SilentScream213 And so began Devin Townsend’s solo career. Often hailed as a musical genius with no limits to his creativity, unbound by genres, yet still Metal through and through, the debut is a unique piece in Metal history. That is to say – in 1997, absolutely nothing sounded like this, and it’s not dated one bit. Eclectic, modern, catchy, and willing to throw all ideals of what Metal should be out the window in order to craft whatever the hell he wants it to be.

But, is the album good? It’s certainly good, but is it that good? I don’t think so. Most songs are overlong, lacking any strong musical hooks, and meandering in dense atmosphere that isn’t really sure what it wants to be. Many people will call this melancholic or ethereal; I hear no such thing. The closing song is a fantastic example of the heartfelt melancholy Devin is capable of – nowhere else on the album do I really feel any significant melancholy. Similarly, the first half of Bastard is built on an incredible riff, one of those that are so good you don’t mind hearing it over and over for 5 minutes. Despite that, I can’t recall another riff on the album. Nothing else really captured me.

The album does a great job of displaying Devin’s genius through moments and pieces, highlights that prove his potential. But as for the full album, and even individual songs, they are bloated, filled with insignificant space, and repetitive too often when they have nothing worthwhile to repeat. I can easily see how this could be so lauded among fans, because it is groundbreaking, it’s impressive on many fronts, and there is a lot to love here. For me, it just can’t break through the barrier of being a “good” album. For that, Devin must shed his excess skin.

UMUR "Ziltoid The Omniscient" is the ninth full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in May 2007. It´s the successor to the ambient/drone/experimental music album "The Hummer" from November 2006. After having recorded and released albums with both his solo project and Strapping Young Lad, and having toured relentlessly since the turn of the millenium, Townsend felt burnt out and withdrew from the scene. His first child was born in October 2006, which probably also contributed to his decision not to tour as much as he had done in the previous years. But in true Townsend style that didn´t mean he stopped working on new music, and the material for "Ziltoid The Omniscient" was written, recorded, produced, and mixed during a four month period in early 2007. It´s truly a solo release as Townsend did everything on the album including producing and mixing the album, and programming the drums using the Drumkit from Hell software. After the release of "Ziltoid The Omniscient" Townsend went on a longer hiatus (at least it was long considering his usual output and touring rate), which he spend rediscovering himself. A journey which led him to stop abusing drugs and alcohol and to spend more time with his family.

"Ziltoid The Omniscient" is a concept album/progressive metal opera featuring a comedy sci-fi story about the Alien Ziltoid from the planet Ziltoidia 9, who comes to earth and demands to taste earth´s best cup of coffee...but becomes furious when he is handed a poor tasting cup of coffee. He then declares war on earth and wows to destroy it. He summons The Planet Smasher for the purpose...and you´ll have to listen to the album to learn how the story ends (which actually makes great sense). Obviously this is a very silly story, but it´s not the first time Townsend has made a comedy themed album, as he already released the "Cooked on Phonics" album under the Punky Brüster monicker in 1996. It´s a similarly silly comedy themed album, although that album´s story is centered around a death metal band who turns into a punk rock group, when they find out that there´s money, fame, and groupies to be made.

Stylistically the material on "Ziltoid The Omniscient" covers a lot of musical ground, and the various sounds and styles from previous Devin Townsend and Strapping Young Lad releases are represented here in some sort of hybrid form. The album therefore features both heavy aggressive riffs and raw screaming vocals, but also melodic parts with clean vocals, multi-layered atmospheric parts, and generally complex and intriguing songwriting. While Townsend is often praised for his drum programming on this album, my ears don´t quite agree, and I think the drums have an artificial quality to them, a human drummer could have eradicated and a more organic tone could possibly have increased the quality of the release. It´s not a major issue, but it´s not exactly a positive either. I understand the reasoning for using drum programming (Townsend´s need for isolation), but I don´t think it was a great idea.

The 11 tracks on the 53:46 minutes long album ebb and flow and one minute the listener is pummeled by aggressive heavy riffs and various extreme forms of vocals, and the next they´re transported to a tranquil place filled with pleasant atmospheric sounds and mellow vocals. The best example of the latter is probably "Hyperdrive". While the re-recorded and re-arranged version of the song, which appears on Townsend´s 2009 "Addicted" album, featuring Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals, pretty much blows this original version out of the water, this version of "Hyperdrive" is actually a great version too. It´s such a pleasant, melodic, and atmospheric track, which is a nice variation after the dramatic and progressive three-song opening to the album. And that´s one of the strengths of "Ziltoid The Omniscient". Other than the silly comedy story line and even more silly narration (the latter which is probably an aquired taste), the album is nicely varied which makes for an engaging listen all the way through the playing time.

The album features a layered, detailed, and powerful sounding production job, but it´s one of Townsend´s more tangible and less ethereal productions. So it´s a more easy listen in terms of sonic output. Overall "Ziltoid The Omniscient" is still a highly adventurous and progressive metal release by one of the most unique artists on the scene. While it may not be Townsend´s most rewarding or representative album, it´s certainly a standout release in his discography. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Synchestra" is the seventh full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. It´s the second and last album released under the The Devin Townsend Band monicker. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in January 2006. Townsend had an incredibly busy touring and recording schedule in the years from 2000-2007, and since the duo release of the third Strapping Young Lad album "S.Y.L." in February 2003 and the release of his fifth solo album "Accelerated Evolution" (although also released under the The Devin Townsend Band monicker like "Synchestra") in March 2003, Townsend released the "Devlab" solo album in December 2004 (his sixth solo album), and the fourth Strapping Young Lad album "Alien" in March 2005. "Synchestra" was just the first of three 2006 releases from Townsend, the other two being the fifth and final Strapping Young Lad album "The New Black" from July 2006 and his eigth solo album "The Hummer" from November 2006. This was all done in between heavy touring and it´s no wonder that Townsend needed a break after the release of "Ziltoid the Omniscient" in May 2007.

Coming off the heels of some of Townsend´s/Strapping Young Lad´s most popular and successful releases (excluding "Devlab" which is a bit out of number in this context), "Synchestra" was always going to have a hard time living up to the quality of that output, and instead of writing and recording something in a similar style Townsend did what he has often done and still does, namely made a left turn and ventured into new musical territory.

It is not for nothing that the album is titled "Synchestra", because this is the first Townsend release, which (at least in part) can be described as symphonic (although no classical orchestra is used. Everything is programmed og played on keyboars/synths). Not symphonic in an epic Euro power metal style or as in symphonic metal, but there are parts on "Synchestra", which are arguably strongly influenced by classical music composition, and there are also some pretty epic symphonic parts featured on the album. The album also features elements from pop, country, folk, polka, middle eastern music, and of course Townsend´s heavy riffs and the heavy drumming by Ryan Van Poederooyen. "Synchestra" features several guest/session musicians. One is Townsend´s former employer Steve Vai, who plays a guitar solo on "Triumph".

"Synchestra" is an album which works as one long song, as most tracks seque into each other and have some sort of relation to each other (some themes are reoccurring). Most tracks can be listened to individually, but they work best in the context of the full album. It´s not an album which is instantly catchy like "Accelerated Evolution" was, so most listeners will probably need som patience to get to know the album, and to learn all the details of the music. While some parts are easily accessible, the whole work is a bit more diffecult to get into (it´s certainly progressive in any way possible). At least that´s how I felt about "Synchestra". It took quite a few spins for me to understand what is was Townsend wanted to convey.

"Synchestra" features a powerful, multi-layered, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. It´s not Townsend´s most heavy release, and therefore the sound production isn´t as focused on the heavy riffs and drumming as on "Accelerated Evolution". When the heavy parts do occur, they are still satisfyingly heavy and sharp though, so "Synchestra" is still a pretty heavy album when it´s called for. "Synchestra" may not have the immediate catchiness and appeal as the last couple of Townsend releases, but it´s still arguably a high quality release, and it´s quite the bold release too, but knowing Townsend that´s actually no surprise. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Snuggles - Beautiful Dream" is the nineteenth full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in December 2021. It was released on the same day as its companion album "The Puzzle".

Stylistically it´s an ambient/experimental release which Townsend have made a few of before ("Devlab" from December 2004 and "The Hummer" from November 2006). As a companion album to "The Puzzle" it´s interesting to compare the two, as Townsend has consciously opted to make the two releases quite different sounding although the material were recorded during the same time. Where "The Puzzle" is a more experimental and diverse ambient recording, "Snuggles - Beautiful Dream" is a much more calm, laid back, and truly ambient release. It´s almost meditative in its mellow approach. I can imagine this would be music which would be perfect to fall asleep to. The ambient pieces are designed to induce a tranquil mood and bring calm to your nerves and Townsend succeeds in doing that, although at times it all becomes a bit too new age oriented and uneventful (which has the opposite effect on me and becomes stressful).

"Snuggles - Beautiful Dream" is not surprisingly very well produced and sounds incredible, but upon conclusion I think I prefer the more eventful material on "The Puzzle". "Snuggles - Beautiful Dream" is good calm background music or music to fall asleep to, but it´s not really music to listen to and concentrate on to find details. For that not enough happens in the soundscape. It´s still a pleasant listen and a 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "The Puzzle" is the eighteenth full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in December 2021. It was released on the same day as its companion album "Snuggles - Beautiful Dream".

Stylistically the material on "The Puzzle" is ambient/atmospheric music, which is a continuation of the ambient/drone music experimental Townsend albums "Devlab" from December 2004 and "The Hummer" from November 2006. Compared to his previous ambient/drone music albums, "The Puzzle" is generally a much more inviting, melodic, and structured release, featuring 20 relatively short tracks (with exceptions of a few longer tracks) and a total playing time of 65:25 minutes. All tracks seque into each other to form a whole conceptual listening experience. That´s not to say that "The Puzzle" is an easy listening experience, as it´s still quite experimental and ambient, but it´s actually pretty entertaining most of the time (the occasionally jazzy touch is pretty nice). Some tracks go by almost without the listener noticing, and they sometimes sound like rough unfinished ideas, which become part of the whole, but there´s still enough dynamic tension and drama in the music, for the listener to not loose his/her interest. The sudden appearance of extreme metal elements (distorted guitars and growling vocals) on "StarChasm" is for example quite surprising, and helps keep the album interesting.

Upon conclusion I´ve been pleasantly surprised by "The Puzzle". It´s a very different sounding ambient/experimental release to "Devlab" and "The Hummer", and I found myself enjoying this one quite a bit more than I had expected. There´s purpose here and structure, which means that the accessiblity of the album is much higher for those of us not used to listening to ambient/experimental music. The fact that the album is packed in a detailed, layered, and well sounding production, doesn´t exactly make things worse. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.