DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT: TRANSCENDENCE

Its taken a while for me to come to this album. Bit shocking since Devin Townsend has been one of my favorite prog artists for many years now. Every release seems to be different, and this one is no exception.

Well, kinda... Let me explain.

Let's look just at the album title and cover, don't even listen to the music yet. From my perspective, I'm expecting openess, space, choirs, symphonic-ness, atmospheric prog metal at its finest, and honestly, that's really what you get. The intro is a rerecorded cover of "Truth" from his 1999 album "Infinity". It's a bit cleaner in sound quality, no doubt, but the only thing that really changes is the addition of some lyrics at the very end, which segue into "Stormbending". From here on out, everything is just BIG. Big guitars, big synths, big choir, big space. "Stormbending" in general is really quite meh until the very end with about 2 minutes left, when Devin and the choir repeat a simple three-note triad for three measures, then mixes it up on the fourth by raising the first note by just a half step, throwing in a bit of a atonal curevball for just a second. Not much of a track, but the end is pretty tasty.

"Failure" just kicks. In a 6/4 groove all the way, this track has just a feel of grunge and kickass to it. The rhythmic churn of the guitars and the constant tension of the added strings just keeps the whole track on edge. With a pretty kickass guitar solo in the middle, I much like this track. The only downside may be the fact that it ends rather anti-climatically, but the edginess of it coupled with a nice chorus makes it rather memorable, especially because "Stormbending" is mostly forgetful and "Secret Sciences" is a bit too tryhard in my opinion. It's too plain, too one note, too predictable.

"Higher" is probably one of the highest notes on the track (pun absolutely intended). It's the one that feels closest to a real progressive track. The chorus is a theme that wraps around several times while the verses pass through several key changes and rhythmic shifts. It's the angelic chorus of "Higher" that truly grounds the track even after acoustic interludes, shifting time signatures, screams, growls and mesmerizing guitar solos. Definitely the best track on the album.

By this point, the album has the theme pretty much down, and "Stars" and "Transcendence" are pretty much straightforward, unsurprising, and honestly, uninteresting. "Offer Your Light" is really the only other bright spot on the album. This is just a no-frills, hard-driving, metal track, a soaring chorus with constantly hard-hitting drums and churning guitars. This is just noise at its best, an almost modern bastardization of Phil Spector's classic "Wall of Sound" from the 50's and 60's. There's nothing really complicated about it, but since it's one of the most, if not THE most memorable track on the album, it's also one of the best. The rest of the first disc is more of the same honestly.

The second disc is mostly filled with demos, and it begins with a funny comment about the failure of Z2 (which technically I disagree with, but we'll let bygones be bygones). The second disc is actually more interesting than the first, because the first is very similar in key signature and theme all around. With the second being a bunch of demos, each track is different, and thus feels like it has its own identity, and simultaneously, each is almost more recognizable and memorable than the tracks on the first album. In all honesty, the first disc fails BECAUSE it's too serious, while the second disc is simply better because it ISN'T serious.

Because honestly, when is Devin Townsend ever truly serious? This guy got his audience to scream "BALLS!" during his "Retinal Circus" show.

Thematically, it's right in line with Devin's musical trends, but still the album falls a tad short of expectations. It's still good, but the lack of unique standout tracks and diversity of sounds and styles on the album is a bit of a letdown for those of us who've always loved Devin's eclectic and crazy music.