Hullo!
I got into Strapping right at the end of the run (I think "The New Black" had just come out). I soon found out that Devin was hanging it up and, needless to say, I was crushed. Here was an artist who's vision for heavy music so chimed with and, indeed, exceeded my own (I'm an amateur musician) and now, he was stopping. I saw a blurb on a wiki page about the Devin Townsend Band but through my myopic "metal" eye, all I saw was something about it being more for his melodic stuff and I foolishly disregarded it.
About a year later, I happened upon a YouTube video of "Hyperdrive" from Ziltoid and the rest, as they say is history. I was positively shocked to discover album after album after album of some of the most well written, performed and produced heavy music that I had ever heard. I could not believe that an artist could be so prolific and still maintain the level of quality. It's the kind of music that I would've liked to write, had I only known it. The transitions he made in the content of his writing came shortly before a time when things (lifestyle, philosophy, etc.) were changing in my life.
Maybe that's why I love it so much. Maybe that's why I can't find anyone else within my own circle that like it even half as much. However, the random people that I have met that are fans seem just as into it.
Spread the word, folks. Buy a T-shirt, go to a show, something. Music like this doesn't come along very often and, unfortunately, praise doesn't pay the bills.
D
I got into Strapping right at the end of the run (I think "The New Black" had just come out). I soon found out that Devin was hanging it up and, needless to say, I was crushed. Here was an artist who's vision for heavy music so chimed with and, indeed, exceeded my own (I'm an amateur musician) and now, he was stopping. I saw a blurb on a wiki page about the Devin Townsend Band but through my myopic "metal" eye, all I saw was something about it being more for his melodic stuff and I foolishly disregarded it.
About a year later, I happened upon a YouTube video of "Hyperdrive" from Ziltoid and the rest, as they say is history. I was positively shocked to discover album after album after album of some of the most well written, performed and produced heavy music that I had ever heard. I could not believe that an artist could be so prolific and still maintain the level of quality. It's the kind of music that I would've liked to write, had I only known it. The transitions he made in the content of his writing came shortly before a time when things (lifestyle, philosophy, etc.) were changing in my life.
Maybe that's why I love it so much. Maybe that's why I can't find anyone else within my own circle that like it even half as much. However, the random people that I have met that are fans seem just as into it.
Spread the word, folks. Buy a T-shirt, go to a show, something. Music like this doesn't come along very often and, unfortunately, praise doesn't pay the bills.
D
