I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but as a guitarist I really appreciate that the guest appearances also have guitar style equivalents. The Gojira chug is the most obvious, but the Meshuggah riff mentioned, the harmony guitar solo that I bet Akerfeldt plays, and the tremolo picking on the Ihsahn tune. It actually adds variety to the album as we know Dev's guitar tricks by now (I love them but this many albums in...) Whether it's Dev playing in the other band's style or all actual guest guitar tracks, I applaud the move.


And any suits that think this album is going to be a bust are silly. This is one of the most anticipated metal albums of the year, not just by us freak fans. And the fact that it is so challenging is going to sell alot of albums. Even a Dev newbie kid will be able to put this on and say "You want to hear a real mindfuck? Check this out."

I wonder if Thordendal will join tha Dev onstage on Tuska....

So far reactions seem to be:

ecstatic
disappointed it's not SYL
confused

I fall into the first category

well i must admit, i hated this on first listen, dont get me wrong i liked some parts and just said Wtf on the others, and mind you i was hungover listening to this in full at 9am in the morning. So ive given it about 3 or 4 listens start to finish a couple on the way to work in the car. and ive listened too a lot of individual song them being, Stand, Planet of The Apes and The Mighty Masturbator.

so after about a week or less! IM LOVING IT!!!! it just took its time to understand it and also sober up..lol

but its just soo full on and in your face i love it! it has its little melodies here and its tounge n cheek humor which at first i didnt like but i now laugh and think it fits perfectly.

i been singing at work "Oh! Everybody will know, I am so happy now!I've got a little boner!"

but seriously dev! AWESOME JOB!!! cant wait for Ghost!

no complicated thoughts about that album. it simlpy rules. when i was listening to decon for the first time i had to grin every 20 seconds. got goosebumps on parts of: stand, TMM, Deconstruction, Poltergeist, Pandemic and especially Juular. right after: nothing ever bothers me NOW!!!! epic choir starts to summon a tornado of souls/feelings/thoughts, this part is really ridiculous, its freakin HUGE!!!

only stuff i didnt like about that album is the bass drum, the thump of the kick sits waaay to low. i almost cant hear it even on my monitors. on the other side, most likely there wasnt even space for the kick or ANYTHING else, since this mix is soooooooooo dense
also still dont like parts of the first quarter of planet of the apes. dunno, sounds like dreamtheater meets meshuggah and some devin in between or smthng like that. timing is somewhat weird, even compared to the two mentioned but i also think that this album needs this part. it sounds pretty spacy and like constant........idk, just had the same feeling in parts of the skeksis intro.....

but anything else is simply "wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow" (followed by a mental orgasm)

deconstruction is immense, like any other song from this album.

for my taste thats one of the best albums devin made, same with infinity, terria, synchestra, ki, alien

I love how a lot of TMM seems to be bridging the gap between ZIltoid and Z2. The most obvious being 'I am you host, ZIltoid the Omniscient! Yeeesss!' but then there are a lot of lyrics about space and shit, and hell, even the 'GIVE IT UP! YOUR WORLD!' part reminds me of the end of By Your Command.

That's probably a very common thing that people have noticed before me, but eh.

Whether it's Dev playing in the other band's style or all actual guest guitar tracks, I applaud the move.

I remember reading an interview where Devin said there were no guest guitar spots, and since only Fredrik is credited as "guitar" i'm imagining it's all Dev other than on the title track.

I assume I'm not the only one who think the main riff of "Sumeria" is straight out of the Gojira textbook.

Do you think he adjusted after he knew who'd be doing guest vocals? I know that guest vox were planned pretty early, that would be one more immensely cool thing if he said "A little Meshuggah here" which he clear did, but also "Gojira here, a Opeth-y solo here," etc. etc.

I assume I'm not the only one who think the main riff of "Sumeria" is straight out of the Gojira textbook.

Do you think he adjusted after he knew who'd be doing guest vocals? I know that guest vox were planned pretty early, that would be one more immensely cool thing if he said "A little Meshuggah here" which he clear did, but also "Gojira here, a Opeth-y solo here," etc. etc.

I look at it this way. We ALL have bands that influence us, still, we all rip off Meshuggah.

Taking a day off from the Mighty. Actually caught myself fiending for the damn thing... Listened to Devlab instead. Was a wise decision. New appreciation attained.

Having read through the entire thread (yeah...), I feel like saying three things. Nothing that hasn't been said already, really.

1. Everyone's a joke. I personally appreciate the humour in Dev's music. I mean, everyone laughs at themselves a bit at difficult times, y'know, but to laugh at a work of art you've gone through several hells to make while simultaneously pondering universe, life and all that shit, I mean, that's mature in a way I respect. So every time a bad joke purposely interrupts a fantastic piece of music, I feel like the music's saying, "I think I've grown lately, as a person ya know, but fuck it, I'm still a baby".

2. However the problem with DTP's records so far seems to be that they're a little too, um, "target-oriented". There's a goal or a point that's being made. What comes to metaphors and atmosphere and so on, I find Synchestra the perfect record in that sense. To me, it's by no means evident what's going on there. But when you know the record well, you start feeling it.

3. Loving every album so far. I'm glad they're different. One reason for us fans being so emotional about all this must be how Dev's music, with all the variation and character, gives us a feeling of listening to a human being. Like, I don't know the man one bit, and I'm fully aware he's no Jesus or whatever, but you can't help feeling like you're listening to interesting stories and feelings entrusted to you by a friend.

What I love about Deconstruction is that it makes my often busy head to just shut up and listen. It does that perfectly.

After a couple of days of repeated (sober) listens, I've just listened to the first four tracks high. Holy... shit. Each song just opened up and revealed so much. I've noticed whole miniworlds of music and emotion there.

I have not listened to anything other by Devin since the first play of Praise the Lowered. Repeated listens come so naturally right now, I'm going to wait, and then perhaps wait for Ghost and absorb it. I want to listen to the 4 albums back to back only after I've really got to know each one well.

Every single track is the best one it its own way. The most vividly beautiful sections I find now are in Planet of the Apes and the last minute or so of Poltergeist. Oh god, the ending of the album blows my mind every time, I swear.

Okay, back to the music now.

What I love about Deconstruction is that it makes my often busy head to just shut up and listen. It does that perfectly.

After a couple of days of repeated (sober) listens, I've just listened to the first four tracks high. Holy... shit. Each song just opened up and revealed so much. I've noticed whole miniworlds of music and emotion there.

I have not listened to anything other by Devin since the first play of Praise the Lowered. Repeated listens come so naturally right now, I'm going to wait, and then perhaps wait for Ghost and absorb it. I want to listen to the 4 albums back to back only after I've really got to know each one well.

Every single track is the best one it its own way. The most vividly beautiful sections I find now are in Planet of the Apes and the last minute or so of Poltergeist. Oh god, the ending of the album blows my mind every time, I swear.

Okay, back to the music now.

This is a damn good way of putting it. I've found myself properly listening to this album more than many others. I can't leave it on while I'm doing something else because it just intrudes and goes "HEY THERE'S CHEESEBURGERS AND FART JOKES AND LYRICS THAT'LL MAKE YOUR HEART SWELL LIKE A BALLOON AND LYRICS THAT'LL MAKE YOU FEEL A THOUSAND FEET TALL"

And I love it it for that.

Every new listen makes me think more and more that this might be his best work (though I have a feeling I'll be liking Ghost even more).

Been on a major Dev kick lately and fortunately my current situation lets me listen to music all day while I work. So I've been going through all his old albums in order over the past couple days (except the Strapping stuff, I don't own any of that). So far I'm through Ocean Machine, Infinity, Physicist and Terria. I forgot how amazing all his work is. But judging from emotional connection, complexity, depth and all together awesomeness, Deconstruction beats these all. I've never been a very big fan of Infinity or Physicist, but OM and Terria are two of my favorite Dev records. And they do have more atmosphere as a whole than Decon (Terria especially). But atmosphere is just one of many aspects which Dev is good at, and honestly listening to Ocean Machine after Deconstruction, it just didn't stack up on levels of depth and emotionality. So I think as of now Decon is tied up with Terria for best Dev record for me, with Ki and Addicted following very closely.

Also metmas and Jaymz, I completely agree with you guys. I also think too much, and this album just kills that part of me. Lets me be free of myself to to speak for 70 minutes. At the end of Poltergeist I just want to go lift weights and exercise and finish my homework and accomplish things instead of sitting around worrying.

I'm ambivalent about the repetition of the Processional waltz. I like it but I think it's a bit long. That's the only complaint I have except for... The singer at the end of Sumeria sounds a bit too corny and a few parts that I can't grasp because they are chaotic.

But maybe that's just it; chaos for the sake of chaos? Layer-slayer!

The two short tracks Pandemic and Poltergeist evoke that kind of feeling, Pandemic has a City vibe to it.. then comes the opera lady out of the blue! I find it insanely funny. I think people would label me insane if they heard me playing this.

Rating goes to 9-9,5 out of 10.