Artist: Devin Townsend Band, The
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2003
Duration: 54:30
Rating: 5/5
The multiple personality and unstoppable genius of Canadian sonic terrorist and visionary Devin Townsend has been dragged to the critics’ chopping block more than once, but they’ve usually ended up hauling him onto the altar for worship instead, which is exactly what his divinely inspired music deserves. Devin Townsend is a man under whose touch even the most complex, doomed creation gets gilded and springs to full life, if only for a short while, because Hevy Devy is a man of projects, not of one single monolithic structure. Those would choke him and kill his curious, elusive spirit, and the beauty of undefined motion would darken, fade and die in tinted jars or bottles. So it’s no surprise that Mr. Townsend is now active on several fronts at once, while the molting happens a bit less often than it did in, let’s call it, the golden age of extreme metal. Anyway, the name of this infamous mastermind can be found carved into IR8, Ocean Machine, his personal Devin Townsend Project, the work of Steve Vai, the bands Punky Brüster, Caustic Thought, Noisescapes, and the list goes on. The year was 2003, and it was nearly impossible to say the name Devin Townsend without in the same breath linking it to the loudest and most progressive extreme metal project on the planet – Strapping Young Lad. The project at hand, however, set sail for other shores, but more on that a bit later.
The reason for this unexpected path and the swerve in a more progressive, ambient direction lies in something pretty heavy and personal, the worst curse of any creator – a stall in creative energy, a creative silence or, if you prefer, agonizing idea constipation. Devin went through it while writing his early solo records, Infinity from 1998 and Physicist two years later. The healing was gradual, and the first signs of recovery can be heard on Terria, after which the dark period of creative crisis was a thing of the past, and a new wellspring of inspiration was gushing thick layers of exceptional music, music that was too varied and too colorful to fit neatly into a single universe. That’s when Mr. Townsend ended a four-year lull in his extreme project SYL, with whom he immediately started preparing a new record, while also giving himself a mountain of work by founding a new, completely separate musical child with a character all its own, a band that could serve as a bright counterweight to the violent outbursts of SYL, his extreme metal offspring. Thus The Devin Townsend Band was born, in which, besides Devin, the ideas were poured into the same sonic structure by guitarist Brian Waddell, Terror Syndrome bassist Mike Young and his bandmate and brother, keyboardist Dave Young, while the drum stool went to a drummer of wide-ranging interests and bands, Mr. Ryan Van Poederooyen (otherwise a member of Lalu, Non-Human Level, God Awakens Petrified and Terror Syndrome). According to Townsend, the key to the lineup was that they didn’t share the same experiences, because that’s the only way to weave something fresh and tell a story about the same feelings in a different, more colorful way. The studio became a laboratory, and any slight swerves to the left or right had to make way for the mad professor and give in to more daring, out of which something big, noteworthy and, above all, something able to satisfy the perfectionist urges of the main instigator, father and above all musical god (if guru isn’t enough for you …) can be born. The product of this rich, colorful palette of music is a record that was at first meaningfully titled Relationships, but the creator spirit of Hevy Devy rebaptized it with a more fitting name – Accelerated Evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSI5rdKmwo
The polar twin of the SYL opus is less metallurgically oriented, and in its mingling of alternative, rock and above all progressive elements it marks a huge step away from the organic brutality of the aforementioned heavy-meta(l)l franchise of Strapping Young Lad. The new project reflects a wild desire for experimentation and ambient textures, but also a somewhat softened hardness of ideas that are still heavy. Accelerated Evolution is a more pop-leaning structure, yet one that’s hardly wobbly given its intelligent foundation, with melody carving its way through every track, and the glamour of sky-screaming epicness further backed by a less guttural approach. The wall of sound of this perfect music is in no way crippled or impotent, since the production as a whole is titanically solid and above all airy, suited both to huge stadium showdowns and to complete fusion in the safe haven of your small, cramped but cozy room. The quality starts unfurling with the opening track Depth Charge, where the intensity of the sound builds from the very first fading of the fat guitar distortion. Devin’s obsessed vocal lays out the premises of his somewhat less eclectic narrative, compared to Synchestra, in a transcendental way, with the sound condensed into an etching of electronics, noise and distorted thoughts. The aggressive verse snugly squeezes into a solid structure of riffs and firm, though not overly experimental, drums. “So I’m sending to you this Depth Charge / Known, into the unknown, seeking the unknown, / into the unknown depths / Suddenly decide to listen to me, / Thank you for the material” are fragments of words hinting at sublimation and the prospect of a descent into a blackness hitherto unknown. After six minutes that don’t bore you for a second, the heavens part a little and the progressively full, Rush-like track Storm booms out of the speakers like an epic emotional cannonade, and after the catharsis, with its ice-cold rain, you sink your teeth into the tougher core of Random Analysis. The repetitive pattern, in which a dissection of interpersonal relationships unfolds, only deepens the sense of tension and the held-back explosion of emotions that are, for now, suspended. The gorgeous follow-up, Deadhead, erupts with fewer reservations. Devin’s lyrical approach is indivisible and just slips into your ears, latches onto your brain and caresses it. Resonant guitars carry you high into the sky as the words “You are a sun Goddess / Will you save me? / Hooray for you. / Hooray. / Now the rain it comes, the rain it blurs the grey line / …the grey line…the Greyhound home / You are so vicious (Hurt me, I can take it) / Cause it’s all in the heat of the moment, / It’s all in the pain / Sonar, sonar again… / It’s on again, (got no wings…gossamer wings…) …on again… / You are a sun Goddess!!! / Will you save me? …babe…babe…babe… / Cause it’s all in the heat of the moment / It’s all in the pain!!! / So give in to the heat of the moment / Give in to the pain!!!” weave into the full sound. A perfect balance of love, the deepest longing and the fear that shapes and chisels our sense of divine happiness, it sounds epic, easygoing and dreamy. The ambient interplay of Devin’s vocals and guitar is built up by Brian’s reinforcements, Dave Young adds keyboards, and the drums simply groan and melt under Ryan Vanpoederooyen’s slow, steady blows. What’s slightly missing is a more pronounced bass sound, which is entirely submerged on the album in an invisible nectar of heavy but by no means abrasive distortion. After the slowest but, in my opinion, hardest-hitting track on the record, the eight-minute Deadhead, it’s time for a masterfully executed ritual suicide. Suicide sings out all the horror of a confirmed deicide. A Tool-like tangle of guitars and bass cranks up the state of elation, and out of nowhere an Åkerfeldt-style meter creeps in, the kind you inhaled deeply while listening to Opeth, so the whole thing gets seasoned with industrially elated verses and a chorus. Electrons travel along transmitters in the buzz of the words “All my life this is understood / Wasting my time like you knew that I would / …Knew that I would / So I hide my internal suicide / All my pride just to keep it / inside…keep it INSIDE / Ten thousand lies… / TEN THOUSAND LIES!!!”. A progressive leap into somewhat more danceable waters is offered by the sped-up Traveller, which is perhaps a bit too arena-style swaggering. It’s just a return of the more optimistic shades of the bipolar, split Devin, who still doesn’t shake off every last trace of ominous aggression, and after a short flight it’s time for an extension of the communication with astral spheres. The track Away develops a perfect dialogue of a divided person in conflict with himself, in a humorous but extremely musical way. “(I’m an idiot.) / Well stop being an idiot then!!! / Even though I’ve made a few new friends… / It’s hard to be back here in Sweden again / As above and so below my friend / It’s hard to be back here in Sweden again / …?” is a wonderfully bewildered tangle of brainwaves that nonetheless sound completely natural and enjoyable.
Only two acts remain of this divinely inspired sonic epic. Sunday Afternoon is once again a somewhat slower track, spinning veils of dreaminess with both sound and words. “Dream on / (Dream on, dream on…) / Dream another way / ’cause I know / (I know, I know…) / When the wind blows your name / …It’s a shame… / Things are strange but that’s OK / On a rainy Sunday afternoon… / In your place / In our place / In the swarm / So from the great plains / …From the void… / I will wait for you” sings the band’s main orator, subtly, and after the dreamy state the flames of a powerful finale burn you awake. Top-notch music with nothing to reproach or judge negatively, it pervades the soul like the strong, mighty current of a river of cosmic nebulae. The perfect ending to an exceptional record is the track Slow Me Down. It’s contagious and bites into your ears and brain with superb melody, and nobody handed you an antidote before listening, so any further resistance is hardly even possible.
In high spirits, we’ve reached the end of an exceptional record that in no way tarnishes the exceptional shine of the name Devin Townsend. Accelerated Evolution was an energetic and sweet announcement of further change and of drifting away from the dark pools of destruction. Devin has outgrown the confines of chaotic creative madness and looked out at the world with a brand-new pair of cleared-up eyes. Perfectionism is the guiding principle in every respect, and besides the wild guttural vocals he also presents himself in a somewhat gentler, yet no less punchy form, as a brilliant melancholic and rhymester. The ominous nature is hidden under thick layers of baroque sound and soft but unyielding distortion, and while you listen, hurricanes of emotion and anything but superficial mental imagery shake you to the core, so the final result and last judgment can only be complete astonishment, enthusiasm and a fresh round of standing ovations. Those who can, can, and Mr. Townsend, with his knowledge, might, inspiration and know-how, easily takes his place on the golden throne where only the best are allowed to sit! Thank the gods we get to enjoy so much of him, and in so many ways …
Lineup
Devin Townsend – guitar, vocals, samples
Ryan Van Poederooyen – drums
Mike Young – bass
Brian Waddell – guitar
Dave Young – keyboards
Production
Devin Townsend
Track List
1. Depth Charge
2. Storm
3. Random Analysis
4. Deadhead
5. Suicide
6. Traveller
7. Away
8. Sunday Afternoon
9. Slow Me Down
