Since the "Vai" album came out. Dev's been in my life longer than my wife and kid. That makes him family, eh?

Only became a fan in January 2010. Feel like I have been forever, though.

Since 2004 when I was first bought the chicken feather SYL album!

Sometime in 2009 or 2010, when I first heard Ayreon's "Human Equation." I had a few SYL albums, but it was in early 2011 when I really started digging into his solo stuff.

Now, I have pretty much every one of his albums, except for Devlab and Punky Bruster.

November 2010, to be exact. After hearing 2112 for the first time, I was trying to find more progressive bands to listen to, when somebody posted about Ziltoid coming to Rock Band on the RB forums. I'd seen Dev on /mu/'s essential list, so I searched him on Youtube. First song was Earth Day, first album was Ziltoid. Listened to all his stuff over the coarse of a year or so, love it all. Ki, Ziltoid & Terria are among my favorite albums ever.

Around 2005 with some songs like Life and Christeen introduced by my brother as well as the Ayreon album he appeared on (was only around 13 years old at the time). Found more interest in 2007 with Ziltoid and ultimately started going to gigs, collecting all the albums as real copies and such from 2009 onwards (the beginning of DTP).

2003 when SYL toured Australia and came to Perth for the first time. My friend showed me Accelerated. And then I bought everything. Gradually

2004, for me. I was 13... and I turned 21 yesterday...

I feel kinda old now.

[djskrimp]

2004, for me. I was 13... and I turned 21 yesterday...

I feel kinda old now.

Wait till you hit 38. (And I'm sure you older folk will, in turn, tell me to wait till I hit your age. I bow to thee, oh ye of advanced chronology)

1997 ... i was 15 ... I'm glad the magic in his music is still here after all these years

I remember the day July 19th 1998 City had been out for a while and my 2 cousins showed it to me on the way to the fair. My neck still has nerve damage

I went to a local record store here in Kouvola in June of 2000. I remembered hearing something very futuristic and aggressive. The next day I went back to the store and described the music as "something very huge and aggressive sounding with clean vox." I walked out of the store with a brand new copy of Physicist. The song responsible for returning to the record store on the next day was "Namaste". Been hooked ever since.

A few months later I discovered City, Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing and No Sleep 'till Bedtime from the used bin of the very same record store. I got them all at once.

Being a Vai fan I bought Sex & Religon when it came out and liked it. My first real taste of Dev's work came when a couple SYL songs were played on RRR's metal show in '97. It was Detox and another song (maybe All Hail The New Flesh) and the guy who did the metal show saying it was the heaviest stuff out. I bought City after hearing the songs. After that I heard (or read) Dev describing his new project Ocean Machine and how it would sound. When the CD was released, I headed down to JB in Camberwell and picked up the CD. I still remember the thoughts of listening to the start of Seventh Wave on my way down Burke Rd at night and thinking that this was exactly how I expected (and wanted) the CD to sound like. To this day Ocean Machine is my favorite album.

Since 1993, Sex and Religion..
Would read about its development in kerrang, from being called Light Without Heat, to the announcement of Devin being the singer, to reading about him being deported, lol..
Met him and Vai at a signing at Tower records in London before the concert, took a few pics, will try and post them soon. Both Vai and Dev were great. The gig was amazing. Next appearance by him was for the Wildhearts, read all about that in kerrang too, saw a bit of footage on TV of it.
Waited years for the Noisescapes album to come out, which never did, but when HAARHT came out I wasnt disappointed!
Saw SYL at the Falcon pub in Camden just after City came out. Incredible gig, tiny venue. Sound got cut out during AAA as they overran their time. Hilarious.

2009 for me

I was talking about music with a wow friend, he introduced me to a band of friends of his who where doing some cool melodeath metal, which was really my thing back then. I checked the band out on myspace, went to their influences, saw the name Devin Townsend. The name sounded funny to me, and it's only one that I took the time to check.
I had some pretty good instinct ! The first song I heard was the christeen clip on youtube. I was instantly hooked. It had everything I was looking for at the time :
A decent level of heaviness, a real melody, great vocals and no growls but screams (that I enjoy more most of the time, most growlers having terrible technique in my opinion)

I then browsed youtube for hours listening to various songs. Really got into physicist, AE, Addicted and Synchestra. Not so much for the rest, expect a few couple songs from OM like Life and Hide Nowhere. I downloaded about 60 songs.
It grow on me over a year to the point that I bought Ziltoid, which I had not listen to at all. Took me some time to get into it, but I ended up loving it and understanding better Dev's music overall. He soon became my fav musician, I bought Addicted, Ki and Ocean machine and loved it so much. Then I watched some live stuff and interviews and was amazed by the man. Bought 3 (Terria, Decon, Ghost) more albums since then, planning on buying more and more stuff from him. Saw him live two times in 2011, and going to the Retinal Circus