TERRIA

"Terria" is the fourth full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in November 2001. It´s the successor to "Physicist" from June 2000. Drummer Gene Hoglan is still onboard, but the rest of Strapping Young Lad have not been invited this time around ("Physicist" was recorded by all four members of Strapping Young Lad). Instead Craig McFarland performs fretless bass and Jamie Meyer performs keyboards/piano. Townsend as always performs vocals, guitars, samples, and keyboards.

Townsend was never happy with the way "Physicist" turned out, and he decided that "Terria" should sound different and move in another direction, which is quite obvious when listening to the latter. "Physicist" was a homogene album, which maybe didn´t challenge Townsend nor his audience the way it was originally meant to, while "Terria" on the other hand is a highly eclectic, progressive, and challenging release. It also feels like it´s a personal statement and it features great emotional impact and Townsend in vocal top form.

"Terria" is actually a very hard album to describe properly as a result of the eclectic nature of the release, but through the 11 track, 71:59 minutes long album Townsend and his crew bring us through mellow beautiful parts, crushingly heavy and aggressive parts, ambient atmospheric parts, and great focus on unconventional song structures and progressive ideas. The detailed, clear, and organic sounding production job greatly enchances the listening experience, and this is a perfect example of production values going hand in hand with the compositions and providing the tracks with the best possible conditions to shine. Townsend truly shows his music producer genius side here.

"Terria" is not an easily accessible album, although it´s some of the time quite melodic and memorable, but the shifts between moods and the dynamics of the release sometimes catch the listener off guarde, and for some listeners it´ll take time to learn to appreciate (and some will forever remain frustrated). Tracks like "Deep Peace" and "The Fluke" are perfect examples of this. Both tracks which evolve greatly through their playing time featuring many different atmospheres, dynamics, and music styles. "Terria" generally features a little more lead guitar playing from Townsend than most of his releases contain, and to my ears his choice of notes and the way he plays are strongly influenced by his former employer Steve Vai. This should not be misunderstood as if the overall sound of "Terria" sounds like the output of Vai, but there are several moments throughout the album, where the influence shines through.

Upon conclusion "Terria" is a completely unique release (although some influences shine through as mentioned above). The way the album is constructed, the songwriting, the performances, the exceptionally well sounding production job, all make "Terria" the high quality release it is. There´s really nothing like it neither on the scene nor in Townsend´s own discography. It´s arguably one of the groundbreaking albums of Townsend´s career and a 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)