TANDJENT:

• No One Will Hear Us (2005) It's certainly fair to say Meshuggah's popularity has gone far beyond imitation, they seem to have started their own genre of music. I know the term "math metal" has been thrown around a lot, but whatever you call it, the band really started something, and Tandjent are right there in the fray. So yes, they do sound a lot like Meshuggah, from the super heavy guitar tone to the odd time signature start-stop riffs and the drummer doing straight 4 / 4 time over top. But damn these songs are good. I mean, it helps that the production is mindbendingly brutal and professional, but the riffs are just fantastic as well. And just when you think you have them categorized, they do something a bit different, like track 3, 'No Question' has the tonal qualities of Meshuggah, but with a groovy riff that's far more Pantera and by the final note of the song you want to skip back and hear it again. Or the double kick part at the beginning of 'Paralyzed' (Meshuggah haven't used straight doublebass in their music for years and years). Or the anthemic quality of the opening to 'I Remain' followed again by a great groovy riff. Songs like these are what push the band away into their own territory. If Tandjent decides to release more cds in the future, these songs have the originality that I hope they expand on. It's tough to imagine "No One Will Hear Us" has been in production for the past 4 years, usually you'd expect a big variation in the song styles and recording quality, but this album is just so consistent. And would you believe the drums are programmed? Perhaps not after hearing this cd, this has to be the most natural sounding drum machine I've ever heard. Top it all off with some seriously shredding guitar leads that hearken back to the days when a solo had something to say instead of just extra texture on top of the rhythm. Stupendous and spectacular, this album is an absolute must buy.

TERRORUST:

• Post Mortal Archives (2006) In this post Nasum world, we need good bands to help fill the void. And Australia's Terrorust is one of them. Half Nasum, half Pig Destroyer, this band goes for the throat with crazy nasally and gargly screaming, constantly blasting and double bass, and tons of aggression. The songs are longer, and many of the riffs are memorable, so don't expect this to be totally mindless grindcore. The band doesn't only rely on super aggression (although there's plenty of it here), they also know how to write a song. If you want to be thrown around the room for approx. 40 minutes and have your brain turned to absolute goo, I highly recommend finding a copy of this cd. Insane stuff, and well worth the cash.

• Concealing Fate (2010, EP) Progressive Metallers from the UK, this EP is one song split into 6 parts. Overall, the music is very Meshuggah like with it's math metal odd time signatures and distorted guitar chugging, but with mostly sung/choral vocals over top and chiming clean guitar melodies. Another comparison might be Periphery, although Periphery have more screamed vocals, and they write more distinct songs. TesseracT are more about a mood or vibe, the separate song pieces all blur together, which is actually my only real problem with the band, I wish there were more distinct memorable riffs. We'll see what happens on their debut, as things may be broken up a bit more. But otherwise, the mix is great, the band is obviously skilled. If you're a fan of Meshuggah, Periphery, or Devin Townsend's solo work (mostly the choral vocals), you may dig these guys.
• One (2011) Debut from the band. First off, if you read my EP review above, you'll see I gave them a good but not spectacular review. Since writing that review, I have to admit I've actually been listening to it quite a lot. While I critiqued the band for not having enough variety, what the band does have is atmosphere, I found it the perfect music to put in the background while I did other things. What they don't have in brutality they made up for in creating a successful trance like state with their music, taking the listener along for the ride. So now that said, I really do like their debut, but I have a number of issues that might lead you to believe I am again writing a bad review to the band. But this is not the case, while I may focus on some of the weaknesses of the album, I am primarily doing this because if these small things were cleaned up, I think this album would be an instant classic. First off, smack dab in the middle of the album is their 'Concealing Fate' song. This isn't a re-recording of the song, this is the exact same song that was on the EP, so if you never bought the EP, don't worry about it, this albums contains everything. But conversely, if you do have the EP, then this album only has 5 new songs for you. Also, I wish the band had placed 'Concealing Fate' at the beginning or end to the album. I felt that Dream Theater's "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" did it perfectly, 5 shorter, catchier songs on Disc 1, and their super long epic progressive song on Disc 2. The fact that Tesseract's epic happens right in the middle is a bit odd, and interrupts the flow of the new music. So the 5 new songs are good, the album opener is especially awesome, with some great vocal harmonies and a very positive vibe. Then the band goes back into a more metal kind of darkness for track 2. After 'Concealing Fate', we have 3 more tracks, the only one I don't dig is the album closer, 'Eden', as it starts off sounding far too much like Tool, and then the main riff is basically repeating with only slight variation for the full 9 minutes. I know, I know, I just finished saying that the band is good at creating atmosphere using repeating riffs, but I feel this particular songs goes too far and just becomes repetitive. One thing I do dig a lot with these new 5 songs is while they have threads in common with 'Concealing Fate', they do not sound like more of the same, showing that the band does in fact have some variety to their sound. And one final knit, the first two songs seemed to lack some punch for me, and I finally figured out what it was. There are parts where the band should get really loud, as the vocalist lets out a scream after a more quiet passage. The problem is dynamics. While the energy gets more intense at the screamed part, the actual volume doesn't change all that much, like the sung stuff is the same volume as the screamed stuff. A little more dynamic play would give those areas more punch, which would be nice. The album also includes a DVD that contains the band performing 'Concealing Fate' in the studio, consider this an alternate take, with a number of subtle changes from the studio version. The performance is fun to watch, but the band doesn't move around all that much, and the vocalist is stuck behind a few soundproof walls, so the band has a limit to how dynamic as a visual they can be. So overall, if you don't have their EP, this debut is fantastic, and fans of Meshuggah and Devin Townsend will go crazy over this stuff. If you do own the EP, this album has a few more cool songs, but you'll probably be more excited about the band's follow-up. I know I can't wait.
• Perspective (2012, Acoustic EP)
• Altered State (2013) For their second album, what is a progressive band to do? Well, how about one giant song split into multiple parts as your whole album? The result is a good album, but not quite as good as their first album or EP. The main issue I have is with the new vocalist. While he's quite proficient, his voice is just too smooth for my liking. The first guy had the smoothing singing, but it had a little extra grit, and there was more yelling. This guy is all smooth. And the songs are a little less heavy as well too compliment the singing. Now in terms of hooks, catchiness, memorability, etc, this album is top notch. And it sounds very much like their style, the chunky rhythms, the chimy guitars. Overall, I give the album high marks, I just wish there was more intensity to the vocals.
• Odyssey And Scala (2015, Live CD/DVD) Live CD / DVD combo from the band. I'll start with the DVD, recorded in London in 2014. The concert is a really great performance. It's only 1 hour long, but the recording quality both sound and picture is excellent. Plenty of cameras doing their thing. The songs have just enough live variety to set themselves as distinct from their album counterparts. If you're a musician and hoping to get a closer look at the band playing, this concert is not for you, as the quick cuts and really extreme light show makes it pretty difficult to see any actual fret positions or drum fills, but with great sound and crisp visuals you'll still have fun. Now the CD, rather than just a copy of the DVD, its the same set list but with each song recorded at a different spot on their tour. And that's probably the downfall of the CD. While I appreciate the band is trying to include as many cities as possible, vocalist Daniel's singing is just off too often. On the DVD, he does a spectacular job hitting all of those hard to reach notes, its in fact one of the most impressive vocal performances I think I've ever seen (and yes, I realize the band uses some backing tracks to help fill out the sound, but the live vocal portion is still very impressive). The CD is just filled with vocal flubs, and its very distracting. Overall, I doubt I'll listen to the CD much, but the DVD concert is great and well worth picking up.
• Polaris (2015) Welcome back Daniel Tompkins! The band's third album signifies the return of their original vocalist, and that's a good thing. Ashe did a great job with the singing on "Altered State", but his voice lacked an edge, whereas Daniel will add a little more screaming and growling to keep things a little heavier, which still pounding out the strong vocal melodies the band is known for. Funnily enough, while Daniel brings back the heavy, the band is actually a little softer on this release, the songs overall are a little slower and quieter, perhaps even a little more straight forward. There are still some heavier bits ('Messenger' as an example), but I wish they had a few more songs like 'Eclipse' or 'Deception'. The thing that makes this album really work is memorable riffs and melodies, each song is very unique and catchy, and will stick in your head. I think this album will make all fans of the band happy campers.
• Sonder (2018) Another solid album from the band. The usual great combination of hummable melodies, complex djent style guitar rhythms, catchy vocal lines mixed with the appropriately placed screams and yells. Not much to say really, if you liked their last album, or their first, this is right up there in terms of songwriting, sounds, catchiness and style. All fans of the band are likely to be happy with this one.
• War of Being (2023) Generally a really good album. I say generally because a few of the songs are a little simpler, like 'Echoes' or 'Tender', which are basically straight 4/4 beats with very little variation, and while they have the other hallmarks of a Tesseract song, they miss that spice that makes things interesting. But other songs such as the opener 'Natural Disaster' has all that we're looking for from the band, heavy parts, choral vocals, strange time signatures and layers upon layers of complexity. The title track is one of the heaviest songs I think the band has ever done, although the main riff is a little too dissonant for me, but some of their quieter songs like 'Sirens' manage to remain beautiful while still having meter complexity. And the album ends with a really strong entry 'Sacrifice', which is a little bit of everything, heavy, huge choirs, spacy vibe and endlessly catchy. This album is a little different in terms of vocals, no huge surprises, but there's a bit of an emphasis on the heavier screams, and the choir stuff has gotten even bigger and fatter, making this a vocalist tour de force. Overall a great album, there's just a couple songs I think I'm likely to skip, but when it's good, it's spectacular.
  

• The Legacy (1987) Lots of classic songs, with a slightly weak production (but what do you expect for '87?)
• The New Order (1988) This album sounds a lot like their first album, but once again, some more classic songs. Buy these albums after you've heard Practice.
• Practice What You Preach (1989) A classic album. Really great song writing, the sound is a bit weak, but the title track and "The Ballad" are probably two of the band's best songs ever.
• Souls Of Black (1990) I personally really like this album (although I know many people who don't). Really great production, great song writing, maybe a bit too similar to their last album, but it's no reason to dismiss it.
• The Ritual (1992) Now this album I didn't like (although a lot of people did, go figure). The production is horrible (waaayyy too much reverb), and the aggression is completely lost. Still a few good songs here and there.
• Return To The Apocalyptic City (1993, EP) A must buy EP for no other reason than to get a really great live version of "So Many Lies".
• Low (1994) Even after loosing their star soloist Alex Skolnick, the band has still got it. Much more aggressive than their last album, much lower (like the title), great production, great song writing. This album really redeemed the band.
• Live at the Fillmore (1995, Live) A great live performance with excellent production and a clear mix. The songs speak for themselves, with lots of older material.
• Demonic (1997) Oh my god. Testament is back and how. This isn't the same band you remember. Almost all the vocals are in a more death metal style (sort of like "Dog Faced Gods" off of 'Low'), the guitars are way lower. The riffs are huge, and the entire album just bludgeons you to death. Still, a few small nits, I wish the kick drum had been louder in the mix, I mean, it's Gene Hoglan on the drums, he needs to have all the power he deserves. And also I found the album didn't change tempo much, they should have added some faster songs. Everything generally stays in the slow / mid-tempo range. These problems aside, this album totally rips, and ushers a new age for the band. They have truly understood that metal is about aggression, and evolving means getting more aggressive. Now if only Metallica had listened.
• Signs Of Chaos: The Best Of Testament (1997, Best Of) The whole album is filled with songs from previous albums. It's a good cross section, but I own all their older CD's, so I don't see much reason to own this. The two new tracks on the album are cover songs, I don't know if they're any good, but they're not enough to get me to buy the album.
• The Gathering (1999) Holy shit. This album is good. The boys are back, this time with a superstar lineup including Dave Lombardo on drums, Steve DiGiorgio on bass, and the ever popular James Murphy on guitar. But we've seen superstar lineups falter in the past. Not this time. The album is a lot closer to Low, Chuck still uses death metal style vocals once in awhile, but tends to sing a little more. The riffs are excellent. The songs are well written and memorable, and covers many styles, tempos and moods. The double kicks are the fastest and loudest I've ever heard on a Testament record. James' guitar solos seem a little more subdued than normal, more ambient instead of show off stuff. The production is by far the best on any Testament record, thick chunky bass and crunch with every instrument perfectly clear. It's sort of rare these days to place a new CD in your player and after one listen know that this record will become an instant classic. This is one of those times. Dude, by the CD if you've ever loved this band.
• First Strike is Deadly (2001, EP) This album is a whole bunch of their songs from their first two albums, totally rerecorded using today's technology. Alex Skolnick is even on guitar. Overall, a good album, it's nice to hear these old classics get a little new life, and the production is of course excellent. My only complaint is most of these songs are available on their live recordings such as "Live at the Fillmore" and "Return to the Apocalyptic City", and live the songs tend to be a little more, I don't know, energetic. Whether it's just a speed issue, or Chuck using his more death-metal style vocals in a few bits when live, I think I still prefer the live versions to these rerecorded versions. But this album is still very enjoyable.
• Live In London (2005, LiveCD) Since most of you probably saw me slamming the recent influx of Anthrax live material, prepare yourself for an almost identical ride, this time with Testament. Their stories are almost the same. You get a live album of older songs a few years back ("Live at the Fillmore"), you get a studio album of re-recorded old songs ("First Strike is Deadly"), and now you get the old lineup reuniting and producing a live album of, you guessed it, old songs. And are these different old songs? Nope, the same stuff. So now I've heard 3 almost identical versions of 'The Preacher' and I keep asking myself why? Yes, it's cool that Alex Skolnick is back on this album, and he does a great job on the solos, and Louie returns for a few songs, but the material on this CD isn't different enough from the stuff on the other 2 cds to warrant a purchase. Actually, I take that back, there are a few different songs here, like I've never heard 'Electric Crown', 'Let Go Of My World' or 'Sins Of Omission" live before, but why do we need to hear 'The Haunting' yet again when they could have instead included some rarer material, like maybe a performance of  'Seven Days Of May' or 'Face In The Sky'. So I guess if you factor in the 4 unique songs you may still want to consider buying the cd, but overall it's a golden opportunity lost. The production is great, the performance is energetic, but it needed more songs that weren't already available in an almost identical form on the band's previous releases. Now please, guys, move forward and get us some new music ASAP.
• Live In London (2005, DVD) DVD copy of the concert, please read the review of the CD for songs and other commentary. As far as the video footage, the quality is great, but suffers from the shifty camera syndrome. The camera switches about once every second or so, and the eye isn't seeing anything long enough to take anything in. And during areas where you definitely want a singular focus (like a guitar solo), the camera is all over the place. Certainly if you're a musician and hope to see a few guitar fingerings or drum fills, you'll be out of luck, in general you see more shots of the crowd and random face shots of the band than actual instruments. Like the anthrax DVD, it may be better to get this DVD than the live CD, because at least you get to see the reformed band instead of just hear them, on the other hand, a live cd can be nicer because you can have that on more easily as background music. The interviews at the end is actually quite good, they talk to each member of the band and talk about the past present and future, and at 10min, it's just the right length.
• The Formation Of Damnation (2008) A very impressive album, although it doesn't quite reach the classic level of many of their previous albums. But don't take this as sounding too negative, this IS a really good album and I want to make sure that's very clear. Lots of slow stuff, lots of fast stuff, double kicks and groove, a good mix of death metal Chuck and singing Chuck. Alex Skolnick does his soloing thing, it's nice hearing his solo style with Testament again, they're just so distinctive. But as with anything, it all comes down to the songs. While there's certainly no filler material on this album, there really needs to be a few more "holy shit" songs for this to reach the level of "Low", "The Gathering" or "Practice What Your Preach". There are a few spots, I really love the fill before the verse riff in 'Afterlife'. I really like the songs 'The Evil Has Landed' and 'The Formation Of Damnation', although that's more because they're just a solid songs, not that they have any specific standout spot. This album is all cake, a little extra icing would have been nice, but I'll settle for the cake.
• Dark Roots Of Earth (2012) While their last album was lauded pretty much universally as an instant classic, it just never reached that point with me. It's a good album, but I think "The Gathering" was far superior. Well this album IMO is much better than their last. Overall, I just feel the songs are a lot stronger. There are still a few songs that seem a touch derivative (like the beginning riff to 'Man Kills Mankind' is almost identical to the beginning of 'Seven Days Of May'). But these songs are performed with such conviction and power that I really don't care about the slight lack of originality. And then there's a bunch of songs with really cool new sounding riffs, like the bass driven intro to 'A Day In the Death', or the great time signature shifts of the ballad 'Cold Embrace'. Songs like 'Rise Up' have obviously been written specifically for their live shows, as the chorus is tailor made for a crowd participation. There's also an excellent mix of fast and slower material, always keeping things interesting. And again, a special note to the Skolnick solos, they're really well written and integrated with the songs, with plenty of nods to past solos and several solos that tread very new ground. Great album, get your copy ASAP.
• Brotherhood Of The Snake (2016) Another good album, but doesn't elevate to greatness. The songs are all solid, but many of them remind me too much of the band's previous material. Like the riff at 2:45 of 'The Pale King' is almost identical to the main riff of 'Legions Of The Dead' from "The Gathering". Or the verse riff from 'The Numbers Game' sounds just like 'Apocalyptic City'. The album does have some high points though, first off, the drumming of Gene Hoglan is really unleashed on this record, lots of blast beats and unique doubebass riffs that only Gene would think of and only Gene can execute gives the album a freshness form the drum perspective. And despite the references to old songs, "The Numbers Game" probably my favorite song, with a really fast and furious beginning and ending. Very few quite songs on this release, they remain distorted and heavy pretty much all the way through. Anyways, a decent album worth looking into, but I don't think it'll join some of its brothers as a classic.
• Titans Of Creation (2020) One of the best albums from the band in recent years. The goodness starts right with track 1 'Children Of The Next Level', which shares the same chord progression as "The Gathering"'s 'Three Days In Darkness', but takes the slower swaying time signature and converts it into a powerful gallup, with nice tight guitar work and great groove from Gene Hoglan on drums. Then it goes double time just to keep the energy up. This is quickly followed up by 'WWIII' which is another fast one with nice doublebass work, and a super moshable verse riff. Another favorite is 'Code Of Hammurabi', which has a really catchy chrosu. In general, the whole album is much faster than previous efforts, while still having good groove in spots, and lots of good thrashing bits. This album does a great job of combining many of the best elements from "The Gathering", "Low", and the bands first couple of albums. And it's pretty consistent, the two slower songs 'Dream Deceiver' and 'City Of Angels' aren't my favorite, but otherwise, all the other songs are all super solid. Forget the last 3, this is modern testament at their finest.
  

• Polars (2004) In general I'm not a fan of bands that are way to similar to other bands, I mean, we all have influences, but I've always felt you should try and blend your influences together to come up with something totally new. I can not call what Textures is doing new, and yet, this is just a great, great cd (This ain't no cheap knock off folks). Lets run down the list, we have Meshuggah influence (heavily), the off beat stop start rhythms, the super chunky guitar tone, fantastic production, and some of the thrashier parts remind me of "Contradictions Collapse". The vocals thankfully aren't identical to Jens Kidman, instead this guy's voice is higher and more akin to say the vocalist in Martyr. There's also some sung / choral parts that are very similar to the stuff Devin Townsend does on his solo records. Then you have really spacy guitar stuff (solos and clean rhythms) similar to Fred Thordendal's (Meshuggah's guitarist) solo album. So anyways, this certainly isn't original, and yet, I find myself putting this into my cd player again and again. Maybe it's that Meshuggah are now for the most part relying more heavily on repeated rhythms rather than writing slightly more traditional song structures, whereas this band is a little closer to the "Destroy Erase Improve" days of super memorable songs that are complex and yet follow a more traditional pattern. Also they are very good at effortlessly flowing between soft spacy keyboard stuff and the harsher angrier bits, possibly because they have a dedicated keyboard player (the last tracks on the album are primarily 10 min long keyboard soundscapes, whereas the other songs have a better balance between the angry and soft). Maybe it's just that I miss the old Meshuggah and so when this band harkens back to that style and yet manages to stay fresh somehow, I can't help myself. Anyways, whatever it is, this is a fantastic cd, and any meshuggah fan should pick this up immediately.
• Drawing Circles (2006) The follow-up to "Polars" (a cd of so much promise), "Drawing Circles" ends up kinda flat. A lack of energy would be the best description. Not as much screaming, way more singing, all the songs are pretty mid paced. Did I mention there was singing? And not cool, super ballsy singing like Devin Townsend, but I mean like nu-metal band flavor of the month type singing. The new vocalist's voice is just too generic, their last vocalist had this raspy high pitched voice that helped the band sound distinct. This guy really sounds like all the other guys. I see this cd as similar to Satariel's newest album "Hydra", everything is slower, more generic, less complex, just lackluster in general. There are a few good bits here and there, but overall, just nothing to get exciting about. I hope the band gets fast and thrashy again in the future. A special version of the album comes with an extra DVD that has a 10 minute documentary, a few short interviews, a lot of people running around, nothing too deep really, a lot of "we used to record in this studio, now we record in this studio" type of stuff.
• Silhouettes (2008) A vast improvement over their last album. While the singing is still there, the songs tend to have way more energy, which was probably my biggest problem with "Drawing Circles". Still not as thrashy as their debut, but this one got my head banging instead of my mouth yawning. As far as the riffs go, they still sound very much like a Meshuggah clone, so the originality isn't really there, but they're decent enough to keep my interest. All the usual elements are here, the spacy keyboards, some choral vocals, nice thick production. Overall this album won't be the most awesome thing you've ever heard, but it's decent, and well worth checking out. I can see myself listening to it again over the next few weeks, but whether it will have any long term staying power, that I can't say.
  

• Submissive (1996, Demo)
• Third Eye Function (1997) The band that keeps popping into my mind is Meshuggah. Some of the riffs on this CD sound like specific Meshuggah riffs. Theory In Practice however seem to have taken the next logical step. Not only do they have weird time signatures, but many of them don't last longer than a bar. While making it hard to mosh to, it does make for some interesting listening. The sound is huge and tight, very technical, straight ahead death metal vocals, lots of keyboards and strange interludes with spanish guitars. The guitar solos, as well as several interludes remind me of Yngwie. Although they heavily borrow from some of their influences, after prolonged exposure to this album, I really like it.
• The Armageddon Theories (1999) A more focused CD this time. Although all the elements from the last CD are still there, it finally sounds like the band is doing their own thing and not just grabbing stuff from other bands. This particular CD is almost closer to black metal than death metal, with a high pitched raspy voice, and huge reverb laden guitar tone (and plenty of epic keyboards). However, if you listen, instead of simplistic tremolo picking, the band is playing complex rhythms in very odd time signatures, sometimes low and chunky, sometimes a cascade of perfectly picked high end notes. This wall of sound almost sounds a little like the new Cryptopsy album, but not as riff oriented, much more chaotic with melodies, rhythms, and speedy double kicks creating this crazy torrent of noise (but if you listen close, there is definite structure to that noise, which makes the music interesting on many levels). Solos are still crazy and yngwie sounding, but work with the music a little better instead of just being on top of the music. The other neat thing is even though the melodies are so chaotic, somehow distinct songs and themes seem to show through. This is certainly not a CD that can be digested in one listen, since there's so much for the ear to hear. Other bands have tried similar stuff but ended up sounding like they were showing off or sounding like they were a complete mess, these guys are definitely doing something right, and real music has emerged from these mess of notes. Cool.
• Colonizing The Sun (2002) This will actually be a very short review, since this album is basically Armageddon Theories part 2, same style, same sound, etc. The songs are a little less frantic than last time, the music is given a chance to breath a bit more with some slightly simpler song structures, but overall it still gets really nuts in a lot of areas with cascading notes and crazy time signatures. The songs of course are great, lots of memorable riffs. If you enjoyed the last album, here's some more for you to digest.
• Evolving Transhumanism (2015, Single) After a 13 year hiatus, the band is back, and haven't missed a step. A short 2 song EP to hail the return, both of these songs sound pretty much identical to the material from their last 2 full length albums. Crazy neoclassical solos, almost black level blasting, raspy yells, symphonic elements, all the stuff you love. Theory In Practice is back!
• Crescendo Dezign (2017, EP) After a single 2 years ago that was very similar to their previous material, this EP shows a bit of an evolution for the band. Nothing too radical, the songs are just a tad bit slower and easier to digest, and the guitar sound is thicker with a little more emphasis on the lower notes. It's good, but I kind of prefer some of the more chaotic bits from their previous efforts. Will be interested to see what they do for their new full length, which I assume must be in the works. Glad to see these guys back.
  

• Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth (1991) Similar to their later album, but with slightly inferior production. The mix is about the same, but the band feels further from the microphone. Otherwise you pretty much know what to expect. Super slow songs, ridiculously low vocals (with a few spoken word sections), a total of 4 tracks, 3 of which are 8 min each, and one 2 min closing song. Perfect for those times when you've lost all hope.
• Stream from the Heavens (1994) Sometime after all the crazy speed, you just need something that's 100% the opposite, and Thergothon delivers like no other. 200, 300, 400 beats per minute? Nah, lets try 20, 30 or 40 beats per minute. Lets just see how slow we can play without the drummer becoming totally lost! Waves of heavily distorted guitars, super low gargly vocals, and a few synth / sung passages all help lull the listener into a complete state of despair. It's so slow in fact it's almost comical, but laughter would be inappropriate for such music. What can I say, it makes for awesome background music when you need to unwind from all that brutal craziness, but you don't want to go ambient, you still need that fix of heavy distortion. I can highly recommend getting a copy of this cd, you may not listen to it on a regular basis, but I can promise you I'll be pulling this album out every once in awhile when I need to unwind. The epitome of Doom metal.
  

• The Mundane Corruption (2008) The way They:Swarm (formerly Whorecore) was described to me was "If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was a new Aborted CD." And that description is completely accurate. This short 4 song EP (with 1 intro) clocks in at just 14 min, but they get a lot done in that short period. Lots of low gurgled vocals, doublebass, low guitars and brutal riffs. And these are GOOD riffs, almost up there with any of the new Aborted material. The production quality and mix is excellent as well. I gotta give them a zero for originality, but if you like Aborted, here's they're long lost brothers. Well worth the cash.

• Vein I: Varying States of Decay (2013) 6 song album, Thira would have to be classified as a djent/deathcore band, but they are so much more. The first song 'Good Morning My Name Is John' is particularly amazing, with a super low gurgly riff, pick scrapes and squawks. Vocals are midranged growls/screams for the most part, and then spooky sounding soft sung bits. The band also incorporates some electronics into their sound with voice distortion / processing, synth, all sorts of extras to provide auditory spice to the mix. I really like how these guys juxtapose the thick heavy detuned guitar riffs with their more spacy experimental stuff, reminds me of Fear Factory but without sounding anything like them. Or possibly of the first Chimaira album. Fans of djent and industrial take note, this is a pretty awesome album.
  

• Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects: Sol Niger Within (1997) A completely mesmerizing album from beginning to end, Fredrik, lead guitarist for Meshuggah, gives us 45 minutes of psychedelic metallic insanity. The album is one long song that twists and turns through 29 separate sections, each one filled with great guitar soloing, strange time signatures, brutal riffs, and eerie keyboards. Vocals consist of spoken word segments, as well as this totally scary voice that sounds sort of like the sound your nails make when running down a chalk board. This is about as close as you can get to diving into someone else's subconscious, or someone else's dreams, where riffs melt into each other, key signatures mean nothing, and the music never quite goes in the direction you expect it to. Buy this album.
• Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects: Sol Niger Within Version 3.33 (1999) A reissue of Fred's solo masterpiece. The sound has been changed a bit, no more organ parts, some songs are a bit longer, with parts added, parts removed. The songs are now separate on the CD (instead of one long track like the first one), and there are two bonus tracks, one excellent 10 minute piece called "Missing Time" (which is in the same vein as the rest of the CD), and then one quick instrumental track that sound much heavier, much closer to a Meshuggah release. My person opinion is that the bonus tracks are worth the price, but you'll have to decide for yourself if you want to pay again for essentially the same CD. If you didn't buy the first copy, then you have no excuse not to buy this one.

• An Awakening (2009) A death-core band sorta similar to White Chapel, The Red Chord, The Red Shore or Man Must Die (Maybe even a little Braindrill thrown in now and again, especially during the sweep picking parts). I was immediately drawn in by the opening track of the album 'Awaken', which has some memorable riffs, some excellent gravity blasts, and some thick moshable bits. The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some other great songs, but there are also some songs that are just too rockin' for my taste. Like the end to 'Through His Eyes' is just kinda lame, it's like they're trying to be melodic, and it just doesn't work, they should stick with the brutality. Or another example is the instrumental track 'Still Breathing', that is more like a jam session overtop of a repeated riff than a full fledged song, and the riff isn't inventive enough to keep your attention for 8 minutes, trust me. Vocals are for the most part midrange shouts and growls, with a few more high pitched black metally parts thrown in. Guitarwise, pretty much everything including the kitchen sink, from palm muted stuff, squawks, tremolo picking, sweep picking, they use every trick in the bag. The death-core influence is mostly seen at the end with a few breakdowns, but there's no enough of them to be really annoying (assuming you're not a fan of breakdowns). Overall, a decent CD, worth checking out, certainly brutal, but perhaps a bit more focus would help the band, as they jump between styles a bit too much for my personal taste. But impressive none the less.
• Antichrist (2012, EP) 3 song EP, this album comes off a little more like Origin, especially the opening riff of the first song. So imagine Origin, but with some slower grindy parts. All 3 strong are fast, brutal and strong, the sound quality isn't quite as good as on their album, this is a little more raw and in your face. Overall, this EP is definitely worth grabbing.
  

• Bloodlust (2005)
  
• Malice (2007) Nice, precise death metal with excellent production and lots of bite. Very similar in style to someone like Behemoth or Bloodbath, with lots of fast but controlled blasting, doublebass and chugging guitars with the occasional harmonized scale. Vocals are pretty low, but growled, not gurgled. The sound on this album is fantastic, thanks to Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal fame producing. If I had one complaint it's that while the songs are generally good and the performance is excellent, the group doesn't have any one particular trait that distinguishes them from anyone else. The songs are all enjoyable, but no one particular section grabs me by the face and says "Listen to me, God Damn It!!" Good material, it's just needs a little bit of extra flavor.
• Skepsis (2010) While I enjoyed their last album, this album just seems a little stale. There's a point in every song where I seem to say "Didn't I just hear this riff last song?" There's just not enough variety here, and a complete lack of individual hooks or memorable riffs. Apparently most of the band left after their last album, so the band has a lot of new members, which is probably the issue. The song are still well performed, with lots of fast double bass, and super angry vocals (although the new vocalist overuses the higher pitched vocals which are too common these days with Black Dahlia and Job For A Cowboy.) Also, a few too many deathcore like breakdowns, their last album was more death metal with a few deathcore bits, this is more deathcore with a few death metal bits. It's decent, but personally I have to label this as a miss.
  

• Infinite Death (2009, EP) Deathcore has invaded Australia, and Thy Art Is Murder is ready to stake their claim. All the usual deathcore staples are here, the screamed and low vocals, the breakdowns with a single start-stop low note being played on guitar, the de-de-dee twin guitar scales, and of course, once a riff is played, it's never repeated ever. While there's really nothing here to make the band stand out from any other deathcore band, the music is well performed, well produced, and many of the riffs are good. Also the drummer is especially fast and loud, a really nice bass drum sound. This is really showcased on the EP's title track, which is definitely the best song on the album. Another good attribute of the album is it's short. I know that sounds like an insult, but really what I mean is with only 15 minutes of music, you have at least a chance of the songs sinking in, it's damn near impossible when you have 45 minutes of similar music. Sometimes I feel like all deathcore needs is an editor to come in and take the good riffs, remove the band ones, and have the band repeat the good riffs a few times to make coherent songs. Anyways, a decent EP, deathcore fans should like it, others beware.
• The Adversary (2010) This is deathcore done right. Personally I have nothing against deathcore as a genre, like any musical style, it contains both good music and bad. My main beef with it is that I find one of its more defining features to be rather boring, namely, the breakdown. I am fine with slowing down the music in the middle for a nice chunky riff, bands like Suffocation do it all the time and to great effect. What I find boring is when the riff is just a single note, played over and over again in a slightly off time rhythm. One song, sure, but every song on the album? It just gets dull and repetitive, the latest Impending Doom album being a prime example. So while this album does contains breakdowns, the band manages to introduce enough variation that the cycle of boredom is broken, and the result is 10 songs that are surprisingly catchy and memorable, even after only a single listen. A prime example is the song 'Laceration Penetration' that contains this fantastic machinegun guitar riff that jumps back and forth between your headphones with insane clarity and precision. Or the ridiculously fast doublebass attack that can take any slow riff and turns its sickness up a few notches. Riffs that you remember and want to skip back to hear again. Moving on to other things, the production quality is excellent, basically identical to their EP. Vocalwise, mostly lowish grunts, nothing to write home about really, a little more variation in the grunting would be nice (although please avoid any pig squeals). A few parts of these songs really remind me of the precision and riffing style of Decapitated. Also, be prepared for highly triggered drums, a slightly more natural drum-sound would probably be nicer. Overall, this is one of those few deathcore albums that you should really own, they join a small minority of bands in the genre that are producing great music. Impressive stuff.
• Hate (2012) One word review, "Generic". While always a deathcore band, they had been able to inject enough variety to keep me listening. But they've lost it on this album. So many breakdowns, the same note again and again and again, and droning guitars overtop playing dissonant chords. This album sounds like pretty much everyone else now in the genre, there's just nothing here to differentiate them from say Job For A Cowboy, Whitechapel or any of their ilk. Not sure what happened, but I have to give this one a miss, their first two albums are very cool, but I don't think I'll be listening to this one again.
• Holy War (2015)
• Dear Desolation (2017)
  

• Blind Follower/Point of View (1998)
• Plague (2000) Angry unpolished death metal. Similar in style I'd say to older Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, or Immolation, vocals are midrange for the most part with a few lower and higher parts, a bunch of blasting sections, a lot of slower chunky parts and some good groove. Production is good, but still a little noisy. The songs are all high quality. Overall, I really like this release and their sledge hammer style of music, but I still think a slightly better production would be the icing on the cake. A strong first release.

• Danza 4: The Alpha- the Omega (2012) So I had heard a few clips of this band, and generally wasn't interested. Their music was just too chaotic for my taste, in the same way that I'm not a big fan of say The Dillenger Escape Plan or Ion Dissonance (I can appreciate what they do, and can see why they're popular, but it's just not my thing). But then I heard an instrumental track from this album: 'Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox', which was not only cool, but also reminded me a bit of Gorguts' Obscura album. Then I found out the guitar player on the album is the same guy that's in Glass Cloud, and I really dug their debut album. So, I figured I'd give these guys a shot. After listening to the entire album, my original assessment was correct, generally a little too chaotic for me, but some of their songs are a little more straight forward and those I think are pretty cool. Even the straight forward stuff is pretty experimental, so don't expect easy listening. The connection with Glass Cloud is actually a pretty good one, as the more straight forward Danza material sounds like it could be Glass Cloud if you replaced singers. Not sure if I can recommend the band (and band broke up after this recording BTW), but if you didn't like them on first listen, give them a few more tries, preferably listen to an entire album, and see if it doesn't change your opinion.
  

• Opiate (1992) EP with 4 songs and 2 live tracks. Great sound, great songs, the same quality and style as just about everything else from the band.
• Undertow (1993) A fusion of the best that alternative has to offer with a strong metal edge. Decent production with the bass clear in the mix. Good song writing. By the standard of a lot of the stuff on this page, this music is pretty light, but it's still good music, and there's obviously a lot of aggression here, as well as depression and sadness, so you'll get your injection of dark emotions, don't worry.
• Ænima (1996) Another great album with lots of songs that get stuck in your head and make you loose all hope instantly. The album relies heavily on the bass guitar to create mood and rhythm, while the guitars add texture and random noise before locking in with the rest of the band to create some really razor sharp, tight chugging riffs. Excellent production as usual. The vocals produce a very spacy, depressing feel, mixed with some more aggressive moments. This music is so good I can't believe that it's popular. :)
• Salival (2000, Live & DVD) A two disc set, one DVD and one CD. The DVD has 4 music videos on it, Tool has always had the coolest videos, stop motion animation twisted in a way you just don't see in Disney films. I wish they'd included some live tracks on the DVD, and the menu system is very non intuitive, but the content that is there is good. The Live CD has several live songs, some live covers, and a few intros. The live performance is great, the very best being a modified rendition of 'Pushit' that goes on for well over 10 minutes, and is probably one of the most intense and emotional song the band has ever written / performed. Overall, well worth the cash.
• Lateralus (2001) Over 5 years since the last CD, and expectations are high. Overall, it's a worthy tool album. The first single 'Schism' is good, but a little untool like (unsettling, but more spooky then dark). The leading track 'The Grudge' is probably one of the best, a little digital delay and some great tribal style drumming, as well as the usual thicker guitar tone. Track 3 is probably one of the worst on the album, just because the vocal melody is too similar from parts of 'Pushit', and so sounds like a rehash. But later tracks continue to be new and fresh, including the more upbeat 'Parabola' and the angry and double kick laden 'Ticks And Leeches'. Many of the songs are actually just intros, so the album is actually not as long as you might expect, although most of the non-intro songs tend to be in the 7-10 minute range. As with their previous albums, I think you just listen to it all the way through, say globally it's good, then months later you start really being able to pick out all the specific parts that are the best, which is cool, gotta love an album that's still interesting months after you first hear it. As a friend said, it has more layers than an onion.
• 10,000 Days (2006) After another 5 year hiatus (but Tool was never known for their fast release schedule), the result is a mixed bag of music. It seems best to do a blow by blow on this album, so here goes. The first 2 tracks are great, definitely the strongest on the album. They have a little of everything, they're heavy, they have groove, they have lighter bits, they're epic in length and complex in structure. If you liked "Lateralus" you'll love this stuff. Next comes a 2 part song, about 17 minutes, which starts off quiet, and builds, but never quite gets to its destination. It tries to be what the song 'Pushit' was. Both songs start quiet, get bigger and bigger until it suddenly explodes. The difference is when 'Pushit' reaches it's climax you go "Awesome!" When these songs climax, it's like "this needs to be more intense". The next track 'The Pot' starts off with an odd acapella vocal bit, but it's so odd it's actually pretty cool. The rest of the song is a little repetitive in spots, but it's heavier thankfully and has a nice hook in the middle of the song. I'd say it's the 3rd best song on the album. After a short interlude we get to the song 'Lost Keys' which is a really quiet song with the same chord played again and again and again, and honestly doesn't do much for me. 'Rosetta Stoned' is louder and angrier, but the main riff just didn't wow me (maybe it's because it goes on without too much variation for 11 min or so). 'Intension' is another 7 min song that's quiet, and basically the same riff repeated again and again. And at this point, I start to see what my issue is with the album. Tool has always been a band to start a riff, then build ontop of the riff with variations, more instruments, etc. But for some reason a few of these songs just have too much repetition without enough variation. It's like the band wrote some great song structures but didn't add enough frills. That can work if the songs are 3 min long, but for it to work in a 7min long song, you need those frills to keep things interesting. The last "song" is 5 minutes of ambient noises. The album does grown on you, the first listen didn't grab me right away, but slowly it got better and better. Even so, I really feel like the band wrote about half an album, and expanded that to fill out the rest. Still worth getting for the first 2 tracks alone (and for the really interesting packaging that contains 3d stereograms and glasses), but I had hoped for something a little more.
• Fear Inoculum (2019) After what, 200-300 years? We finally have a new Tool album. So, was the wait worth it? It's a good album, but it has a few flaws. First, I feel the intensity of the album isn't in the same space as many of their previous work. The band has always had a lot of mood in their music, but this album seems to be all mood without much in the way of aggression. The music retains the usual combination of complex passages, epic length (most songs are 10 min +), but not as many fast bits or yells or huge guitars smashing you over the head. The songs are more haunting, more calm and serene, more spooky. The 2nd issue is I find the songs not to be quite as memorable as earlier material. All the songs are high quality, but after multiple listens, I have trouble humming any particular tune or melody. This is not a bad album in any respect, it just doesn't seem to have the energy of previous albums. And hearing all of the drama that led to this album, I'm not totally surprised it's well crafted but a little sterile. Worth checking out for sure.

• Erotic Diarrhea Fantasy (2004) Wow, band names are just getting more and more bizarre, eh? This two person band falls squarely into the Disgorge / Decrepit Birth category of fast riffs, low gurgly sound and superfast drums. A drum machine in this case. The vocals are especially low even for Disgorge standards, sounds like the guy may be inhaling instead of exhaling (but no voice processing apparently). Lots and lots of sound clips, and long clips too, in fact, I'd wager about 10 minutes of the album is sound clip instead of music. I won't even get into the song titles or lyrics (but 'Raped By Elephants' should give you some indication). This is definitely a band of extremes, what's the worst song titles anyone's come up with? Ok, lets be worse. What's the nastiest situation we can discuss? Ok, lets find something sicker. What are the lowest vocals we've ever heard? Ok, lets get lower. Unfortunately, they spent so much time trying to outdo everybody else, they didn't spend as much time on the riffs as they could have, and memorable riffs are one of the main reasons to write music, right? The material isn't bad, and the nice production is an added bonus, but with the mechanical drums and riffs we've all heard before, there's really not enough here to keep me satisfied. Fun and yet unfulfilling.

• Ocean Machine - Biomech (1997) Devin Townsend is back, this time with a more relaxed record (well, relaxed in comparison to the new Strapping Young Lad). The album proves the depth to Devin's songwriting skills, and the depth to his emotional states. While SYL represented pure and unbridled anger, Ocean Machine is far more mellow, sad, almost depressing at points. The guitar sound is huge, with dozens of guitars and keyboards layered on top of one another. The songs are more melodic, "80's music done right" as a friend put it. What can I say, Devin knows how to write great music, musically and emotionally. Very worth the money.
• Infinity (1998) This just goes to prove, Devin really is insane. First he hit us with the ultraviolence of Strapping Young Lad, then he made us totally depressed with his mournful Ocean Machine, and now we have the missing link between the two. And what a variety. First we have the crazy and wacky evil songs such as the Death Metal Swing tune 'Bad Devil', or the crazy guitar antics of 'Ants'. Then you have these epic film score pieces such as 'Truth' or 'Dynamics', you can just see Devin running to the top of a giant mountain with his delay pedal and screaming to the heavens. John Williams couldn't do better. With all this variety, you'd think you're listening to Steve Vai, except without the guitar heroics. Sound wise, the usual Devin stuff, he knows how to write a great riff and back it up with a thunderous cacophony of noise and echo that is messy and tight at the same time. Order and chaos combined, the white that balances the blue and the red of his other two bands. So, what the verdict? Devin is a musical genius, and I love him dearly, and I will be listening to this album until the day I die.
• Christeen (1998, EP) The songs 'Christeen' and 'Colonial Boy' from the Infinity CD, and 'Night' from Devin's Ocean Machine project. If you already have Ocean Machine and Infinity, not much reason to own this unless you're a collector.
• Christeen + 4 Demos (1998, EP) 5 songs, starting with 'Christeen', and then 4 demos that should have made the Infinity CD. As far as demos go, these are difficult to distinguish from finished pieces of work, which is good. 'Om' is another one of Devin's epic songs with layer upon layer of vocal harmonies and guitar reverb. A distinctly Asian sounding sunshine song is next called 'Sit In The Mountain'. The last two songs, 'Processional' and 'Love-Load' are more experiments in sound and sound processing than cohesive songs, still good though. If you liked Infinity, get this EP right now.
• Official Bootleg (2000) Live the way it should be done, with no overdubs, just the musicians and the microphone. Oh ya, and a large marshall. A dozen songs off of Infinity and Ocean Machine, and two SYL tracks (all from a live show in Japan) show devin in the stadium setting with lots of keyboards and big guitars, then 4 tracks all acoustic from a show in Vancouver, just devin, his guitar and his voice. Lots of interesting stuff here, some good performance parts. We were warned though there were a few mistakes here and there, and that would have to be Devin missing a bunch of notes in the singing parts (i.e., off key). D'oh! Many songs are done perfectly though, so don't fret too much. The guitar parts are right on the money, the drumming excellent, and fine production for a bootleg (probably from the house microphones), I do think though some reverb to the vocals, as well as reducing them in the mix a bit to match the level of the other instruments might have been a good idea. Raw and unpolished, this cd is very limited, so order yours today (if you still can)!
• Physicist (2000) Another offering from Devin's perverse mind. And perverse it is. He starts off with song structures reminiscent of big musicals, a theme to a sitcom on TV, an old scifi film like E.T., and then performs them using his usual onslaught of layered guitars, as well as some very inventive and fast doublekick work from our good friend Gene Hoglan. Imagine any musical on broadway, but twisted into an angry mess through distortion and blastbeats. His description of diet-SYL seems apt, since the feel is definitely Strapping, but not quite as angry and with vocal textures more similar to his work on infinity. So, does it all work? Yes. Even though some of the songs get a little silly with their Jesus Christ Superstar overtones (especially track 9, but devin admits that's probably his least favorite track on the album, so I'm reassured), other songs are masterpieces of sonic brutality, others achieve a proper zen like moment of perfect beauty and clarity. As he says in the interview available as part of the CD-ROM portion of the album, this album is not really a step forward like his other albums, but a step sideways. Devin seems destined to never release the same album twice, and no matter what direction he heads in, there's always the familiar sound that he manages to achieve in all his music that'll keep fans coming back for more.
• Ass-Sordid Demos 1990-1996 (2000) As the name states, 10 demos and extra tracks. As Devin states in the liner notes that come with this mailorder only cd "listening to demos can be like picking through turds, but turds can be cool though." Meaning, some really great music on this cd, and a few songs that don't quite cut it (or that are really just for fun). Nothing is terribly polished or perfected, just some raw ideas from Devin's brain before they got the final treatment needed to place them on an official album. Again, like the stuff off "Christeen + 4 Demos", demo means simpler arrangements that need many more layers of vocals and keyboards and such before they're ready for primetime, it does not mean bad sound quality, Devin seems to be able to get as great a sound on a demo as he does in the studio. Several songs are off his original Noisescapes demo, a studio copy of L.A., and other stuff written around the time Devin and Steve Vai were doing the Sex and Religion tour. Well worth checking out if you're a devin fan, probably not the place to start if you've never heard his music before.
• Official Bootleg Video (2000, Video) This is the Live bootleg CD, but in videoform. First comes the japanese show, which is well recorded, single camera but decent for a bootleg. They play a song or two that's not on the CD. Next comes the reason to buy the video, devin does his live acoustic show, just him and his guitar. This includes several new songs, as well as some very amusing banter between songs not on the CD. I don't know, there's always something compelling about a single man performance in a smoky club, you really feel like you're sitting beside that guy with the camcorder, no need to pan across the band every few minutes, there is only one focus, and his name is Devin.
• Terria (2001) After a slightly disappointing last album (disappointing in the sense it wasn't a quantum leap forward like all his other albums were), Devin is again going in a forward direction. This is the brown album, in touch with mother earth, and I can't think of a better way to describe it. Basically, it's the counterpart of ocean machine, same big guitars, thick keyboards, except with a slightly less sad tone and a more serene atmosphere. A perfect moment of beauty you might say. Overall, every song on the album is a masterpiece, they all work together like a narrative, which I suppose can be said of all devin's work, since every album chronicles another slice of his life and experiences. Really, I have no clue what the next step will be, I guess he doesn't know either until he's lived a little more, but in the meantime, I'd say once again, we've just been given the best Devin album yet.
• Terria Digipak (2001, Digipak) Includes the original CD, a bunch of new artwork, 1 bonus track (which I'm sorta glad he left off the album, it was too gospel in my opinion). Also includes video footage from the last tour which I believe is the same footage as off the Official Bootleg Video. Lastly, a whole bunch of audio commentary about the making of terria. That's definitely the most interesting part of the CD. Anyways, for the casual fan, I'd only get this if you didn't buy the original album, otherwise, for diehard fans only (like me).
• Accelerated Evolution (2003) I think the best way to describe this cd is the same description we were given long before the cd came out: shorter, more to the point songs similar in style to 'Life' from Ocean Machine. While a few songs do tend to go a bit longer than anyone's definition of shorter, for the most part these are far more straight forward compositions. Parallels could be drawn to many of Devin's former projects, like Ocean Machine but not quite as sad, like Infinity but without the same level of maniacal happiness, like Terria but not quite as epic. You'd almost expect mixing all these different styles together, you might accidentally end up with something kinda bland, but no, instead you get the best elements from all his past work combined into one of the more brilliant albums I've heard in quite some time (well, at least since "Terria"). The album starts out with a pounding metal tune perfect for a drive through the mountains, followed by a more haunting melody that showcases Devin's more emotional singing. Track 3 is an Infinity style tongue-in-cheek upbeat piece, happy yet strangely twisted. Track 4 is a big thick plodding symphonic kinda thing. Ok, ok, I'll stop the play by play, just believe me when I say as the album progresses you are pulled through states of happiness, joy, sadness, despair, confusion and just about any other emotion I suppose Devin was feeling during the performance of this record. A true masterpiece.
• Accelerated Evolution Special Edition (2003, Digipak) Contains an extra cd with 3 songs off Devin's Techno project called "Eko". Certainly not the usual stuff you'd expect from Devin, But they do share the same quirky sense of musical creativity. Very low key, quiet, understated songs, weird samples, keyboards, a drum machine, and guitars making strange noises (think the last song off of the "Christeen" EP). It's Devin in play mode. If you already have the regular "Accelerated Evolution", I'd only recommend this special edition for hardcore fans, otherwise, you might as well grab this edition, the songs are F-U-N.
• Ass-Sordid Demos II 1991-1992 (2004, Demos) Very early demos from the almighty Devin Townsend. HDR seems more than a little worried that these demos may in some way have a bad effect on Devin's reputation, people mistaking them for current material. In fact, they go as far as to include warning after warning asking us not to put this material on kazza, and "This CD not intended for commercial sale", and "For some current material please write to:". Anyways, maybe they're a little paranoid, maybe I'm not paranoid enough, but personally I'm very happy this material finally got released, I had heard of the Noisescapes demo (that got Steve Vai interested in Devin) as far back as 10 years ago and I'm so happy to finally hear some of it. The first 6 tracks are from 1991, with Devin's band Grey Skies. While there's elements of garage band here, as usual, Devin's demos tend to be better than some big budget studio stuff. It's sort of blues, rock, metal, lounge somethin. I can totally see what Steve liked in this guy, not only is the guitarwork crazy (Devin's definitely got solo chops, his sweep picking and tapping are especially good), but he's also pretty wacky. The Soundscapes stuff (4 tracks from 1992) is far more serious, at least it starts that way, hints of SYL, Ocean Machine and any number of other later songs. Then 4 more random songs from various projects, including one really great song called Soft that starts off like 'Things Beyond Things', but eventually builds into an entirely new song, really beautiful stuff. Anyways, plenty of good material here, maybe not the best way to be introduced to Devin, but for a fan who already knows his stuff, there's plenty of gems here to get excited about.
• Devlab (2004) An experimental cd that will not be for everybody. Well over an hour, 15 songs of what best could be described as electronic noise. You know these weird interludes that devin does between songs on say Physicist, Terria or the last track on the Christeen EP? Well, here's a whole album of them. Plenty of neat ambient sounds, keyboards, looped delay / distortion, and a rare beat to keep the ear entertained. 90% of the material is quiet stuff, only a few spots do things get really noisy and loud. I'd highly recommend having this cd playing in the background while you're doing work, in that context the album is actually really cool, but I can't really recommend sitting down and doing nothing else but listen to this cd.
• Sychestra (2006, Digipak) As close to Infinity as Devin's come since. What I mean by that is where "Accelerated Evolution" was for the most part a pretty consistent album without too much variation and catchy songs, the songs on "Synchestra" have far more variety, from soft acoustic numbers to big devin guitar orchestral pieces to wacky experiments. The album starts acoustic, and quickly builds into one of Devin's army of guitar pieces that could totally be taken from "Terria". Track 3, 'Triumph' is the first official song after 2 intro pieces, and includes a solo by guitar-meister Steve Vai,  its fast in parts but not so fast as to take away from the orchestration, it's really well integrated into the piece, sort of reminiscent of Vai's song 'Rescue Me Or Bury Me". Then things start to get odder, with songs like 'Vampolka' and it's counterpart 'Vampira', which is strange and odd in the same way 'Bad Devil' and 'Ants' from "Infinity" is. Then things get back to more known territory with 'Gaia' which is probably the most straight forward radio friendly song off the album. Followed by a thunderous song called 'Pixillate', which is super heavy and just this side of being a Strapping Young Lad type of song. The album continues with several soundscape type songs which have tons of mood, but nothing easily identifiable as a standard song structure to them, then ends with 'Notes From Africa', which is a pretty straight forward song, but long. All in all, this album has longer and more complex songs than "Accelerated Evolution", it's mostly a cross between "Terria" (for the long songs and non standard structure) and "Infinity" (for the wackiness and variety). This album gets a good solid spot somewhere in the middle of the Devin Townsend catalog, some of the songs are a bit too odd for me and will probably be skipped in future listens, but there's some really awesome material here that will keep fans plenty happy, especially the beginning of the album. The Digipak comes with a DVD called "Safe Zone" which shows the band perform older material for an hour in a studio setting. The track listing is as follows: 'Truth', 'Regulator', 'Storm', 'Earth Day', 'Life', 'Dead Head', 'Away / Deep Peace', and 'Slow Me Down'. First off, the sound quality is of course awesome, and there's plenty of cameras on the band, but the whole concert has these fractally effects going on, which obscure the performers. I'm sorry, but for me a concert is about seeing the people, not about "cool" effects, and it interferes with the performance. After about 2 songs, like noise in a crowded room, you're able to ignore the effects, so not all is lost. And thank goodness they can be ignored, because this DVD is one of the very best concerts I've seen in quite some time. The band improvises actually a great deal in the songs, nothing super major, just extra drum fills here, extra guitar parts, etc, but it makes the songs feel fresh as opposed to just copying verbatim what's on the albums. Devin's voice is in prime form, and in the middle of 'Away' Devin goes crazy in the guitar solo, playing super super fast tapping, then sweep picking scales, anyone who didn't realize Devin has a shredder side to him, well, this will show you otherwise. After an extended solo, the band moves into the ending to 'Deep Peace'. That combined track, while long, that track is just spectacular to watch, my second favorite track being their rendition of 'Life'. Anyways, there are few concert DVDs that you ever want to go back to again and again, but this will be one of them, so if there was any question in your brain, let that question be answered and spend the extra cash for the Digipak version.
• The Hummer (2007) Not really my thing. This CD is ambient, I mean really ambient. Like one song is 15 minutes of a low hum that changes pitch every few minutes slightly. One song has some quiet dialog with odd noises underneath. A couple of times, my office mate asked me if I'd turned the cd off, because they couldn't hear anything. You know that music they tend to play at massage parlors? Well, this is even more low key. I can't say I wasn't warned, but this CD is the height of minimalism, so if you love SYL or Devin's other music, expect nothing like you've ever heard before. If you're into very quiet, peaceful, serene ambiance, check this out.
• Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007) Right before Devin takes an extended hiatus from making music to focus on producing, he gives us "Ziltoid!", a humorous tale that's based on a puppet show he wrote as a kid. The plot: a creature named ziltoid visits our universe, and demands the ultimate cup of coffee. He's disappointed with the results, and so he attacks the earth, the earth attacks back, you get the picture. While the humans may be unable to produce the best blend of coffee, Devin manages to produce a good blend of all his previous projects. You get elements of Strapping Young Lad (like 'Planet Smasher', which brings me back to 'Cod Metal King' off the first SYL), Ocean Machine (like in the pulsing rocker 'Hyperdrive'), bits that sound like Infinity, pretty much if you love Devin, there's plenty of good stuff here. The story is highly tongue in cheek (can a serious story be created that centers around coffee?), so if you're expecting some amazingly deep concept album, sorry this ain't it. But there are a number of great songs here, like the previously mentioned 'Hyperdrive', I'm also partial to 'The Greys' and 'Solar Winds'. The cd is a mix of instrumentals, sung vocals, and character dialog performed by Devin, to keep the story going. Everything on the album is Devin, all guitars, bass, vocals, and the "the drumkit from hell" drum machine was used for the drumming, which still isn't as good as a real drummer, but if you have to go drum machine, this is the one to use. "Ziltoid" may not be the best Devin album ever, but it has some good tunes, and it's a fun listen. Can't wait for him to return to the creative fold after his break. We'll miss ya, come back soon!
• Ki (2009) Devin warned us this CD would be light, but I had no idea, this is light even for Devin. Not quite as quiet as "The Hummer", but it definitely falls in the light rock category, it sometimes even goes off in a jazz direction. Almost all clean guitars with very little distortion, and a distinct lack of the big symphonic layering that Devin is known for, what we have here is pretty much a stripped down drum kit, a bass and guitar (and vocals of course), and every once in awhile some quiet keyboards. A few songs do crescendo into something bigger and heavier, like 'Disruptr' and 'Heaven Send', building slowly into a few yells and a big sound. But for the most part this album is very relaxed and calm. Multiple listens will certainly improve your view of the CD, there's a lot of great songs and great riffs. But it's a bit hard to review this in terms of a metal webzine, since metal it ain't. I'll be very interested to see how this CD fits in with the other 3 in the series, as this is just the beginning of a project that will evolve over the next few years. But as a standalone CD, all I'll say is I really enjoy it, but if you felt stuff like Ocean Machine wasn't heavy enough, then you may want to stay away.
• Addicted (2009) After a soft opening to his latest project ("Ki"), Addicted brings back the heavy guitars. And heavy is the word, man is this stuff big and ballsy. But don't expect the anger of Strapping, this album has all the heaviness of Strapping, but without the anger. Sure, there's still plenty of shouting and screaming, but it seems to be more about high energy then being pissed off. With this album, Devin wanted something with shorter and more immediate songs. And he's achieved it, this album has all the catchiness of Def Leppard (and vocal harmonies as well), but with the thunderous guitars and drums of most of Devin's solo projects like Ocean Machine. It also includes a lot of female vocals, the female in question being the former singer for the Gathering, Anneke Van Giersbergen. She does an excellent job with the singing, and does almost as many vocals as Devin does during the course of the album. If you love Ocean Machine, but want more uplifting songs, or if you loved "Accelerated Evolution", this album will be your new bible.
• European Tour Live (2011, DigitalEP) 5 live songs from Devin's latest tour, the setlist is 'Supercrush', 'Kingdom', 'Truth', 'Om" and 'By Your Command'. Overall, the mix is excellent. A few small knits, most of the songs seem to be slightly slower than their album counterparts. Also, Devin's banter can be really funny, but there are a few songs where I wish he had just stuck with the lyrics and kept the banter to between songs. And finally, he only plays the first 90 seconds of 'Om', as opposed to the whole song. I would really love to hear him perform the full song live one day, as it's one of my favorites. But despite these small things, this is well worth having, as each song does have a few cool extra bits that make them different from their album counterparts, whether it be an extra drum flourish or a modified keyboard part that gives the song a slightly different character. It's free, so grab it now!
• Deconstruction (2011) So when I heard this 3rd album in the set was the heaviest, I sort of assumed it would be a little like Strapping Young Lad. But I was wrong. This album is basically a big broadway musical number (certainly from a vocal perspective), but twisted with distorted guitars, fast double bass, odd chord progressions, and some of the most complex time signature changes I think I've ever heard. The whole album borders on complete audio chaos sometimes, but Devin's song writing manages to hold it all together (sometimes with a very narrow margin). Think "Ziltoid" but more wacky. My favorite song on the album is 'Sumeria', which has a super memorable main verse riff on the rhythm guitar, very groovy and sticks in your head. I'm also a fan of the two ending tracks 'Deconstruction' (Where Devin deconstructs a cheeseburger, I never thought I'd hear a song about pickles, lettuce and cheese on a sesame seed bun in a metal song) and 'Poltergeist' which has tremendous frantic energy. Lots of choral vocals on this album, the moods and speeds change so swiftly, if you've heard the Steve Vai song 'Pig' (which Devin co-wrote) you'll get some idea of what to expect. Plenty of nods to Devin's favorite chord progressions, and even a few bits from other songs make an appearance, like the ending to 'The Mighty Masturbator' is the same as the ending to the song 'Processional' from the Christeen EP. This album is so thick and complex, it will definitely take a few listens to let things sink in. Not my favorite Devin album, but really fun to listen to.
• Ghost (2011) This is the quiet album completing the 4, and quiet it is. All acoustic, with lots of flute passages (yes, flute), some of the songs almost sound like the sort of stuff you'd listen to while getting a deep-tissue massage. Lots of styles covered here, from country to acoustic rock to quiet keyboard soundscapes. My favorite tracks are 'Heart Baby' which has an unexpected twist in the central riff that I like. 'Feather' and 'Kawaii' are good acoustic rock songs, and 'Monsoon' is one of those spacey soundscapes I mentioned that achieves a high level of calm. Is this metal? Nope, it's not. But it's a fun experiment, massage music with Devin's signature chord progressions, and if you're into quiet stuff as well as blasting, this may be up your alley. Don't think I'll be listening to it all the time, but I'll probably throw it in the mix now and again when I need something relaxing.
• Contain Us (2011) Boxset containing Dev's last 4 albums. The set is really professionally done, with a full color record sized booklet with photos, extensive liner notes, etc. Only knit with the packaging is they didn't include lyrics, even though some of the individual CDs did have lyrics. But I guess yoou can always grab them on the net if you really need them. All 4 albums are present, as well as 2 bonus CDs and 2 bonus DVDs. The first CD is material that didn't make the records, like for example 'Om 2011' which is a remake of the song 'Om' off the "Christeen EP". Don't like this version as much, as the song ends half way through and then repeats the last riff for several minutes. I much prefer the original version and wish Dev would play it live sometime in its entirety. Best songs on this CD are 'Juno' which is a nice solid rocker in the vein of the "Addicted" album, and 'Watch You', which is much quieter and moodier. Also contains a few super long experimental pieces like the 19min 'Traestorz', which is basically a techno experiment not unlike material off "Devlab". The second CD is demos of songs that did make it onto the records, some nice alternate versions, but no must-listens. The DVDs contain several concerts of material. While the Boxset doesn't include anything mindblowing, I really think the package is well done, and give it the thumbs up, celebrate the completion of the Devin Townsend Project in style and pick up this package. And of course, if you haven't picked up these albums yet in another form, this is a must-buy.
• By A Thread (2012, DVDboxset) Devin really is crazy. What normal sane person would decide to record 4 albums pretty much simultaneously, and then perform all 4 albums live back to back? Originally the plan was to go on tour with the show, but in a small showing of sanity, Devin decided to instead do it only once, and record a DVD for the rest of the world to enjoy. It all starts with KI, and after a flubbed first line, the rest of the album goes off pretty much without a hitch. One issue I've always had with Dev live is his screaming is sometimes not as powerful live as it is on the recorded album. But this album, which has far more singing than shouting, showcases a super strong vocal performance from Devin. The emotional parts are emotional, the quiet parts quiet, the loud parts vicious. His band is a revolving door of special guests, everyone pitching in to cover all of the songs. Video wise, everything is clear and crisp, the sound is fantastic, and the camera switching is at a good pace for the material. Only real downside is some of the background and special guest vocals on the album are just played back over the PA as opposed to performed live. I understand it wouldn't be possible to have a full choir on stage, but I really wish Che Aimee Dorval had been able to be there. After each album, Devin plays a few bonus songs, Ki's main bonus song is 'Deep Peace', which overall is really well done, except Devin misplaced a patch towards the beginning. Best song on the album is 'Ki', right at the end when Devin does his operatic vocals, his voice has just so much power, and backed by a building repeating motif that cuts off suddenly, leaving nothing but the echoes of Dev's voice. Fantastic stuff. The second night of the concert is "Addicted", or the "party night" as Devin calls it. Overall, a very energetic and strong performance. My only issue with it is the way Annika's vocals are handled. First off, I'm so glad she was there live for the performance, but for the first 3 songs, her live vocals are just buried under the pre-recorded choral vocals, you can't hear her live performance at all. Thankfully, starting with 'Supercrush' you finally get to hear her singing pretty much solo, and her voice is fantastic. And her vocal mix is much better for the remainder of the show. If there's ever a next time, I'd hope they could turn down the choral vocals in the mix, perfectly matching the recording is not necessary, hearing the live performer is the most important. Also of note is she does a fantastic job on the chorus in the song 'Life', which is one of the encore acts. Night 3 is "Deconstruction", which is by far the most difficult of the albums to play from a purely technical standpoint. And the band does a spectacular job. How they remember all the chord changes, the time changes, and remain so tight is beyond me. But it seems they may have focused a lot of energy practicing these songs, as the most difficult CD is the one that comes off the best. The show has an actual quartet of choral voices this time, and while their contribution is somewhat dulled by the overdubbed recorded vocals, having actual people up there shouting the choral parts certainly helps. Plus, you get to watch them make silly poses while they sing! This show also has a lot of theatrics, I won't spoil all the surprises, but expect a lot of Ziltoid, a host of other muppets, a run for presidency, and a g..., well, you'll see. The craziest song of the bunch, the title track, goes off flawlessly, Devin takes a break from some of the vocal duties on that one so he can concentrate on the stupidly complex solos. Also of special note is the fantastic Dirk on drums, what an insane performance, there's one spot during the middle of the title track where he's just doing these ridiculous blasts that have no followable time signature, but stay in perfect synch with the band. This show ends with 3 songs off Devin's punk album, which are stupidly simple, and a nice break from the complexity of the rest of the show. One video quality note, the quality on this third show is a little low, lots of artifacts, I assume because the light show is so intense it's confusing the decoding algorithm of the DVD compression. A shame they didn't enclode it at a higher quality level. The final disc is pretty much what you'd expect, "Ghost" is such a quiet album, so expect Devin with an acoustic guitar, a flute player and a minimal band performing lots of soulful music. Fantastic sounding vocals throughout, wish again there could have been a choir there to do all of the backing vocals. The CDs of all 4 shows are also nice, but its the visuals that really sell these concerts, so I'm not sure how much listen the CDs will get. I can promise the DVDs will get multiple viewings though. One last note on the DVDs, whomever did the menu system did a really bad job. It's totally non-intuitive, it's slow, lots of clicking and hoping you'll get to the part of the DVD you want to get to. Very badly designed, I'd vote for something simpler and more straight forward next time. This set is a must have for all Devin fanatics, so buy your copy quickly before they run out, I hear the set is selling fast and they won't be producing any more after the initial run.
• Epicloud (2012) More pop'y songs from the Dev. Sorta a cross between "Addicted" and "Infinity". But unlike those two albums, I'm not totally in love with this one. It definitely has some good tunes, the opener 'True North' is super catchy and you'll be humming the opening for days. Also really love the song 'Where We Belong', it has the perfect power ballad formula, and when the big guitars come in, they have some serious impact. But the album has too many songs that just don't work for me, like 'Lucky Animals' is just too silly, and sounds too much like older songs ('Bad Devil' for one). And the new version of 'Kingdom' just doesn't add anything new to the mix, it's even slower than the original, but otherwise very similar. The album is definitely worth buying, but I think I'll be skipping through a few of the songs. There's a special edition that includes a bonus disc of 10 demos called "Epiclouder". For the most part the demos are slower quieter songs in a "Ki" kinda vibe. Nothing super astounding on it, I'd probably just stick with the regular edition.
• Retinal Circus (2013, Live CD/DVD) Well, Devy certainly went all Gwar with this one. The Retinal Circus is an almost 3 hour concert spanning pretty much every album he's ever done (even 'Detox' and 'Love' from SYL), and while the band performs, the songs are acted out by a theater troupe with tons of extras, props, costumes, etc. We have girls dressed as cats, men in monkey suits and masks, aliens, Ziltoid of course, an army, a giant dong, you name it, it's on the stage. Personally, I was never really into the whole theater / circus thing, but I have to admit that the spectacle is pretty much perfect for Devin's music, so I ain't gonna complain. It just means that overall for me the CDs will probably get more listens than the DVDs will get rewatched. On the pluses side, Steve Vai narrates! We hear a lot of music we haven't heard live before, songs like 'War', Anneke does a great job with the intro to 'Soul Driven', 'Color My World' and 'The Greys' get a run through which is fantastic as its my favorite songs from the Ziltoid record (although Ryan flubs the fast double bass part in the middle). We even get an acoustic 'Hyperdrive' (always happy to see radically different interpretations of the same song performed live). From the cons side, really isn't much of one, the concert is pretty amazing. From a video perspective, plenty of cameras, excellent sound of course, the camera viewpoint switches perhaps a tad too fast, but there is arguably a lot to look at. It's pretty much impossible to capture the craziness that's in this set through the written word, so go check out some clips and youtube then go buy it!
• Casualties Of Cool (2014, Double CD) So Devin had warned us this album would be different, but how different could this be? I mean, this is the same man that releases "Deconstruction" and "Ghost" at the same time. Well, when I put the disc in iTunes, it came up as "Country Rock" as the Genre, and, well, that's probably a pretty good description (Think of an entire album of music like 'Trainfire' from "Ki"). I liked Ghost, it was Devin's "Massage Music", but, well, Country and Western, that's just one style of music I don't get. So while it's interesting hearing Devin's melodic structure and chord progressions in a country style, I just don't dig it. Just not my thing (note: there are a couple of songs that are a little less country, like 'The Bridge' that has a more middle eastern thing going on, and 'Pure' which brings back the pan flute, but there are only a few that deviate from the overall sound of the album). I am fully behind Devin experimenting and following his muse, and I will continue to buy his albums because I know he will continue to produce the albums I love. But this particular venture just didn't do anything for me. The Digipack includes a second CD of unused "Ghost" material and bonus tracks, including a couple songs that got released as an internet only "Ghost II" EP. Feel the same way about these songs as the rest of the album (although 'Perspective' is pretty cool). So in conclusion, not my thing, but maybe someone out there will dig this.
• Ziltoid 2: Dark Matters / DTP Sky Blue (2014, Double CD) Wow, we get 3 Devin Townsend albums this year! And probably a good thing, since each is so very different from each other in style, so he's providing a little something for everyone. First the Ziltoid 2 album, it is indeed a worthy follow-up to the first ziltoid CD, however, I still prefer the first. Why? Well, it may seem ridiculous to say, but the first had a much better story. How is that possible? I mean, the first album was all about a green alien that attacked the earth for its coffee? Well, the advantage the first album had was a story, that while silly, at least made sense. This story is all over the place. Ziltoid is now beloved by earth (when did that happen?), then he steals an alien poozer from an alien princess who declares war on earth, and then the planet smasher comes back but this time he's really different, and the ending is just bizarre, and the explanations thin. So not as into it as I was the first. Musicwise, it's pretty decent, Dev metal opera, the usual, although I feel a few more standout songs would have been helpful. Z1 had 'Hyperdrive' and 'Color Your World' that had really great memorable riffs, there isn't as much standout material on this one, everything is solid, but I was hoping for a little more. Now on to the Devin Townsend Project disc, this is where I feel Devin really focused his best work. So many amazing songs with surprising chord progressions, all within the big rock sort of vibe that he presented on "Addicted" or "Epicloud". I love the opening track (and its somewhat asian sounding choral vocals), in fact, I'd say the first 7 songs are super strong, with it petering out towards the end a bit. I especially like 'Warrior' where Anneke's vocals totally remind me of Abba, which makes the song the very first metal Abba I think I've ever heard. A special edition of this album comes with a third disc that's Dark Matters without the Ziltoid talking bits, which is a good thing to grab. Overall, a really strong release, I like the DTP stuff more than Z2, but I think in general this release has a little something for everyone.
• Ziltoid Live At The Royal Albert Hall (2015, Live Blu-ray / DVD / CD) 3 hour long set from England. It all starts off with the Ziltoid 2 album in its entirety. Now to note, I was not a huge fan of this new album, it was ok, but I much preferred the original. But that said, seeing it live gave me a stronger appreciation for the album. Seeing the "show" certainly helped, the stage has these huge 40 foot screens with animation, puppetry, etc showing off the characters and events of the story. This is enhanced further with on stage antics like a giant stuffed poozer, Queen Blattaria the War Princess in real life, and many other characters and craziness, including a flood of Ziltoid hand puppets in the audience. The music is also performed near perfect, the band certainly knows a thing or two about live production. After that, the "by request" set happens, where they play songs requested through their facebook page (although I suspect a few of the songs people did or did not vote for got added or removed from the final set list). Some deep tracks in this group, including a lot of Ocean Machine material. Which is awesome, but that material was 25 years ago, ands Devin's voice has changed a lot in that time, and it shows in a number of spots where he chooses to go for lower notes, especially in 'Night', which is one of my favorite songs, but he avoids many of the high notes in the chorus. The music is all perfect, super heavy, well produced, the keyboard samples work perfectly, but a few vocal flubs keep it from getting a perfect rating. That said, the best material comes right at the end with a performance of 'Funeral', 'Bastard' and 'The Death Of Music', these last 3 are as close to perfect as they can probably come, the last some is especially haunting, I so wish I could have been in the crowd. Then they end everything with 'Universal Flame', which is a great upbeat song to finish the night with its huge choral vocals. The whole crowd participates. Overall, I give this live album a thumbs up, get the picture edition for tons of great photos, and it comes with all of the formats you may ever want to enjoy this concert on.
• Transcendence (2016) Transcendence in some ways is a retrospective of Devin's whole career, with songs that each could have been off of his previous albums. And as such, from a vibe perspective, it has a sort of "best of" quality to it, without sounding stale. The album starts off with a remake of 'Truth' from "Infinity", which is a nice alternate take on the song, but in general I feel it didn't need to be rerecorded, the original is just so perfectly epic and cannot be topped. Next comes 'Stormbending', which is probably my favorite track on the album, it has that thunderous "Terria" wall of sound and guitar tone, it makes me want to hear a whole new album of this sort of material. The songs 'Failure' and 'Higher' have a "Deconstruction" vibe to them, with a slightly heavier feel and a more carnival atmosphere to the music. 'Secret Sciences' sounds a bit more like "Epicloud" with more prominent vocals from Anneke Van Giersbergen. And 'Stars' was a bit of a surprise, Devin several months back did an online stunt where wrote and recorded a song in 2 hours, and you could watch the whole thing live. It was really fascinating to see his process. Well, the song he recorded became this song 'Stars', with some slight changes, so it was cool to see the song actually make it onto an album. The title track stars off with a drum riff right off of "Ocean Machine"'s 'Regulator', but then goes in a totally different direction. 'Offer Your Light' is the one frenetic song on the album, and then 'From The Heart' is super huge and epic, like the ending to "Accelerated Evolution". So again, listening to this album is like a walk down memory lane with Devin's career, and the walk is a great one. The special edition comes with a second disk called "Holding Patterns", 11 demos that didn't make it on the main album. Good material in there, but I understand why they stayed in Demo form. Overall a fantastic addition to Devin library.
• Ocean Machine - Live at the Plovdiv Ancient Theatre (2018, Live CD/DVD) Recorded in Bulgaria for the 20th anniversary of the Ocean Machine record. The show starts with a by request set, which itself is a long concert. The band is backed up with a full orchestra, and a choir, which is frequently an unnecessary indulgence for a band, but consider how symphonic all of Devin's music is, the backup actually just replaces a lot of canned samples and keyboards, so its nice to see it played with a live group. They start with the ever awesome 'Truth', then go into 'Storm Bending' from the latest album. Then they do the original 'Om', not the newly changed version from a few albums back, I'm so happy to see the original version of this song as it's one of my favorites. They then proceed to do a set of songs from pretty much all of Devin's solo albums, including 'Canada' and 'Deep Peace'. For the second part of the set, the stage is cleared of the extra folk and it's a pared down band to do Ocean Machine in its entirety. It's also awesome he got original OM bassist John 'Squid' Harder to do bass for the performance, even though he needs to be in a chair for the performance because he is suffering from advanced MS. Many of the songs in this set have appeared separately on other Devin live albums, but it's still nice to see them all together in a single unified set. Performance wise, the sound is great as usual, Devin flubs a few notes here and there, but it doesn't detract too much from things. The venue looks awesome, would have loved to be there in person. The DVD version is complimented with the entire album on CD as well. Overall a decent live album, with a few surprise songs being performed in the first set, I'd say this is a must buy, even though some of the material has been released before.
• Empath (2019) After dissolving his other band (DTP) and heading out on a new direction (apparently spending $170,000 Canadian dollars in the process with studios in Europe, choirs, orchestras and 3 different drummers), the result is "Empath". And while I can't say the results are too far off from Devin's other material, I do have to laud the quality of this release. The closest album to this is "Deconstruction", with a mix of truly progressive bits, experiments, Hawaiian melodies, disco, some super fast blasting and double bass in parts, and an overall Hollywood musical vibe. This is Devin's "West Side Story", Devin's film soundtrack. After his first 10 years of what I'd call almost perfect albums ("Ocean Machine", "Infinity", "Terria", etc), the last 10 years have been a slightly more mixed bag for me. I've dug Devin's albums, but have always felt maybe half the songs are genius and half are more filler. This one takes a bit to work through, but after multiple listens, the songs all work together in a real magical kind of way, creating a much more consistent album. Sure, there are standout spots like the anthem 'Genesis' (I keep feeling that this song could have been used in an advertisement for the 1990s videogame console), the gospel inspired 'Spirits Will Collide', 'Evermore' whose main riff keeps shifting from the beat to the offbeat, and the multipart 20 minute album closer 'Singularity', but even the in-between songs, the connective tissue between the more standalone material, reveal themselves as vital to the overall album experience. So rather than skipping around, this album more so than his last several really needs to be listened to from beginning to end in one shot. Amazing work, it holds moments from all of Devin's past work, but arranges them into a beautiful cohesive whole. A must buy for Devin fans and those progressive fans who want to explore crazy musical uncharted territory.
• Order Of Magnitude - Empath Live Volume 1 (2020, Live Blu-ray, CD) In general, I think any band can really only have a couple of live CDs before things start becoming a little redundant. And while I love Devin dearly, this album kinda fits that bill. Most of the songs are stuff we've had before on other live albums. Like I love 'Deadhead', but this is now the third live CD it's been on. And 'Kingdom', this is the 4th time it's been on a live album. So while this stuff is well made, well performed and lively, much of this concert is stuff we've seen before. There are some exceptions of course, there is some "Empath" material that has yet to show up live, and 'Genesis' is fantastic. The best song on the album is a stripped down version of 'Spirits Will Collide' that's basically all acoustic instead of with the thunderous electrics of the album version. That's a great way to add variety, a true reinterpretation of the song. Anyways, if you're a Devin completeist, it's a great concert, or if you're a casual listener and don't have the other live album, this is also awesome. But if you have the other live albums, I might recommend buying a copy of 'Genesis' and 'Spirits Will Collide' and check out the all acoustic Devin album coming up in a few months.
• Devolution Series #1 - Acoustically Inclined, Live in Leeds (2021, Live CD) So when I reviewed Devin's last live album, I knocked it for providing little new that his other live albums didn't already provide. Well this live album is the exact opposite. Since it's all acoustic, we get to listen to a completely different experience, this ain't the same stuff you've heard before. Songs you thought you knew, but presented through a totally new lens. Big anthem sounding songs reinterpreted as acoustic ballads. Devin's singing is front stage, with the growls only as a side feature. There's even a Strapping Young Lad song on here, done acoustically of course. Devin's between song banter holds everything together, it really does feel like you're at this small private show, Devin in your living room. Really impressive release, and a must have for all Devin aficionados.
• Devolution Series #2 - Galactic Quarantine (2021, Live CD) Another live Devin show, this time from his home during quarantine (and the homes of the other musicians). While this album suffers again from some of the same issues I brought up in my "Order Of Magnitude" review, mostly that we've heard many of these songs before, the inclusion of a lot of Strapping Young Lad material does improve the experience, since it's been a long time since we've heard Devin do some of those particular songs. So while I may not be listening to the new 5th version of 'Kingdom' to grace a live Devin album, 'All Hail The New Flesh', 'Detox' and 'Almost Again' is likely to get some play. The music as usual is well mixed and well performed, but as a whole the album is likely for the Devin completeist only.
• The Puzzle / Snuggles (2021) Well Devin warned us this one would be weird, and he does not disappoint. "The Puzzle" is maybe not quite as abstract as "The Hummer" or "Devlab", but it's certainly to his usual music the same way Atonal Jazz is to Big Band. Lots of random elements fading in and out of odd beats, strange instruments, vocal harmonies that twist and turn. Maybe imagine "Ghost" but more chaotic. Everything has a certain chill vibe here, so fans of the harder stuff won't have much to enjoy. Devin has said this music captures his feeling during the pandemic and lockdown, and in that respect this music makes tons of sense, it's eerie, it makes me anxious but at the same time is comfortable. It's familiar yet something is just not quite right. "Snuggles" is the second part of the album, and its far more ambient. Imagine mixing "Ghost" along with some of the interludes of Ocean Machine. These songs are far more my style, less weird, more meditative, soft vocals and keyboards leads you off to dreamland. An odd album to be sure, "The Puzzle" probably won't get a lot of play personally, "Snuggles" a lot more, but Devin has an eclectic fan base, so I'm sure many will enjoy the entire package.
• Lightwork (2022) A sort of more poppy "Empath". 10 tracks of big choruses, processional hymns, a few tracks that feel sort of like a lighter "Addicted". While more Devin feeling than "The Puzzle", I have to say I still prefer "Empath", this one might be a little too straight forward for my tastes. But that said, still some great songs on here, love the chorus in 'Call Of The Void' for example. But something like the vibe of 'Vacation' just has too much of that 70s Caribbean island feel. The second disk "Nightwork" is far more eclectic, starting off with a huge balls to the wall anthem with a huge guitar sound, and quickly followed by a 38 second blast fest, and the song 'Factions' that has a strong "Deconstruction" vibe to it with screaming and fast programmed doublebass. I suspect on multiple listens everyone will have their own favorites and their own skipables on both discs. Whereas "Empath" told an album long story, this is more of a collection of thoughts, but there's something for everyone to enjoy.
• Devolution Series #3 - Empath Live In America (2023, Live CD) A Devin show recorded right before the covid lockdown, and it's tons of fun. The range on this album is great, we have songs from "Empath" of course, but we also get stuff that truly spans the gamut from "Casulaties Of Cool" to a Strapping Young Lad tune. The sound quality is of course excellent, and we get so much Devin banter between songs. He really has a way of making the audience feel like they're a bunch of friends who're in his basement listening to them jam. A worthy little addition to the live Devin catalog. I kinda just wish it had more than 11 songs.
• PowerNerd (2024) Seems the Dev will be releasing several albums in the next year, the first of which is "PowerNerd". This album focuses on simple straight forward songs that don't require too much noodling or deep thought. So imagine sort of a combo of "Addicted" with "Punky Brewster". The title track is the most Punky of the bunch, with driving double bass and the guitar is up front and in your face. We also get a vaguely 'Bad Devil' style track with 'Knuckledragger'. Many of the other songs are the huge choral vocals, people yelling from the mountain feel, with songs like 'Falling Apart', 'Gratitude' and 'Ubelia'. Overall it's very effective. I'd say it may be missing that one "Holy fuck this is the greatest" song, but all of the tracks are solid 8s without exception. I gotta go on a hike and climb to the top of a cliff and then blast this album into the heavens. Looking forward to the next few albums that I'm told will be more symphonic / weird, but for a collection of 11 Devin power anthems, this hits the spot.
  

• The Serpent's Manifold (2008) Vagely what you'd expect from a band that contains a questionmark in their name. Transcending is probably best described as symphonic black metal, with maybe extra emphasis on symphonic. The band does lots of spooky intros (think Nile), and integrates plenty of keyboards and orhcestral bits into the music itself. Imagine Akercocke but with a little less speed and a little more experimental. While the black metal aspects are nothing unique (although certainly well performed), I find myself really enjoying the orchestral bits (the strings mostly), they integrate really well into the music, add lots of atmosphere, and make the music kinda catchy. The literature mentions a comparison with Danny Elfman, which is quite apt. If you always wanted to see how the music of "A Nightmare Before Christmas" would have sounded if it had been handled by a black metal band (mixed with a few middle eastern themes), check out this album.
  

• Killer Species (2000) Harken back to the old days of metal, well, not that old, but say the late eighties when you didn't have trouble finding a decent thrash band. Now the style is all but gone, except for a few bands like Transfear trying to keep the genre alive. While they don't break any new ground with this 4 song demo, they provide some decent catchy riffs, mostly thrash, with a touch of death metal thrown in, and a pinch of Entombed's wolverine blues.

• Purgation (2008)
  
• The Great Depression (2009) Similar to their "Degenerate" album, but overall, the riffs seem a little bit more generic. Most of the songs tend to blend together without a lot to distinguish them from each other. Upon further listening, I think the issue is the album is faster than "Degenerate", and the slower bits were generally the area where the band produced their best riffs. All the other elements are here, fast, pummeling, big guitar sound, speedy drums. But I'd recommend their next album instead.
  
• Degenerate (2010) Modern metal at its most blasting. Plenty of influences here, in some parts you feel the speed and intensity of Origin or Brain Drill (thankfully, the riffs aren't as random as Brain Drill). Or the precision but chaotic nature of Beneath The Massacre. Maybe even a few shades of Behemoth during the fast doublebass parts. But perhaps one of the closest comparisons would be to Hate Eternal, especially their "Fury and Flames" album. Not that this album sounds like Hate Eternal specifically, but they share a love of big layered distorted guitars, pounding unrelenting drums, midrange growled dual vocals, and super fast riffs that reach a truly chaotic level of intensity. The band does slow it down now and again for some groove, but more often than not the songs are fast and punishing all the way through. Excellent production with a stellar mix. The riffs are well above average on the memorability scale, in general though, it's the mood the album creates that I think will bring you back for more, you ears will most definitely feel brutalized after each listen. Impressive stuff.
• Kingdom Come (2011, DigitalEP) Same general style as their last album, maybe a touch faster, hopefully the band doesn't lose the slower parts to their songs, as that's usually that contains their most memorable riffs. But as a 3 song EP, this is certainly plenty of fun.
  

• Our Enemy Is The Weapon (2005)
• Upon The Warlords Crawl (2008)
  
• Worship The Bled (2011) Thrash/Death/Metalcore with influences ranging from Morbid Angel, to Behemoth, maybe even a little Bolt Thrower. The key to this album is intensity, the sound is huge, with a nice scooped mix. Lots of overdubbed guitars. Think Bolt Thrower level of sound, but with a little more melody, some more blasting parts, and somewhat metalcore type vocals (Mike Disalvo from Cryptopsy would be a good comparison). The album features session drummer Kevin Talley (of Dying Fetus/Daath fame), and he takes a more supporting role on this album, not showcasing any particular super speed, or super complex rhythm, just strong and pounding. The songs are all catchy, they seem familiar but without sounding too derivative. Perfect music to listen to during an epic ground battle between warring medieval factions. Overall, a very high quality release, nothing too fancy, Truth Corroded is a big huge wrecking ball that's demolishing your house.
  

• Cyanide (2012) Industrial death metal. Plenty of thick detuned guitar overtop of drum machines pumping out both industrial and death metal like beats, and of course don't forget get the various sound clips of people bemoaning the fate of the human race. Not much in the way of vocals except for the odd reverb ridden scream. Not exactly the most unique material, but it's enjoyable none the less, and well worth putting into your musical rotation.
• Nuclear Nanosecond (2013) Very much like their previous album, industrial flavored death. Overall it's good material, but nothing really stands out as super unique or ear catching. I guess it's all cake with no icing. But highly enjoyable, and good music to have on in the background.