Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Tvornica kulture, Zagreb
Concert date: February 12, 2017
Genius? Madman? As the saying goes, there’s only a tiny step between the two. Canadian music wizard Devin Townsend is said to be both, though as he himself puts it, the media often paint him that way unfairly. Watch the footage of the chaos that was Strapping Young Lad today and it really does look like Devin was one giant step toward madness back then. Townsend has cleaned up his past, the crazy days of SYL chaos are behind him, and for the last few years he’s been proving that nothing else has ever been lurking in there but pure genius (SYL very much included). Devin Townsend Project dropped their eighth studio album toward the end of last year, and after a long, impatient wait they’re finally bringing it to European soil.
This time Devin was joined by two bands that prog metal and rock fans hold in very high regard: Norway’s Leprous and America’s Between the Buried and Me. The Norwegians were first up, hitting the Tvornica stage at half past eight. The always nicely »dressed to the nines« band spent the lion’s share of their allotted time on their current record, The Congregation, released the year before last, and the only older track was the opener Foe from the predecessor Coal. What to say about Leprous’s set? There’s not much to fault, since it’s obvious these guys are instrumental perfectionists who leave nothing to chance. The band’s tightness was at an extremely high level, and it was mostly the faster, »kicked-up« parts that won people over, while the dreaminess, the repetitiveness and Einar’s over-the-top dramatic vocals just didn’t go down all that well. Eyes and ears mostly landed on the excellent drummer Baard Kolstad (Borknagar, ICS Vortex, ex-God Seed, ex-In Vain), who proved with his merciless pounding on the skins that he comes from somewhat more extreme genres. If Leprous played as Ihsahn’s backing band until 2014 by his personal choice, it’s clear these are top-notch musicians, but this time their set had me checking my watch, waiting for it to be over.
Things took a turn for the better with Between the Buried and Me, as the Americans hit the gas pedal and shook the crowd out of its dreamy state. It’s well known that their songs are generally of epic length, and they greeted the Croatian crowd with a whole twelve minutes of Fossil Genera – A Feed from Cloud Mountain. Despite a somewhat weaker sound at the start, BtBaM showed off their incredible variety in just under an hour, and most of it was totally unexpected. With this band you can hear just about everything, from blast beats and growl vocals to disjointed avant-garde keyboard and circus-style interludes of the kind you’d hear from bands like Devil Doll and Vulture Industries. Much like Leprous, BtBaM know a number of extremes, with the dominant ones being the diametrically opposed sides of technical death metal on one end and Rogers’s clean vocals over keyboards on the other. The growl parts wore Tommy down a bit this time, but he did better with the clean vocals, and there it’s the same story as with Leprous: you either love them or you hate them. BtBaM also had a shade too many songs built around clean vocals, and despite the mix of styles, from death metal through jazz, prog rock and avant-garde, and the astounding technical chops of the band members, their set started dragging on forever. Or maybe the anticipation for Devin Townsend was simply too strong.
That was crystal clear when the crowd started loudly chanting »Devin, Devin!« at half past ten and exploded in bliss when the lights went down and the »one-of-a-kind« Devin Townsend walked onstage with his band of Canadian lumberjacks. On this tour Devin is presenting Transcendence, already the eighth studio album under the Devin Townsend Project name in just seven years, and the first one where the band worked on it as a whole. It captures Devin’s incredible range really well, stretching all the way from sensual subtlety to progressive metal insanity. Despite the new album, the Tvornica crowd got Rejoice from the predecessor Sky Blue to kick things off, which works way better live than on the album, and honestly, more than an hour and a half of show was one big joy. The sound improved quickly after a slightly shaky start and shone in all the brilliance of a massive wall of sound, and there’s no real point in mentioning individual songs, since each one is a powerful story in itself that gives your eardrums a blissful orgasm. Still, a few moments stood out in particular: the first single from Transcendence, Failure, already hinted on the album with its epic feel that it would be something special live, and it really was. When Devin strapped on his black Peavey seven-string beauty for the first time in ages, it was clear we were in for some good old Hevy Devy, and the band roared and thundered into the eleven-minute prog chaos Planet of the Apes. Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me guests on the album version, and it’s a shame they didn’t take the chance to repeat that live. An even nicer surprise followed with a rarely played specialty from Accelerated Evolution, Suicide, and until the end of the main set the crowd was in ecstasy over the unforgettable Supercrush!, the anthem of small, farting, otherworldly nutsacks March of the Poozers, and the royally epic Kingdom. The band, in great spirits, then left the stage, and the even-higher-spirited crowd roared Devin back out, armed with just an acoustic guitar. As usual, a solo version of the wonderful Ih-Ah! should have followed, but Devin proved once again that his improvised surprises are always unexpected. In the crowd he spotted a sign asking him to play Deadhead, and Devin didn’t need to be asked twice, serving up a goosebump-raising impromptu version of the legendary track. Like some one-man Perpetuum Jazzile, Devin is pure vocal ecstasy. We got an ode to love, cuddling and lighters with Ih-Ah!, and the guys said goodbye after more than an hour and a half with the ten-minute Higher. Devin proved once again that he’s without a doubt the most charismatic frontman in metal and one of the few musicians who truly radiate sincere love for what they do. Even though this was already my eighth Townsend show and I’d gone into the Zagreb gig in a somewhat passively routine mood, Devin cast his spell once again and proved that routine is a word with no place in his dictionary.
Setlist
LEPROUS:
1. Foe
2. Third Law
3. The Price
4. The Flood
5. Rewind
6. Slave
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME:
1. Fossil Genera – A Feed From Cloud Mountain
2. The Coma Machine
3. Lay Your Ghosts to Rest
4. Bloom
5. Option Oblivion
6. Life in Velvet
DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT:
1. Rejoice
2. Night
3. Stormbending
4. Failure
5. Hyperdrive
6. Where We Belong
7. Planet of the Apes
8. Ziltoid Goes Home
9. Suicide
10. Supercrush!
11. March of the Poozers
12. Kingdom
— encore —
13. Deadhead
14. Ih-Ah!
15. Higher
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