DEVIN TOWNSEND – Empath [Limited Edition 2-CD] (2019)

“Empath” is the upcoming eighteenth studio album by Canadian musician DEVIN TOWNSEND, to be released on March 29, 2019, this Limited Edition version including a bonus disc. With his Devin Townsend Project on hold, this is a Devin Townsend solo album. Well, not exactly, as collaborators are a stream of musicians who have been with him through important periods of his career including his former boss Steve Vai, DTP cohort Anneke Van Giersbergen, Casualties partner Ché Aimee Dorval, and fellow Canadian Chad Kroeger.
Yes, that Chad Kroeger. I suppose we have to give up spreading all the nasty anti-Nickleback memes now. All of them bring their skill and talent to the room, but the table is unmistakably Townsend’s, and the resulting meal is his and his alone.

Devin Townsend is the most progressive – maybe the only progressive – musician in prog metal today. Going forward, every other person who works in this subgenre has a very steep mountain to climb.
‘Empath’ is eclectic; progressive metal, funk, blues, hard rock grooves, arcade console blip-bloops, Jerry Goldsmith-worthy orchestrations, angular jazz, meows, moos, and more metal.
After intro ‘Castaway’, fisrt proper tracks ‘Genesis’ is bonkers in a way that Zappa would interpret as a personal challenge, and it completely works.
From here, the album could go anywhere, so it does.

‘Evermore’ combines an almost honky tonk-ish approach to heaviness, epicloud-ish chorale lifts, and melodic hooks that would sound at home on one of Anneke van Giersbergen’s pop albums. ‘Sprite’ is almost acid jazz crossed with a Broadway musical.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies the diversity of Devin’s musical palette as the juxtaposition of ‘Hear Me’, an ultra-aggressive dive into metal, followed by ‘Why’, a classically-influenced symphony displaying the incredible vocal prowess Devin possesses. These two songs are simply never found on the same album.

Finally, ‘Requiem’ offers a gorgeous bookend to the opening ‘Castaway’, while simultaneously introducing the side-length ‘Singularity’. This epic 6-part composition, in turn, encapsulates the feel of the rest of the album, while standing on its own as a mini-album.
The production is inexplicably clean and beautiful, in a way something this loud and manic isn’t meant to be. The 23 minute track is simply brilliant, beginning with a delicate opening and taking a strange trip through metal bombast and strange computer noises, culminating in an insane and magnificent final four minutes.

Devin Townsend openly stated that he’d been considering using his considerable skills to make something more marketable. While we’ve been conditioned to recoil at the thought of a beloved artist “selling out,” such a prospect seems more appealing than appalling from a character like Devin Townsend.
However, “Empath” is far from being commercial. This album is for people looking for unpredictability in Rock music. Don’t expect 4/4 patterns or arrangements neatly going from A to B to C. This is different.
Damn Devin, I don’t know how you keep doing it, but you’ve outdone yourself again.

CD 01:
01. Castaway
02. Genesis
03. Spirits Will Collide
04. Evermore
05. Sprite
06. Hear Me
07. Why
08. Borderlands
09. Requiem
10. Singularity (Part 1: Adrift)
11. Singularity (Part 2: I Am I)
12. Singularity (Part 3: There Be Monsters)
13. Singularity (Part 4: Curious Gods)
14. Singularity (Part 5: Silicon Scientists)
15. Singularity (Part 6: Here Comes the Sun)

CD 02:
01. The Contrarian (Demo)
02. King (Demo)
03. The Waiting Kind (Demo)
04. Empath (Demo)
05. Methuselah (Demo)
06. This Is Your Life (Demo)
07. Gulag (Demo)
08. Middle Aged Man (Demo)
09. Total Collapse (Demo)
10. Summer (Demo)

Devin Townsend – vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, programming
Nathan Navarro – bass
Morgan Ågren – drums
Samus Paulicelli – drums
Anup Sastry – drums
Elliot Desgagnés – additional vocals
Ché Aimee Dorval – additional vocals (“Genesis”)
Anneke van Giersbergen – additional vocals
Chad Kroeger – additional vocals (“Hear Me”)
Elektra Women’s Choir – choir
Ryan Dahle – additional guitars
Steve Vai – additional guitars (“Here Comes the Sun”)

Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Empath-Ltd-2CD-Devin-Townsend/dp/B07MT1W28N/
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