I think this was already a thread, but.. I couldn't find it so.. lets start a new one!

How did you first hear Devin?

For me.. I was listening to an interview of Jani Liimatainen, the guitarist for Sonata Arctica, and he said that Dev was his biggest inspiration and that SYL was his favorite band.. so I went and looked em up, and then I found out about his side stuff and.. I've been listening to everything Dev does ever since

It's an odd story, in three parts... the third part definitely being the weirdest one.

1) In 2005 I was a huge fan of Loser by Ayreon, and regarding the Devin-part I thought, "Wow... Donald Duck on speed". In 2006 The Human Equation became one of my favorite albums. But did I ever think of checking out Devin's music? Nooo...

2) In the summer 2007 I was listening to last.fm radio, and Devin came up with the broom guitar picture and Wild Colonial Boy. It was instant love, but also instant WTF?! This was really far from the music I listened to at the time. I listened to Devin's solo music a lot, but my favorite band at the time released a new album, so his music faded for a short while.

3) Somewhere in the fall the same year I had the strangest dream. Devin Was a hermit living in the deep forest, in a strange little cottage, and a huge garden. He used stuff in the garden to treat foot rashes for people or something... which was how he made a living. I have NO IDEA, what that dream had to do with Devin, but it made me pick up his music again.

(Note that I was 15 in 2005 and so on. All though I wish I had discovered Devin sooner, I'm somewhat glad I didn't listened to his music at 15 years old. Not to sound too cheesy, but I wouldn't have been ready.)

I was round my then boyfriend's house, and brought a Metal Hammer with me which came with a DVD (I think in like, 2005?) and we sat and watched it, and the video for Love? came on, my boyfriend was like "Lulz this is silly" and I was like "SHUT UP IT'S RIPPING OFF MY FAVOURITE FILM EVER AND THE SINGER LOOKS LIKE A CANNIBAL RAPIST I LOVE IT. Sounds pretty badass too." So then I got into SYL, saw then at Download (best band of the weekend, IMO and that's with my best friend's band also playing) and then discovered Synchestra....which was not SYL but sounded like SYL on a good day. So I started digging around to find more stuff by him then decided that it was pretty much fact that I loved all of it. Then Ziltoid came out and I decided I was a Devidian forever. His face also makes me smile

I was round my then boyfriend's house, and brought a Metal Hammer with me which came with a DVD (I think in like, 2005?) and we sat and watched it, and the video for Love? came on...

Heh, pretty much the same story here. I first heard of Devin back when SYL were featured in Subterranean at the back of Metal Hammer. I think it was May '05? I still have it at home... Either way the sampler CD thing had Love? on it and I was hooked immediately, bought Alien as soon as it came out and grew the SYL collection from there, blissfully unaware of Devin's solo stuff until I just happened to be looking up details on SYL the following February. Found Dev's MySpace with samples of Life and one or two other songs and as soon as I listened to Life I fell totally in love with it. Subsequently pinched pennies (several thousand of them ) and went on a maaaaaassive spending binge and bought basically the entire HDR shop as my birthday present to myself, and Mr. Townsend was even kind enough to sign things and gimme free stuff as a thanks. Lovely chap 'n' all that he is.

I don't mind re-iterating. To make a long story medium, it was about 2002, I would have been 18, and I saw Strapping Young Lad's SYL video on a metal show on Channel V (the Heavy Shift). Fell in love right there, got HAARHT not too long after, and City sometime after that. About a year later when he released Accelerated Evolution, I heard his solo stuff on the radio, and picked up my copy of Terria not too long after that (first solo album of his I owned, still my favorite). It's funny, I always wanted to hear Ocean Machine first, as that was what he discussed on the radio and what was played among others, but it was the last of his solo albums (before Synchestra) that I actually bought.

Mine is so uninteresting.

I was looking for new music, and was looking at genres... metal, industrial, progressive, stuff like that.
I compiled a list of bands that looked interesting to me, and Devin Townsend'd Physicist was on it.
Bought the cd, and fell in love. It came at a time in my life where things were not going so great, I had a shitty job, and always used up my breaks by listening to music. Physicist somehow soothed me, and my journey started from there.
From Devin Townsend, to SYL, to Zimmer's hole, and now DTP.

Long story very short: It's Byron's fault.

Me = Fear Factory fan

Byron joins FF. I research back from there. Storm (through a previous incarnation of this site) is the first Dev song I hear. Boom, headshot.

July, 1993 with the Vai CD. I was a huge Steve Vai fan, and being a guitarist, I was excited to hear what he had come up with this time. I put the CD in, and as soon as I heard Devin sing, I didn't even hear the guitar anymore. I had never heard anyone sing like that before. He was all over the place, seemingly out of control, but in perfect control. I was floored, and obsessed.

He kind of disappeared for a bit, but then I caught back up with him when he formed SYL. Then in 1997, I had a mental implosion of Charlie Sheen proportions, and had removed myself from music entirely up until last year, and I found Devin again. I had to play catch-up. lol

I kinda knew about SYL for a while back in 2007, in 08 I got into Ayreon and heard Dev, thought "yeah, pretty cool."

I heard You Suck and Ziltoid which made Dev's crazy side appeal to me, then I heard Earth Day and thought:
"This guy is doing something unique."

The rest is history.

Mine goes way back to Steve Vai stuff too, around 98-00, something like that.
But I didn't like Vai too much, I just heard "Still My Bleeding Heart" and it rocked my young world hard.
I had it on my computer, and occasionally listened to it and loved the infernal screams at the end of the song
Around 2004 came Ayreon's Human Equation, which was a huge hit also for me.
After a while of listening I finally understood that it is the same crazy singing guy from the Vai album!
Did some research, and Accelerated Evolution was found.




One song: Deadhead.

[swervedriver]

I also first heard Dev in Ayreon's The Human Equation, in late 2005. He stuck with me because of the complex layering in his parts, lyrics that weren't very 'to-the-point' as the on the rest of the album and the ferocity of his screams. So I did a bit of digging and ended up getting Accelerated Evolution which was pretty much an instant hit all around. A little while later I picked up the then new Synchestra release, and from the bonus DVD of that I ended up getting his entire back catalogue in one go, mostly because of the Life and Earth Day performances on there. Simultaneously learned about SYL (Alien) and while that took a little longer to adjust to I also ended up buying Alien, City and SYL in a very short timespan.

My first experience with anything Dev-related was back in 2003 when I got a Metal Hammer/Century Media promo disc and heard 'Relentless' which in fact made my brain explode.
At that point I'd never heard vocals or a constant aural barrage of 'fuck you' like it, and shied away at first but kept coming back to it and gradually learned to love it, then picked up up HAARHT, Alien and City on their UK release dates and after mopping up my brain matter from the floor/walls after each listen, basically ended up on a MASSIVE SYL binge for about three or four years solid. Unfortunately though, my family didn't have the internet at home back then so all I knew was all I knew.

After I'd moved out and finished college, I was introduced to The Human Equation and saw Dev was 'Rage' and through my dear friend Ozz I got a copy of Synchestra, adored it and went totally mental, working backwards at first and bought everything Dev I could get my paws on. Loved, laughed and cried over the years, all with his works musically guiding me into adulthood.
Aaaaaaaand eight years after discovering Mr. Townsend, here I am.
Infused with extra awesome.

I think I told this already but I was real young when i first heared Dev city had been out for a few months i was already listening to megadeth, judas priest, and venom, death and such my cousins influenced my tastes quite a bit. I remember it was our towns exhibition we called "Klondike Days" had a bunch of roller coasters and was like any other carnival type deal. My older brother and cousins drove me and on the way in the truck we popped in City. It was the most emotionally intensive music I ever heared and head banging was had by all. Since then I've been a big SYL fan didn't really get into Dev's solo stuff till I saw a related video on Youtube on SYL's video for Love. Then I bought Ocean Machine and got into all the solo workings was around 2006.

Good Times.

A lot of guys over at the Metallica message boards have been raving about Devin for a long time, so I decided to check him out. I first checked out "The New Black," and thought it was awesome. Then another guy recommended the "chicken feather album", also thought it was awesome. Then the guy recommended "Ziltoid", by which I blown away by. And I've been on a year-long Dev binge since (it will have been a year come May).

I went to see Arch Enemy in 2004 (or 2005), SYL were supporting.

Couldn't stand them.

Then my mate Ross (the-fluke) gave me Punky Bruster and Ziltoid a year later to listen to, and then it all made sense. Thank christ for people sharing CD's with eachother eh?