The Devin Townsend Discography Thread v2

[ReaperKK]

I'm going to check those Dreampeace albums out today. I love ambient music.

[Adami]

God damn is he busy. Is he trying to beat Buckethead or something?

[cramx3]

The last update is my least interested of the whole series.  I just can't get into any of this stuff that I've listened to.  Granted, I've hardly listened because the stuff I sampled was not for me and clearly there's way more than what I tested, but I think it's safe to say, this era of music from Devin doesn't interest me.  The dreamspace stuff is cool though for those who enjoy it.  I think it's great that he's able to make the stuff that works for him and those who enjoy it.

[DoctorAction]

Generally, I have no need for most of the releases in this update. Listened to about 10 minutes of Puzzle when it was released but it's not for me. Love that Dev has such artistic freedom. Selfishly, I hope it doesn't dilute his urges to create coherent albums of songs from time to time, and I'm still waiting for the next Empath that connects with me.

Just to contradict myself, Dreampeace I do plan to revisit a little bit. When I tasted it a few weeks back when it was put on Spotify, I could see a potential place for it. It's very background but in a good way. I often fancy some quiet sound but not to actively listen to. Something like Ghost is a little too songy for me to ignore and I don't like it.

[Kwyjibo]

This update leaves me puzzled.

[Fonzie]

Snuggles/Puzzle is a challenge. Incoherent.
Like others, I really respect Dev’s artistic freedom, and I’ll buy anything he puts out. He’s one of my favourite artists, and is soooo generous with his work…

But, I don’t listen to the Puzzle etc Worthy concept, but the end result is hard work.

The ambient stuff is ok, if a little…repetitive is the wrong word because it’s all improv, but the soundscapes are very similar. I put it on instead of whale music when I’m giving massages.

[Buddyhunter1]

The Puzzle is alright. Its biggest problem for me is how ADHD its composition style is - some songs can't seem to let a good riff or melody go on for more than a few seconds without immediately undercutting it with a hard transition into silence or something totally unrelated. Monuments Of Glitch probably being the biggest offender there. That said, I do really like the stretch of the album from Perfect Owl to the title track, where the album chills out and goes through plenty of gentle, atmospheric, and sometimes pretty melancholy passages. It's all quite beautiful and I wish more of the album was in that vibe.

[Metro]

This update leaves me puzzled.

The next one will be lighter. Maybe that'll work for you.

[Metro]

Lightwork
Released November 4, 2022




Tracklisting:

1. Moonpeople
2. Lightworker
3. Equinox
4. Call of the Void
5. Heartbreaker
6. Dimensions
7. Celestial Signals
8. Heavy Burden
9. Vacation
10. Children of God

Personnel:

Devin Townsend - Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards
Darby Todd - Drums

Additional Personnel:
The Elektra Women’s Choir, Anneke van Giersbergen, Ché Aimee Dorval, Alan Khosa, Tanya Ghosh, Elizabeth Zharoff, Tia Rose Mayfield, Brian Diamond - Additional Vocals
Morgan Ågren - Drums
Federico Paulovich - Drums
Diego Tejeida - Keyboards
Nathan Navarro - Bass
Jonas Hellborg - Bass
Hutch Hutchinson - Bass
Joy Lapps - Steel Drums
Mike Keneally - Guitar Solo (Dimensions)
Steve Vai - Guitar (Starchasm, Pt.2)


Lightwork is another album that came about in the Pandemic. Lightwork serves as a counterpart to The Puzzle. Whereas The Puzzle/Snuggles was more about living with the chaos and uncertainty of the Pandemic, Lightwork is about staying positive in spite of that chaos and uncertainty. Dev wanted to make an album that was lighter and more accessible. Despite that intention, don’t think of this record as another attempt at redoing Epicloud. Lightwork has it’s own vibe and purpose and (IMO) holds up on its own.

Garth “GGGarth” Richardson, a producer who has worked with many different artists, co-produced the album with Dev. Dev wanted this album to be more streamlined than and straightforward than past works, so Garth’s role was to rein Dev in when the songs would go too off course. The album was recorded at a few studios in the Vancouver area: The Armoury, The Warehouse, The Farm, Lighthouse Studios, and Dev’s home studio. Dev plays most of the instruments. Brooks Wackerman (Avenged Sevenfold, ex-Bad Religion) was originally going to play drums, but that fell through at some point. Darby Todd (The Darkness, Gary Moore, Robert Plant) instead plays most of the drums on the album, with additional drums by Morgan Ågren and Federico Paulovich. Lightwork also features many frequent collaborators of Dev, including Steve Vai, Anneke, and most of the Empath Vol.1 band.



Music videos were made for 4 songs:
Moonpeople: https://youtu.be/D-kl_I8E0kA
Lightworker: https://youtu.be/-udemfZRJrI
Call of the Void: https://youtu.be/SpBO0RbLKJ0
Heartbreaker: https://youtu.be/G6cNd3dCVFY

Lightworker is a tribute to spiritual teacher Ram Dass.
Equinox and Call of the Void were both part of the Quarantine Project as demos.
Call of the Void and Children of God were in consideration for Empath.
Honeybunch, also from the Quarantine Project, was meant to be on Lightwork instead of Heartbreaker. Honeybunch contains a recreated sample of “Hiya Barbie”, from the song Barbie Girl by Aqua. However, even though Dev recreated the sample instead of using the original recording, he still faced licensing issues with the song and had to replace it with Heartbreaker, which was originally meant for the bonus disc. Honeybunch also would have featured Niles Rodgers on guitar.
Celestial Signals was originally a demo from Holding Patterns, the bonus disc for Transcendence.

Track by Track breakdown by Dev: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_AGVF5YuSPLtjVhckTspwx70uxPCWjA6

Lightwork was released November 4, 2022. It’s taken me a while to get into this album. I didn’t think much of it when it first came out, but it’s grown on me quite a bit in the past year. It’s far from his best, but certainly not his worst. It’s nowhere near as chaotic or eclectic as Empath was. It’s exactly what he wanted to make: an accessible, easy listening album. The notable exception is the proggy Heartbreaker. But otherwise, mission accomplished. I don’t think of Lightwork as the next step in Dev’s musical evolution, like Empath was, because it really doesn’t do anything new. At least not by Dev’s standards. Lightwork exists as a reaction to a period of time. It’s fine for what it is, and I consider it a great album that acts as a stepping stone on the way to Dev’s next big project. Whatever that may be.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Nightwork




Tracklisting:

1. Starchasm, Pt.2
2. Stampy’s Blaster
3. Factions
4. Yogi
5. Precious Sardine
6. Hope is in the World
7. Children of Dog
8. Sober
9. Boogus
10. Carry Me Home

Nightwork is the bonus disc for Lightwork. As per usual, it contains songs written for the album that didn’t make it on the main disc.

Starchasm, Pt.2 was written back during Transcendence. Chopped up bits and pieces of it were used in the song Starchasm, from the Puzzle.
Stampy’s Blaster, Factions, Precious Sardine, and Sober were all part of the Quarantine Project.
Children of Dog is a demo of Children of God from the main disc.
Carry Me Home is NOT Coming Home, the missing song from Ghost 2.

Prior to the licensing issue with Honeybunch on the main disc, Nightwork had a different tracklisting:

1. Heartbreaker
2. Yogi Hamberder
3. Hope is in the World
4. Children of God Extendodrama
5. Sober
6. Boogus
7. Stampy's Blaster
8. Heavy Factions
9. Ziltoid Likes to Party
10. Starchasm, Pt.2
11. Precious Sardine
12. Carry Me Home

Ziltoid Likes to Party is Dev's cover of We Like to Party (The Vengabus) by the Vengaboys, previously part of the Quarantine Project.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Thus ends our story. This is the end.

….or is it?

[Buddyhunter1]

I'm guessing the next update will be about the half dozen or so future projects Devin has teased over the last few years, like The Moth, Casualties 2, etc?

[Zantera]

Lightwork is pretty great. It's not top tier Devin but it's definitely good enough to not make it feel like a disappointment or anything IMO.

[ReaperKK]

I need to check these two albums out. As a side note I love the artwork of both lightwork and nightwork

[Fonzie]

So far, so great.

Thanks for doing this thread- I’ve learned a lot about the side-projects and odd releases.

Cheers

[cramx3]

I feel similar to Metro in that Lightwork didn't click with me when it was released.  I gave it a bunch of listens and just kind of put it to the side.  But then a few months ago, since Devin was touring the US with Dream THeater, I gave it some more listens and things started to click.  I'd say it's still probably on the bottom half of his albums for my tastes, but there's some good stuff on here.  I loved the live performance of Dimensions.  I wish he did Celestial Signals live though, that was my favorite from the album.  Lightworker was an interesting song to open his set with, but it's pretty solid.

[Kwyjibo]

Another Devin record that I don't really care about. It's not bad but I just can't connect with it.

[Adami]

A bit late!

Re-listened to Empath a week or so ago (minus the bonus tracks). I found myself really loving it, minus Evermore, which was meh. It felt like he finally knew how to channel his happiness and positivity in a way that made the most sense for him. Great album.

Listened to Lightworks for the first time a few days ago. It was fine. I enjoyed it as I listened to it, but I didn't remember anything after. A bit samey at times, but overall I enjoyed it.

[Architeuthis]

I wish he did Celestial Signals live though, that was my favorite from the album.  Lightworker was an interesting song to open his set with, but it's pretty solid.

Celestial Signals is a excellent track! I love the dynamics of the guitar during the verses with the single notes bouncing back and forth. Then that strong chorus and epic keyboard anthem! I would have loved to heard that live.
However,  Lightworker was the perfect song to start off the set. I was enamored by the larger than life vibe that song put out and with such clarity.  After the AAL set, then Devin comes out opening with Lightworker.  I was like,  OH WOW the concert is on and we're in for a treat!  Definitely a top tier Dev song. 💥💫
The song Heartbreaker has YES written all over it, and so does Heavy Burden. That's a good thing! Vacation is a nice relaxing song with a bit of a McCartney vibe perhaps?
Children of God could have been more epic. Still a good song but I think the producer may have talked him into staying with a theme throughout.  A bit repetitive yet catchy..  Call of the Void,  Moonpeople, and Lightworker would be great for radio airplay, actually most of disc one now that I think about.  I love disc 2, but I can see why it is separate from the official album.
Lightwork is more than a great listen, I love it all!
This is my first Devin album that I own. Now I'm gonna go backwards through his catalog.

[Metro]

Now I'm gonna go backwards through his catalog.

Interesting strategy but I respect it 

Don't let The Puzzle scare you off

[Buddyhunter1]

Now I'm gonna go backwards through his catalog.

Interesting strategy but I respect it 

Don't let The Puzzle scare you off

Or Empath for that matter.

[Metro]

Etc.

With all the bonus discs Dev has done over the years of stuff that didn’t make it onto albums, it seemed fitting to have a bonus update of stuff that didn’t make didn’t make it into the rest of the thread.

These are projects and whatnot that came up in my research that were never released, never happened, haven’t happened yet, or otherwise. This one is mainly for the diehard fans.

Cuntry Brüster
A country-themed spin off of Punky Brüster. This was mentioned by Dev as a joke on his forum. Not a real possibility, but fun to think about. I imagine a story similar to Punky Brüster, but this time Cryptic Coroner would have pissed off some rednecks at a honky tonk bar and become a country band. The more I think about this, the more I want it to happen.

Hell
First mentioned in 1996. Described as an ambient, drum oriented collaboration with Dave Lombardo and ex-Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera. Dev would have contributed some programming and sampling. This project never materialized.

Filthy Young Impalors



Dev recorded a project with Jason Newsted and drummer Carl Coletti in 1996 called Filthy Young Impalors. Some sources refer to this as "Mighty Young Imaplers". This project remains in the Chophouse Records vault, like Tree of the Sun and Blastula. One song, “Whiff”, was available on the Chophouse Website.

The Meat Shall Inherit The Earth (Millennium Anxiety)
First mentioned in 1996. A song recorded for a Zappa compilation album with various Frank Zappa alumni. Described as experimental and ambient. This song and compilation were never released, to my knowledge.

Gunt
An abandoned SYL side project. A demo from the project, “Hedrhoid”, is a bonus track on the remaster of City.

Worlds
Mentioned in a Japanese interview in 1999.
https://youtu.be/qXregOyzvPg?t=914
The description makes me think it may have eventually become Devlab.

Kermit
Mentioned in 2003. A side project with Dan Kearley, one of his engineer friends. This project never materialized.

Temperamental
First mentioned in 2003. A book described as a “collection of random thoughts from the last 5-6 years. We ended up getting plenty of that in Only Half There.

Use Your Delusion
A “Heavy metal puppet show” he planned on putting together with friends like Chris Valagao, from Zimmer’s Hole. Probably evolved into Ziltoid.

Scrapped DTB live album/DVD
Meant to be filmed during the Synchestra tour. The idea was scrapped and instead they recorded the Safe Zone DVD.

Meatball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_441wv4FKm4
Previously uploaded to Dev’s YouTube channel. Removed at some point for whatever reason. This video was included in the Contain Us box set along with all his other YouTube videos up to that point.

Obviouser
First mentioned in 2009. Described as “Creepy, bass-focused music with an Icelandic choir”. I asked him about this at a meet and greet in 2014 and he said he was trying not to commit to too many projects at once, but that it would happen one day, and it will be heavy. He hasn't mentioned it in years. This project has either been abandoned, or evolved into something else.

Garden Music
First mentioned in 2014. An ambient album meant to be a counterpart to The Moth. Call of the Void was intended for this project. Parts of this project became Lightwork and Snuggles.

Song recorded with mainstream rock producers
In 2014, Dev wrote a song with a team of producers who have worked with artists like Nickelback, Daughtry, and various American Idol winners. Dev ended up hating the song, and he refuses to release it.

Untitled Electronic Album
Mentioned on Twitter and in some interviews. Nothing else is known about it.

The Moth



Dev first mentioned The Moth in 2015. The Moth is a symphony, described as a ”fucking absurd musical about cocks and vaginas and death". Dev has said he doesn’t want to record the Moth like he’s recorded orchestras in the past, where they’ve had little time to prepare or just sightread the music. He wants to have an orchestra rehearse this music for months before recording it. Dev says he needs $10 million to do The Moth the way he wants, and he’s met with Sony and a venture capitalist to help fund this project, but apparently neither party was interested. Shocker.

Dev says that after this current tour cycle, he will take an extended break from touring to focus on this and other projects. Unless another album comes up (which always happens), this will probably be Dev’s next major project, said to be coming in 2025.

He shared some demos in a Twitch stream.
https://youtu.be/wUiqugYy8QY

Thank You



First mentioned in 2017 along with the announcement of Empath. Described as a mellow album. Sober, from Nightwork, was written for this project. He shared a snippet of artwork for the project on his Instagram. Dev said in a Twitch stream that this project evolved into Snuggles and DreamPeace.

Project with Mike Åkerfeldt and other vocalists
First mentioned in 2017. A band comprised of lead vocalists put together by Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth. A fun idea that has yet to materialize. Dev presumably would have played bass. Mikael mentions he also got a vocalist, a keyboardist, and a drummer on board as well. Anyone’s guess as to who that could be, I suspect Tobias Forge (Ghost), Einar Solberg (Leprous) and Brann Dailor (Mastodon).

There’s also been talk of a project with Mikael Åkerfeldt, Dev, Mike Portnoy, and Steven Wilson, though I seriously doubt that project would ever happen. Too many cooks, too many different visions, and too many different work ethics.

Axolotl
Another project mentioned on Twitter. Described as “Alien pop music”. This description makes me think of songs like Frogs R Nice, Precious Sardine, and Honeybunch. Dev has revisited this project in 2024, and Morgan Ågren has recorded drums for it.

Powernerd
A project that started in late 2023 as Dev was working on The Moth. He describes it as simple but heavy music, and compared it to Epicloud. Darby Todd will be the drummer on this album.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

The End. (For Now)

That’s all, folks! For now anyway. Dev’s always working on something new, so I’m sure it won’t be long before I have something new to write about.
This thread has been fun. A lot of work, but fun.

35,000+ words.
36 chapters.
Nearly 80 releases.
Probably too many commas.

I also might put together a "Beginner's Guide to Dev", if that's something anyone cares about. Maybe one of those flowchart things too, if I can figure out to make one.

Only thing left to do is rank everything. I’m only gonna do the main albums.

1. Ocean Machine
2. Ki
3. Empath
4. Terria
5. Ghost
6. Deconstruction
7. Epicloud
8. Addicted
9. Accelerated Evolution
10. City
11. Infinity
12. Casualties of Cool
13. Alien
14. Transcendence
15. Synchestra
16. Sky Blue
17. Lightwork
18. Ziltoid the Omniscient
19. SYL
20. Cooked on Phonics
21. The Puzzle
22. The New Black
23. Dark Matters
24. Physicist
25. The Hummer
26. Snuggles
27. Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing
28. Devlab

Thanks to everybody who read this thread and kept up along the way. Ya’ll are awesome. I hope you enjoyed it, and more than anything I hope you learned something. I’ve thought about doing another one of these threads for another band, but that won’t happen for at least another year.

Class dismissed.

[DoctorAction]

Thanks for doing this thread, man. Good fun!

[Buddyhunter1]

Thanks for hosting this! I always enjoyed reading the updates.

[ReaperKK]

What an awesome ride this thread was! Thanks for doing it!

[strangelybrown]

Thanks so much for doing this, really enjoyed reading through everything! Twice now this thread has inspired me to go back to the very early stuff (and the Podcast) and it's really heightened my appreciation of Dev and his work. Still so much I haven't explored though. Looking forward to the next release - hopefully it involves that $10M for the Moth.

[cramx3]

Thanks for doing this, an incredible amount of detail

[twosuitsluke]

Thanks so much for hosting this dude. I stop posting actively about half way through but I was always following along. Next time a Devy kick rolls around for me I’ll probably scan back through here to check out some of the stuff I’ve never heard/seen before.

The real highlights were all the rare bits you posted, whether recordings, live performances or interviews. Really well put together dude, cheers.

[Kwyjibo]

Thanks for this thread!

It was really fun reading about all of Devy's projects and hearing your thoughts and the thoughts of all the others who participated.





PS: And you finally included Meatballs  One of the most random and wtf song/video I found randomly on youtube some years ago.

[messy]

As a 25+ year Devin fan I’m amazed at how much of this I’ve never heard of. Great job, Metro!

My top 3 (all of which are incredibly consistent from start to finish)-
Terria- one of my favorite albums of the decade; highlight is the mind-boggling end of Tiny Tears.
Ocean Machine- highlight is the moving end of Funeral.
Accelerated Evolution- highlight is the middle of Traveler.

Great thread!