Funk Out (Extreme cover)——————————————————————————————————————————————
Holding PatternsTracklisting:
1. Gump
2. Celestial Signals
3. Support the Cause
4. Into the Sun
5. Time Overload
6. Lexus
7. Farther On
8. Victim
9. Monkey Mind
10. Canucklehead
11. Loud
Transcendence comes with yet another bonus disc of various demos and outtake, titled Holding Patterns
Gump was meant for the main album, but Dev decided to leave it out. The sample in the beginning is from the Making Of documentary.
Celestial Signals was revisited for his 2022 album, Lightwork.
Lexus features Ché Aimee Dorval, from Casualties of Cool.
Victim is a redo of the song from Physicist.
Canucklehead is based on Travelin’ Band by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Loud was meant for Sky Blue.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The Devin Townsend Project - Ocean Machine: Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre PlovdivRecorded September 22, 2017 at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Released July 6, 2018
Tracklisting:
By Request:
1. Truth (Live)
2. Stormbending (Live)
3. OM (Live)
4. Failure (Live)
5. By Your Command (Live)
6. Gaia (Live)
7. Deadhead (Live)
8. Canada (Live)
9. Bad Devil (Live)
10. Higher (Live)
11. A Simple Lullaby (Live)
12. Deep Peace (Live)
Ocean Machine:
1. Seventh Wave (Live)
2. Life (Live)
3. Night (Live)
4. Hide Nowhere (Live)
5. Sister (Live)
6. 3 A.M. (Live)
7. Voices in the Fan (Live)
8. Greetings (Live)
9. Regulator (Live)
10. Funeral (Live)
11. Bastard (Live)
12. The Death of Music (Live)
13. Thing Beyond Things (Live)Personnel:
Devin Townsend - Guitar, Vocals
Dave Young - Guitar
Brian “Beav” Waddell - Bass (By Request Set)
Mike St. Jean - Keyboards
Ryan Van Poederooyen - Drums
John Harder - Bass (Ocean Machine Set)
Orchestra and Choir of State Opera Plovdiv - Orchestra, Choir (By Request Set)
In late 2016, Dev announced a special show at the Roman Theatre Philippopolis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria celebrating the 25th anniversary of Ocean Machine in September 2017. The band played 2 sets; a By Request set with an Orchestra, and Ocean Machine in full without the orchestra.
John “Squid” Harder, who played bass on Ocean Machine and Punky Brüster, reached out to Dev after the show was announced and asked to play bass during the Ocean Machine set. John has MS, and played sitting down for the show. Marty Chapman, the drummer on Ocean Machine, passed away in 2014. The tombstone on the left side of the cover art says “RIP Jesse”, referring to a childhood friend of Dev’s who was killed in a fight over a hat. This event inspired the song Funeral.
This album was meant to be called “ERAS”, but due to a mix up, that title instead went to a series of vinyl box sets comprised of Dev’s past albums. (Not covering that in this thread
)
(Why didn’t they just call this “PlovDev”? It’s right there.)This is another excellent live album. The By Request has plenty of deep cuts, like OM, Gaia, Canada, and A Simple Lullaby. One of my favorite moments is seeing the orchestra watch in amazement as the DTP plays the outro to By Your Command. My biggest complaint is the mix. The drums are way too loud and drown out the other instruments.
The Ocean Machine set is great too, and it’s nice to have an updated version of this album, as a remaster is impossible. Would have been awesome to have the orchestra during this set.
Reflecting the Chaos, a behind the scenes documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UttJS1xXoZM&list=PL0v1KRwun7397WJAhbNq5AwuYcLFIn1DW&index=22 ——————————————————————————————————————————————
The End of the DTP Dev announced on January 31, 2018, that he was putting the DTP on hiatus to focus on other projects he had been putting off over the years. He also announced he was working on 4 different albums. Never say never, but even though this was announced as a hiatus, I think it’s unlikely that the DTP comes back.
Ryan and Beav went on to start a new band, Imonolith, along with Jed Simon and Byron Stroud from SYL. Over time, Jed, Byron, and Beav all left the band. Imonolith is still active with Ryan on drums
Beav has since retired from being a professional musician and now owns a sushi restaurant in Vancouver with Ted Kamizato, another childhood friend of Dev who played bass on Dev’s teenage demos on the Ancient cassette.
Dave Young is mainly a session musician nowadays, and has a production company with his brother, Mike.
Mike St. Jean works as a stage lighting designer for bands like TesseracT, and still works with Dev frequently.
As we bid the DTP a fond farewell, let's rank the albums.
1. Ki
2. Ghost
3. Deconstruction
4. Transcendence
5. Epicloud
6. Addicted
7. Sky Blue
8. Actually getting sucked into a wormhole for real and getting stuck on a distant moon.
9. Dark Matters