I was fascinated by the talent of Devin back in 1993 when he appeared as the vocalist on Vai’s “Sex & Religion” – so far one of the best albums of this Zappa discovered eccentric guitar-hero. But Devin (born May 5, 1972 – Happy Birthday!!!) picked up the banjo when he was five and began playing guitar when he was 12, started his own extreme metal band called Strapping Young Lad, played with The Wildhearts, also in a project called IR8 where Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica) featured on vocals and bass, Devin on guitar and Tom Hunting of Exodus on drums, made many appearances as guest on different albums – Punky Broaster, Front Line Assembly, James Murphy, Stuck Mojo, Unit:187, Zimmers Hole, Skinny Puppy, Paradise Lost, Soilwork, Lamb of God, Gwar, etc, – and released several solo albums beside he’s one of the very appreciated producers now days. We may say, Devin is extremely creative and busy.
Actually, he wrote over 60 new songs at the end of 2008, beginning of 2009, and found that they fit into “four distinct styles”, so this was the starting point of a new four piece release, the first being “Ki”, released on May 22, 2009 and followed six month later by “Addicted”. By the way, “Ki” was my favorite album of 2009. While “Ki” was an exciting incursion into a world of ambiental, jazz, blues and rock blending and “Addicted” lead us into the area of power pop/alternative metal, the new material, this “Deconstruction” and its nine tracks drive us trough a contorted, gloomy world of post-metal experiment, it brings back to the noisy constructions of the Strapping Young Lad era. Very complex, sometimes maybe even “unfriendly” and perhaps quite schizophrenic, Devin put together an intense, powerful, uncompromising album. He don’t have to prove anything anymore and it seems he’s aware of it, so he just “spit” off the music from his head. “The Mighty Masturbator” have over 16 minutes, it’s a hell of a trip, but all the nine tracks are exhausting, but still fascinating works. “Deconstruction” seems to be a concept album which focuses around a man who goes to Hell and meets the Devil while the fourth album of the Devin Townsend Project entitled “Ghost” is the mellowest one as Devin said. Both will be released on June, 20, so, take a deep breath, Devin’s coming!
