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Devin Townsend: Terria
08/10/07 || The Duff
I was introduced to Devin Townsend’s slightly manic style to writing music via Strapping Young Lad. Since then, I’ve discovered more and more of his contributions to the metal scene, his solo works offering some of the finest music I have ever heard (“Infinity’’ is in my top three albums of all time). Two albums that come close to the majesty of the aforementioned finest Dev record to date include “Ocean Machine” and the concept masterpiece album “Terria”, an album that is about as close to a take on Floyd-inspired prog rock as the man is likely to get.
The first two tracks explore the nuttier side to Devin Townsend (this is apparently a concept album about a man who loses his mind to/as a result of his surroundings), album opener consisting of nothing but very lush guitars and a slowed down monologue about olives, and the second track comprising the bombast nature of Devin’s music that wouldn’t sound amiss on “Infinity”; both of these are kept short, and then it’s straight into the epic “Earth Day” track, a fan favourite, which mixes rock, metal and zaney-attitude in true Dev style to great effect, yet stands out a little on its own purely due to the diversity of music represented within the song.
“Deep Peace” opens with some very zen clean guitars, and Dev’s soothing vocals take center-stage before giving way some halfway through to an absolutely tear-jerking solo that swells up into one long, depressing dirge, where Dev’s resonant vocals are placed atop a multitude of musical layers to give rise to an incredibly moving crescendo that would make even the extremely homophobic barbarian Macho Man Randy Savage weep into another man’s ass. It isn’t until this track that I find the album settles down into a comfortable flow, as the first three tracks appear very disjointed, as well as far from the peace and quiet (“Mountain” and “Earth Day”, at least) offered by tracks four through ten (with the exception of “Stagnant”, which could well appear more upbeat in comparison to what precedes it, and “The Fluke”, which is Dev showing that side of him more prone to outburst).
Minus this slight lack of continuity, “Terria” is still an album that needs to be experienced as a whole; what’s more, this is the mellowest album (not including his “soundlab” stuff) Devin has produced up until now, yet the rarity of any (there are still the occasional blasts) real metal attack does nothing to change the fact that this is one of his finest pieces of work (some of his best soloing can be found here, which is saying a lot – very emotive, impeccable phrasing, and a lot of originality). Highly recommended to Devin fans, and to all those who want to kick back.
Gene Hoglan plays drums. That is all, bitches.
9 prolific artists out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Inside Out Music
- Website: www.hevydevy.com
- Band
- Devin Townsend: guitars, vocals, and a whole bunch of other shit
- Greg McFarland: fretless bass
- Gene Hoglan: drums
- Jamie Meyer: piano, keyboards
- Tracklist
- 01. Olives
- 02. Mountain
- 03. Earth Day
- 04. Deep Peace
- 05. Canada
- 06. Down and Under
- 07. Fluke
- 08. Nobody’s Here
- 09. Tiny Tears
- 10. Stagnant
