Woah! Good lord, it's a cheeseburger!!!
#267793 by KRISTOFFA
Wed May 18, 2011 5:35 pm
Spent a couple of hours writing a detailed track by track review of Decon last night. Please give your honest opinions!






Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction
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Intro:
I finally got some decent headphones so I could give this album a proper listening to. I’d been waiting over a year for this record. With Devin himself claiming that it is the heaviest thing he’s ever recorded, it’s no wonder why. He also claimed that it “just sounds like a journey up my own ass in a lot of ways… I have a very interesting ass.” It’s been one of the most heavily anticipated records for metal fans. It is the third album in the four album concept that is “The Devin Townsend Project.” There had been a lot of hype over this record. Sumeria was the first track to be leaked onto YouTube, intentionally though. It was aired first on a Swedish radio station. Within the next couple of days, the entire album was on the internet. It’s not due for release until the 20th of June. I plan on buying the 4 album box set, and have already ordered a Deconstruction t-shirt.

Praise the Lowered (5:57):
This song starts out with a pretty slow drum beat, and adds some calming sound effects and electronic beats. It starts very softly, not at all what I was expecting from this album. Devin’s voice is soft, and gets interwoven with itself not far into the song. He starts pushing his voice a little further with the high notes. At around 3:10, you can hear a heavy double bass riff fading in, with the vocalist singing in a high voice, until around 3:20 where his voice changed completely. Devin starts screaming and the double bass pounds hard. This song is now metal. This song is kind of a journey of Devin’s musical career, so it makes sense that the opening track would be about drugs.
Ah, gimme that weed
Gimme that acid
And I wanna lose everything that's policing us, and then everything must begin

There’s a brief pause in the music, where Devin screams “why don’t you just smoke that fucking weed, boy? Drink the wine!” After this line it’s like the intensity is turned up to 11, everything’s louder, the choir and orchestra play strongly alongside the crushing double bass, and Devin repeating “weed boy, drink the wine, bring the pain” in the background, until it all fades out to more electronic beats just like the intro. This is where the opening song ends. It gives you a perspective of what the entire album will be like: fucked up.

Stand (9:36):
The second song features Mikael Åkerfeldt, who you may recognise from Opeth. This song also starts with a drum intro, which then introduces a palm muted guitar. Devin’s voice is almost a whisper. The second verse introduces a bass guitar, and his voice gets a little stronger, he almost sounds angry, it also has a few lines thrown in the background. After this verse there’s a short vocal pause, until Devin whispers “ready?” The guitar gets a lot heavier, a snare drum is introduced, and his voice intensifies. Mikael comes in the background, giving a general death metal “OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!” Together with Devin singing, it sounds superb. Double bass comes in after that in a similar pattern to the previous song. The climax of this song is fairly awesome. If you have watched this video before, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NongtyxkfY) you will recognise the riff from 2:25 in the video. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly sure Devin wrote all of the songs for the four Devin Townsend Project albums before he even started recording Ki. There’s a bit of a guitar solo, which lets way to a heavy bass/tom beat along with Mikael growling beside it. This stops rather suddenly, leaving just Devin singing almost wearily, and a bass guitar riff playing over the top. I guess it was wrong to say that the song climaxed earlier, because this is where it really climaxes. Devin screaming, Mikael growling, choir and orchestra playing loudly and a fast guitar riff and drum beat. The earlier mentioned guitar riff comes back with a steady double bass. This song ends pretty quickly, with Mikael concluding with a nice growl.

Juular (3:46):
Ah Juular, this is probably my favourite track on the record. This may be biased to the guest vocalist here though. It opens with Devin screaming “EEEEYAA!” This song is all about fast drums and the orchestra. Devin’s voice is clear. It’s soft and strong at the same time. At 1:30 our guest vocalist makes an appearance. It’s such a coarse voice, such a black voice. It could only be that of Ihsahn! Ihsahn is one of my all-time favourite vocalists, and at the idea of him singing with my favourite musician, I came a little. I just wish the song lasted longer, at 3:46, it’s almost the shortest song on the album. Devin said on his Twitter that this track would be the first single from the record and I’m kind of surprised by that. I wish I knew what a “Juular” was, all I know is that “nothing ever bothers Juular,” as quoted by Ihsahn. At 2:00 there’s a full on black metal part, which lasts for a whole of 8 seconds, and then Devin’s voice is back. Though not for long, and then Ihsahn breaks in again. Blast beats and a fairly odd guitar section come in after that. The black metal part heard earlier makes a return to conclude the song.

Planet of the Apes (10:49):
This is the first of two songs that are over ten minutes in length. The intro guitar is so dirty, it reminds me of Meshuggah. I showered while listening to this song, I think I came out dirtier than I went in. The orchestra hits it pretty big early on, playing along with the snare drum, which rings heavily. Devin’s voice is strong, and the line “all I ever wanted was to be true, for my wife and my kid” really surprised me. I don’t think he’s ever directly referred to them in his music before. His voice gets a little aggressive, but it’s controlled. The orchestra is a really big part of this song. A little later it gets a little poppier. I’m not sure who is singing the high pitched stuff here, I don’t think it’s Devin and it’s not the guest vocalist for the song. My guess is that it’s the choir. But there are two sets of vocals here, one low (Devin) and one high (choir), which are played together. After this it gets heavy again, and then gets really catchy. I’d say this part would fit in very well on “Addicted.” There’s a line here that made me laugh. “While we all have lots of bands who influence still, we all rip off Meshuggah!” Particularly because the filthy guitar in this song reminds me of Meshuggah. At 5:40, everything stops but Devin’s soft voice, a keyboard and a guitar playing arpeggios. A drum beat joins in which is really catchy. Another line I found hilarious is: “oh everybody will know, I am so happy now, I’ve got a little boner!” The humour of this album is great. This little happy part doesn’t last for long though, as the growling voice of Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) thunders through a strong drums and guitar. The drums here are particularly heavy, with a pretty fast double bass and snare. Devin’s soft voice, the quick, heavy drum beat and a tremolo guitar all come together in the end and complement each other quite well. There’s another guitar solo towards the end with some strange effects thrown into it, I think it sounds pretty cool. The song ends with nothing but the fast drums and Devin’s voice, and then the drums stop for Devin to conclude with a final line.

Sumeria (6:36):
This song starts out VERY heavy. Fast double bass, tuned down guitars, orchestra and choir. I don’t know what it is about choirs and orchestras that makes music so much heavier, but it just works. The choir lets out the Devin’s strong voice. It’s almost like he’s not singing, but speaking the lyrics. At 1:15 the tenor choir comes back for a while until the rest of the orchestra comes in for the chorus. Later on the song gets heavier. Slower guitar chugging along, a more technical double bass pattern and the choir sings along with Devin. At 2:50 one of the guest vocalists for this song makes an appearance. It’s Joe Duplantier (Gojira), and when he’s finished, a short blast beat brings Devin back in. After the second chorus, the whole song’s intensity increases again. The drums, tenor choir and Joe screaming are really heavy. Suddenly, everything stops to leave a little melody playing. It’s like a melody that would come from a small music box or something. This music box is replaced by an acoustic guitar playing the same melody, and Paul Masvidal’s (Death, Cynic) soft voice plays along with the guitar. It’s a beautiful section, really, and the first decent break from the shitstorm. I really don’t like the way this song ends. It’s just Paul and Joe saying “pray for where our hearts lead us now,” but Joe’s death growl and Paul’s soft, melodic voice do not sound good overlapped. If I were to nit-pick on any bad parts of this record, it would be just that one line.

The Mighty Masturbator (16:28):
No, that’s not a typo. It really is a 16 and a half minute song. I’m a big fan of long songs, but I feel that this is too long. It’s mentally exhausting to listen to, and it’s why this is the song that I’ve actually reviewed last. I’m just leaving it here in order. With a title like this, what should we be expecting? Well for now I’ll just say that it’s the weirdest song on the track, not that that’s a bad thing in any way. Given what the listener has experienced so far, it’s no wonder that you might feel a little insecure coming into this song.
The song starts very softly; acoustic guitar and Devin singing along softly. Massive, crushing guitar chords introduce themselves when Devin exclaims, “I’m home!” The thick choir comes in here too, along with the drums. The song progresses from here, very slowly building in intensity, until 4:20 where everything stops. The acoustic guitar returns and Devin makes a short voiceover, and the intensity returns as to where it was before this short section, with the addition of a funky little keyboard riff. After this there’s a short part which reminds me of music that would be played in a 60’s diner or something. It’s unexpected. The drums almost bring it back to normal, and there is also a few different screamy voices being played over the top. At 7:00, we’re given a break… if you can call it that. Sound effects and strange electronic beats start playing, which fade out and Devin starts talking about the human development like a dictator. A crowd approves of what he’s saying; you hear cheering and clapping along. His supporters begin chanting “give it up, your world!” There’s a pretty strong beat in the background, and the electronic effects are still present. Devin starts singing a really catchy part, and then the guest vocalist joins in. Who is the guest vocalist for this track? None other than Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato! “We pray to God, he lives inside of our minds!” Devin singing opposite Greg here is nothing other than the perfect eargasm. After Devin had finished recording with Greg, he posted on Twitter: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Greg Puciato just tore me a new asshole.” It’s no wonder; Greg adds so much ferocity to this part. I wish he played a bigger part in this song, though. This ferocity is insanely obvious when singing the line: “We praise Satan, he lives inside of our hearts!” Not far from here, we’re brought to a halt, followed by a strong drum beat and Devin singing rather emotionally, saying “I want you to love me, I’ve fallen down now and I won’t get up.” The song gets heavy again here. We’re brought to a musical stop by insanely fast drum beats. Well, not really a stop. More of a circus waltz. And that’s exactly what this is: Circus music, with the choir in the background and Devin… no, ZILTOID THE OMNISCIENT (yes, it actually says this. I squeeee’d when I heard it.) as the ringmaster. What the heck is this? “See the vagina faced lady!” “See the man with 17 testicles!” “Ladies and Gentlemen, I know see my life’s purpose! I, am THE MIGHTY MASTURBATOR!” And that’s how this 16 minute epic track is brought to a close.

Pandemic (3:28):
This is the shortest track on the album. But man, it’s one of the most memorable. The start is brutal, huge choir and blast beats. They give way to a long Devin scream played over some insanely quick vocals. I can’t actually understand a single word of what’s said here, it’s sung so quickly and is overpowered by the long scream. I’ve never listened to After Forever or ReVamped before, but their frontwoman, Floor Jansen is the main feature of this song. Her operatic vocals seem so powerful in this song. I’ll definitely make the effort to listen to some of her stuff. (She’s also pretty sexy: http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/910...27-600-467.jpg) This song is entirely about nothing but intensity, from start to finish it’s all up in yo shit. There’s also a pretty fancy guitar solo.

Deconstruction (9:26):
wtfamihearing.jpg
This song opens with… the sounds of a man taking a shit. You can hear him straining and farting. I get the impression that he’s in a public toilet and there’s a guy in the cubicle next to him talking about his studies on the human brain (on the phone, maybe?), when Devin interrupts him and says “excuse me; this is my point with the brain. At the end of the day, you know, at the end of the day, anything, a benign object of any sort, you can take anything, you can take a cheeseburger and deconstruct it to its source.” A high pitched, flashy guitar riff (played by Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah), who plays lead guitar on this song) comes in along with the chanting of the word “cheeseburger”. (Cheeseburger was the original title of this song; it was changed fairly late in the process to Deconstruction.) Some drums come in to support the guitar riff and it all moulds into a pretty cool section. Another joke here, when the chorus sings the word “happiness,” Devin comes in over the top to emphasise the “penis” in “happiness.” When the song reaches a climax here, the drums stop and the guitars are left to ring out, and we’re brought back to the man on the throne briefly. The music starts again, sweep picking and blast beats. It’s not as heavy as that sounds, there’s no crushing guitar or bass riff, and Devin’s singing quite softly over the top. GWAR’s Oderus Urungus comes in to make a voice over here. He was pretty much a great choice for this song, I’ve listened to a little of GWAR’s stuff and it’s quite humorous music, so it fits well with this album. The music here is pretty frantic, it almost seems unstructured. “SHIT A BRICK!” The bass line here makes me think of a circus. The music stops and we’re left with an electronic beat, and Devin proclaiming “oh good lord it’s a cheeseburger! A double!” The song gets pretty weird here, the choir starts chanting “all beef patties, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!” They chant that line twice, and then Devin shows his love for cheeseburgers. “Oh cheeseburger, we bow to thee. The secrets of the universe are between the buns.” The choir repeats their catchphrase line again, when Devin suddenly remembers something… “But I don’t eat the cheeseburgers guys, I’m a vege-ma-tarian!” There’s some more sweep picking and blast beats here, though this time it’s pretty intense. “Did you say beer!?” Devin and what I assume are a few random people start chanting “BEER! BEER! BEER!” (I changed my mind, this is my favourite track.) I’d like to say that the strangeness ends here, but it doesn’t. There’s a weird guitar solo played along with drums, which just falls apart slowly. Finally, it turns into a normal song again! And it’s kind of lovely. A beautiful guitar riff, and Devin singing operatically over the top. His voice is so emotional here, it gives me bumps every single time. It doesn’t last as long as I’d want it to though, it breaks into blast beats and angry Devy. It does come back for a little while, though. The song starts to fade out here. “Oh, we’re not done yet are we?” There’s a short passage here, and then it ends with his operatic voice again, and… burping.

Poltergeist (4:24):
“Let’s finish this!” Is the opening line to the final song. This song is Strapping Young Lad. It starts with Gene Hoglan blast beats, typical SYL guitars, and the usual screaming vocals that would appear in an SYL song. I love it. For me, it’s just like SYL have brought out a new song, and as you all know, I’m a huge SYL fan. This song is huge. I’m trying to think of another way to describe this song, but all I can think of is that it would fit in perfectly on “The New Black.” It’s a shame that this is a short song, it’s one of the standout songs of the record. The vocals pause and there’s a short drum solo, “now we come to the end!” We’re brought into a part that sounds like it came right out of Alien. At 3:12, the song settles down a lot. The keyboards and guitars play together with the choir singing along. The song, and album, come to a complete stop with a blast beat.



Overview:
Yep, it’s over. At an hour and ten minutes, it’s a massive record. The first couple of times I listened to it, I was kind of disappointed. Devin had claimed that it was the heaviest recording he’s done so far. I was expecting ultra heavy Strapping Young Lad… a giant mess in my pants. It takes a lot more than one listen to really understand it. It’s got so much crammed into it. The production (which was done by Devin himself, with a little help from Jens Bogren) is among the best I’ve ever heard, everything works so well. I’ve listened to it around 15 times, and I’m still discovering things about it. This is also helped by the addition of a great headset. There’s details that I pick up on that I never heard that last 10 times I listened to it.
The guest artists did a phenomenal job. At first I wanted them to play more of a role, most of the time they seem to be doing backing vocals, but I thought about it. It’s an album exploring Devin’s music career, why would he give the spotlight to other vocalists? They always seemed to come in at the most perfect times, and the artists all suit their respective songs perfectly. Often times I hear of a great artist playing guest to another great artist, and the final product just leaves me disappointed. This is not the case here, though. It’s an amazing lineup of guests. Ihsahn and Greg Puciato. Really, did you specifically record this album with me in mind, Devin?
All in all… a brilliantly spectacular album. I agree with Devin that it is the heaviest thing he’s recorded. Heavy in a different way though. It’s not a mess in my pants, it’s a fully structured masterpiece. It is quite mentally draining to listen to, especially the first couple of times. You’ll be left confused and say to yourself, “what the fuck did I actually just listen to?” If you’re like me, though, you’ll be brought back to it again and again. I can say, without a doubt, that it is the best album I have ever heard. Thank you Mr. Townsend!



tl;dr
Go listen to it.
#267795 by static2
Wed May 18, 2011 5:48 pm
would be a lot better as a review if you removed the parts where you're just describing the music as it happens. that kind of thing has a place, i suppose, but it's not useful to anyone — as we saw with the French reviews of Decon and Ghost that did this exact thing, it ultimately just teases people with the fact that the "reviewer" heard it and they didn't. there's not much other use for describing what happens.

however, all your actual opinions and little factoids are great. those are the review!

(one factoid correction i spotted: Dev didn't write everything before Ki. they mostly came in order, one after the other, except Decon and Ghost material were written back-and-forth; he said at one point that writing Ghost was a needed counterpoint to writing Decon.)
#267798 by KRISTOFFA
Wed May 18, 2011 5:54 pm
I wasn't going to put those bits in, but I posted this review elsewhere and it's actually convinced a number of people to order the album.
If somebody had heard the album before then they'd probably find it annoying, though.

Ah thanks for that. I wasn't sure on that one, I'd heard it from a couple of places but couldn't tell if it were true or not.
#268344 by Kohe321
Mon May 23, 2011 8:57 am
Good review! I have listened through it about 15 times myself, and while I loved it from the get-go, it has continued to grow on me. Especially Deconstruction and The Mighty Masturbator, which does require quite a few listens before you "get" them.

Ordered the 2-CD pack and a couple Deconstruction shirts. This is an absolutely brilliant album.

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