Not to be a total butt kiss. But Dev, you're doing it right.

Decon is positive, humourous, intelligent, complex, and heavy.

I'll take intelligent and complex in about any shape or form it comes in, and as I age the positive part becomes more and more important. Real life has enough gloom on its own.

I would rather listen to Juular 50x than Skeksis once now, and Skeksis is brilliant. But it doesn't leave me feeling right.

[Octillus]

he should listen to City or Alien and compare it to Ziltoid or Decon, and maybe he'll see why the former are revered as classics.

I do know, and I can't write like that anymore. (Or like Terria tbh.)

If I could do nothing but clean atmospheric stuff from here on out, I'd be stoked Hopefully people will support that, but there's only so many times you can tell someone 'I'm over it' while they're glazed over before you just give up talking and do it anyways.

The 4 records end an era for me. I 'sabotage' Deconstruction in a way that to me seems appropriate and kind of beautiful, but thats an opinion shared by few.

Decon. is here in all it's bizzare glory to make a statement about the past 15 years that is separate from the album itself in a lot of ways. Decon gives me a freaking headache. Thats not the type of music I currently enjoy

It's not a 'song oriented' record. It's about letting it all hang out. So consider it hung.

Heavy music has not come naturally to me since before Alien. As much as I have tried to tell folks that (the members of syl included sometimes...) there was always a sense of 'just do it anyways...' then when it wasn't like it has been in the past, many folks say 'you're doing it wrong' when in fact, I'm doing it exactly right for my current frame of mind.

That's why I love it, and that's why I never want you to do it again. Hahahaha. Consider me of the minority that finds it beautiful. I've been poking at my hipster friend who doesn't listen to anything heavy ever, to give it a shot because of that. Because it's not a song by song thing. It's a piece of art thing, the entire composition.

Keep doing what comes natural to you, your fan base will support you.

Edit: Seriously not trying to kiss your ass either, and you know that. I really was blown away by it, and I'm looking so forward to Ghost, man.

What about the heavy music in Ziltoid? Does that come naturally to you? Or do yo not even think of Ziltoid stuff in the same way you do stuff like SYL and Deconstruction?

Regardless, if Deconstruction is the last 'heavy' album we ever hear from you, I'd say it's a fantastic way to go out.

Its a challenge to listen to. As I jam it on my way to work I make sure to start where I left off on the way home because I don't want to become more familiar with the first part as opposed to the second which is what usually happens. I'm not a shuffle kind of guy for the most part.

It makes me wonder what the recording process is like. I have to assume with all the different layers and guests its done in chunks here and there but I wonder if the meat of the album was recorded beginning to end? I have no exp as a musician so this may come across as very naive.

I also discovered this badass smilie. Best. Game. Ever!

he should listen to City or Alien and compare it to Ziltoid or Decon, and maybe he'll see why the former are revered as classics.

I do know, and I can't write like that anymore. (Or like Terria tbh.)

If I could do nothing but clean atmospheric stuff from here on out, I'd be stoked Hopefully people will support that, but there's only so many times you can tell someone 'I'm over it' while they're glazed over before you just give up talking and do it anyways.

The 4 records end an era for me. I 'sabotage' Deconstruction in a way that to me seems appropriate and kind of beautiful, but thats an opinion shared by few.

Decon. is here in all it's bizzare glory to make a statement about the past 15 years that is separate from the album itself in a lot of ways. Decon gives me a freaking headache. Thats not the type of music I currently enjoy

It's not a 'song oriented' record. It's about letting it all hang out. So consider it hung.

Heavy music has not come naturally to me since before Alien. As much as I have tried to tell folks that (the members of syl included sometimes...) there was always a sense of 'just do it anyways...' then when it wasn't like it has been in the past, many folks say 'you're doing it wrong' when in fact, I'm doing it exactly right for my current frame of mind.

That's why I love it, and that's why I never want you to do it again. Hahahaha. Consider me of the minority that finds it beautiful. I've been poking at my hipster friend who doesn't listen to anything heavy ever, to give it a shot because of that. Because it's not a song by song thing. It's a piece of art thing, the entire composition.

Keep doing what comes natural to you, your fan base will support you.

Edit: Seriously not trying to kiss your ass either, and you know that. I really was blown away by it, and I'm looking so forward to Ghost, man.

What Octillus said. Spot on.

There are absolutely no two SYL, DT, DTB, or DTP albums that sound alike. You would think by now people would learn to leave their expectations behind when a new Devy album drops, but for some reason or other, people still have to grab an album or two from that past to compare. I understand using the past as a point of reference, but not as a downright comparison.

Regardless of little bits and pieces from the past trickling in to newer songs, I think it is a safe statement to say that nothing we've heard before will ever be heard again.

Okay, guys. So can anyone tell me which tracks feature which guest?

I think making more heavy music after Deconstruction would demerit what makes Deconstruction GOOD. (It's honesty)

Okay, guys. So can anyone tell me which tracks feature which guest?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction_(The_Devin_Townsend_Project_album)#Personnel

Devin's doing the right thing. He should do what comes to him, and we'll support it. Devin's style can be soft or heavy, but it always sounds like Devin, and that's what counts, just him staying true to what he feels like writing.

Devin, if you read this: don't let the people who don't understand get you down. You've explained enough, let them brood. You tried. If they want to understand, they will. If they wont, just keep rockin' as you are.

My friend texted me his official review yesterday:
"This album takes me on a roller coaster ride from wanting to fly with the angels to wanting to puke in God's hand."

he should listen to City or Alien and compare it to Ziltoid or Decon, and maybe he'll see why the former are revered as classics.

I do know, and I can't write like that anymore. (Or like Terria tbh.)

If I could do nothing but clean atmospheric stuff from here on out, I'd be stoked Hopefully people will support that, but there's only so many times you can tell someone 'I'm over it' while they're glazed over before you just give up talking and do it anyways.

The 4 records end an era for me. I 'sabotage' Deconstruction in a way that to me seems appropriate and kind of beautiful, but thats an opinion shared by few.

Decon. is here in all it's bizzare glory to make a statement about the past 15 years that is separate from the album itself in a lot of ways. Decon gives me a freaking headache. Thats not the type of music I currently enjoy

It's not a 'song oriented' record. It's about letting it all hang out. So consider it hung.

Heavy music has not come naturally to me since before Alien. As much as I have tried to tell folks that (the members of syl included sometimes...) there was always a sense of 'just do it anyways...' then when it wasn't like it has been in the past, many folks say 'you're doing it wrong' when in fact, I'm doing it exactly right for my current frame of mind.

I agree completely with you Devin, and that was the point i was trying to make. It seems that the fact that you built a career on heavy music has somewhat hindered your progress in other areas (where you are truly shining and threading new ground). The fact that you have to constantly justify why you don't do SYL or why every heavy record is a metaphor for your views on metal and your past (something that you've been doing since Alien, but more on the point (and less brilliantly i must add) since The New Black - and all this culminated in Ziltoid and Decon).
There's somehow the need for you to frame music with your state of mind, and that, like humor, dates the music and reduces it's impact and soul.
This and other reasons make me feel that there's some lack of honesty in your music. It's disguised in so many metaphors and figures of speech that i don't really take it serious, not even in a funny way. I feel the passion you had during the making of these albums, but it's so convoluted and masked, that that passion doesn't filter to us, the listener, and in the end it feels that the music takes the backseat. And that is not why i, and many others, fell in love with your music.
For me your last great album was Terria, and the step in the right direction was made in Ki, although that one sounded restrained (on purpose probably). Currently, while listening to Ghost, i feel that your magic found it's voice again.
Whichever road you take, may it be clear. That's it.

Oh, a sidenote about your live sets. Unless you're experimenting with some concept, play mostly the classics. That's what everyone wants, that's why everyone goes to see their favorite bands. Let the new stuff grow on people. They might become classics too.

[Octillus]

Again I refute the thing about humor, since humor is part of the human experience. And I see the music as nothing but honest, but hey, that's your taste.

As far as live sets go, bro, so many new folks have been at Dev shows at least in the San Francisco area that I don't think they know "the classics."

As much as I'd love to hear Funeral or Bastard live, I couldn't hope to presume that the sets will be anything but what they already are which is a combination of all of the albums, a few songs here and there.

I just find these opinions interesting because they are so thought out and completely the opposite of what I feel about the current material. Interesting.


As a complete side note, man does A Monday carry so much more weight now. Holy hell.

[The Dev]

I hear you on all your points.

in the end it feels that the music takes the backseat.

I agree very much with the quoted statement. (Edit: I'm not sure yet if i agree to the rest, very good points though...)

Like i wrote before, i highly respect Deconstruction as an extremely well done and passionate piece of art that makes me think (about heavy music, my tolerance, my elitism, whatever). But this respect is mainly "rational". Emotionally i am mostly touched by the musical parts that are speaking for themselves and are just enjoyable (and there are so many of them on Decon), but as SupraKarma wrote, sometimes they are taking the backseat when for example the "man with 17 testicles" or the fart sounds appear. Quite similar with Ziltoid: I so much enjoy "Solar Winds", if only i could turn the blabbering of Captain Spectacular on and off on demand...