Release date: March 29, 2019
Label: Inside Out Music/HevyDevy
Production: Devin Townsend
Length: 74:08
Genre: progressive metal/progressive rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Versatile Canadian music maestro Devin Townsend, a man from ‘another musical planet’, has made his first solo album since “Dark Matters” with “Empath”. That one was part of the double album “Z²” (2014) and came out under Devin Townsend Project. This time Devin joined forces with three top-notch musicians who once earned their bread with the legendary Frank Zappa, one of the pioneers of the so-called wall of sound, which the Canadian experimental oddball has perfected down to the last detail in recent years. On the closing part of the epic suite “Singularity”, the most adventurous moment on the entire album, his old buddy, American guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, helped out with some guitar wizardry, while on a few tracks the drum stool was taken by Swedish drum wizard Morgan Agren, whom Zappa discovered a few years before his death. As for the songwriting and production direction of “Empath”, Mike Keneally chipped in with suggestions and ideas as musical director. He’s yet another cult musician from ‘another galaxy’ who can brag about having worked with both Zappa and Devin over the course of his career.
The influence of those three musical giants is pretty noticeable on “Empath”, although you could easily call “Empath” an autobiographical work, since it’s an exceptionally successful, almost representative cross-section of Devin’s creative path so far. Vocal duties were shared with his old acquaintance, Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen, while the guest vocal appearance of Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) on the track “Hear Me” raised quite a few eyebrows in the metal crowd, though in the end it all worked out fine.
With its prog metal, avant-garde, electronic and symphonic twists and turns, “Empath” reflects a staggering range of Devin’s many musical influences more than any of his solo albums before it, along with his dual songwriting nature, forever torn between darkness and light, aggression and calm, madness and bliss. Operatic harmonies, epic arrangements and still-life moments of ambient music keep trading places with death metal growls and aggressive guitar cannonades over blazing double bass pedal work, plus moments of total avant-garde disconnect. The influences of all his past bands, Strapping Young Lad included, are plainly audible throughout the album, which means “Empath” is an extremely handy starting point for anyone who’d like to start exploring Devin’s discography but doesn’t know where to begin.
The short, strikingly calm opener “Castaway” ventures into ambient territory and recalls Devin’s work on the album “Ghost” (2011), while the female vocal harmonies add a touch of sacred music. “Genesis”, which puts the contrast between Devin’s and Anneke’s vocal harmonies front and center, is an eclectic merry-go-round of countless styles, from prog metal opera to brutal thrash metal lathe work. It’s a track that’s almost typical of Devin’s creative approach over the last few years and will thrill most of his followers. The epic “Spirits Will Colide”, marked by mighty harmonies and a massive wall of sound, could be described as a cross between arena rock and prog metal, at moments recalling some of Ayreon’s feats, but still with Devin’s signature arranging touches.
“Evermore” is a fairly relaxed, ambient-pretty listening experience that also has epic harmonies and hypnotic vocal layers, yet it’s still experimental enough that things never get boring. Up until the second half, when an avant-garde twist suddenly and unexpectedly kicks in for a short while, it plays out fairly predictably. “Sprite”, despite a somewhat comical intro, is a proper space rock adventure that surprises in the closing stretch with an ethereal instrumental section, which gets cruelly cut off right at the end by avant-garde weirdness from the ‘ninth galaxy’. “Hear Me” has uncompromising double bass pedal blasting and Devin’s beastly ‘snarling’, which sounds a lot like some of his exploits with Strapping Young Lad, but it’s all backed up by eclectic incursions of some more subtle ambient moments.
Thanks to its cheerful orchestral arrangements and Devin’s clean, high-register vocal performance, “Why?” sounds like the soundtrack to the sequel of some psychedelic movie fairy tale along the lines of The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, where epicness and absurdity go hand in hand. In time Anneke joins in on the vocal harmonies and a truly majestic atmosphere takes shape. The eleven-minute experiment “Borderlands” opens with a rooster crowing, followed by a longer, utterly beautiful section that eventually ‘degenerates’ into an unusual blend of avant-garde bizarreness, prog metal epicness and gorgeous ambient music. The mournful dirge “Requiem” recalls something cult composer Howard Shore recorded when he was creating the musical backdrop for the epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
The peak of “Empath” is the more than 23-minute prog rock/prog metal super-epic “Singularity”, an extremely eclectic suite in six parts that’s really a kind of sonic collage of the whole album. Every part of the suite stands for a piece of Devin’s creative character. On the opening section “Adrift”, a gem of ambient music, Devin once again heads off ‘among the angels’. On “I Am I”, Devin starts a gradual descent into ambient purgatory, with ever more emphasis on more aggressive rhythms and brutal guitar passages, though the epic and triumphant mood still prevails. On the mostly death metal-tinged “There Be Monsters”, where Strapping Young Lad ‘rise from the dead’ once more, Devin reaches a hellish atmosphere. That’s followed by a total ambient contrast with “Curious Gods”, which features elements of ambient music, avant-garde and psychedelia. The instrumentally flavored “Silicon Scientists” is a perfect avant-garde electronic disconnect with crazy guitar passages that Frank Zappa would probably have liked too, if he were still alive. Steve Vai joins in with his unmistakable guitar soloing on the closing section “Here Comes the Sun”, which, with its epic harmonies and fortifying of the wall of sound, is the most ‘Devin-esque’ moment of the entire suite.
“Empath” takes us on a fun, thrilling ride through every corner of Devin’s restless soul and all his many musical mutations, then wraps it all up with an epic masterpiece that’s exactly what you’d expect from a musical genius like him. “Empath” is thus a new gem in Devin’s discography, one that has further cemented his status as an extremely prolific and unpredictable icon of modern experimental music. Even though he hasn’t exactly reinvented the wheel with it, and we’ve already heard some bits of the successful recipe on recent Devin Townsend Project albums, he has still made one of the contenders for the best prog rock/prog metal album of 2019 and hit one of the highlights of his colorful career. This workaholic musical alien definitely deserves a deep bow for “Empath”.
Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Castaway (2:29)
2. Genesis (6:06)
3. Spirits will Collide (4:40)
4. Evermore (5:30)
5. Sprite (6:37)
6. Hear Me (6:30)
7. Why? (4:59)
8. Borderlands (11:03)
9. Requiem (2:47)
10. Singularity (23:33) :
– Part 1 – Adrift
– Part 2 – I Am I
– Part 3 – There Be Monsters
– Part 4 – Curious Gods
– Part 5 – Silicon Scientists
– Part 6 – Here Comes the Sun
Musicians:
Devin Townsend – lead vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer, computer, orchestration, production
Guest musicians:
Rayne Townsend – vocals
Elliot Desgagnés – backing death metal vocals (2-5,7,10)
Ché Aimee Dorval – backing vocals (2)
Adam Getgood – backing vocals (5)
Josefa Torres – backing vocals (5)
Chad Kroeger – backing vocals (6)
Jess Vaira – backing vocals (8)
Anneke Van Giersbergen – backing vocals (6,10,bonus 2)
The Elektra Women’s Choir – choir vocals (2-5,7-10)
Moma Edmundson – choir conductor
Mike Keneally – guitar and keyboards (2,7,8,10), backing vocals (8), musical director
Shaun Verreault – pedal steel guitar
Ryan Dhale – guitar and keyboards (8)
Scott Reinson – guitar and keyboards (8)
Steve Vai – guitar solo (10)
Callum Marinho – whistling (10)
Nathan Navarro – bass
Anup Sastry – drums
Morgan Ågren – drums
Sam Paulicelli – drums
The Lords Of The Sound – orchestra
Erik Severinsen – arrangements, backing vocals (8)
Niels Bye Nielsen – orchestration
Ron Getgood – spoken word (5)
