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 BrüsterA 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.
HellFirst 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 ImpalorsDev 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.
GuntAn abandoned SYL side project. A demo from the project, “Hedrhoid”, is a bonus track on the remaster of City.
WorldsMentioned in a Japanese interview in 1999.
https://youtu.be/qXregOyzvPg?t=914The description makes me think it may have eventually become Devlab.
KermitMentioned in 2003. A side project with Dan Kearley, one of his engineer friends. This project never materialized.
TemperamentalFirst 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 DelusionA “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/DVDMeant to be filmed during the Synchestra tour. The idea was scrapped and instead they recorded the Safe Zone DVD.
Meatballhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_441wv4FKm4Previously 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.
ObviouserFirst 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 MusicFirst 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 producersIn 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 AlbumMentioned on Twitter and in some interviews. Nothing else is known about it.
The MothDev 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/wUiqugYy8QYThank YouFirst 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 vocalistsFirst 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.
AxolotlAnother 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.
PowernerdA 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. This album will likely be released in 2024.
A progress chart from the studio
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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.