Guitar Interactive – Issue 66 2019

(^12) Guitar Interactive Issue 66
years into a
recording career
that began with an appearance on Steve
Vai’s 1993 album ‘Sex and Religion,’ the
Vancouver-born, eccentric, prolific metal
performer and producer Devin Townsend
revealed details of one of the most
important chapters in his musical journey,
the Devin Townsend Project. Following
the brief hiatus that came after his 2007
rock opera ‘Ziltoid the Omniscient,’ a
newly shaven-headed and teetotaling
Townsend announced an intended four-
album sequence under this moniker, with
the primary goal being that he wanted to
make music without the assistance of drugs.
Townsend’s vision also revealed an ambition
to record with different musicians on each
album, in order to keep things fresh. May
2009’s ‘Ki’ was one of the more restrained
releases in his canon, particularly in
comparison to his strident Strapping Young
Lad material. It touched on laid-back funk
and ambient rock -- as displayed on the
tranquil “Ain’t Never Gonna Win” -- and
featured Duris Maxwell, who had previously
drummed with Motown act Bobby Taylor
& Vancouvers in the ‘60s and Jefferson
Airplane in the ‘70s.
Later that year, critics found the Project’s
follow-up album, ‘Addicted,’ to be
reassuringly heavy, and it became one
of Townsend’s most revered releases. It
inventively combined crushing guitars with
techno beats and prominently featured
the voice of ex-Gathering frontwoman
Anneke van Giersbergen. In June 2011,
both the third and fourth Devin Townsend
Project albums were issued on the same day.
While ‘Deconstruction’ continued with
Townsend’s traditionally heavy approach
and featured a wealth of guest vocalists,
‘Ghost,’ with its soft, Tangerine Dream-
aping soundscapes, was its sonic opposite.
The following year brought ‘Epicloud,’ an
unexpected fifth release under the Devin
Townsend Project name that brought
Giersbergen back into the fold to repeat the
crucial role that she’d played on Addicted. It
landed in the Top Ten of the Finnish charts.
That summer, a live box set called ‘By a
Thread: Live in London 2011’ was released.
On it, ‘Ki,’ ‘Addicted,’ and ‘Deconstruction’
were performed on successive nights at The
University of London. The fourth evening
featured ‘Ghost’ at the Union Chapel in
Islington. DTP returned to work on an
album that was begun right after ‘Epicloud.’
‘Casualties of Cool’ with Ché Aimee Dorval
(from ‘Ki’) on vocals and jazzman Morgan
Ågren on drums was completed in October
of 2013 and released the following May in
several editions.
Townsend was no stranger to working on
projects for years at a time. Whenever he
hit a wall, or touring demands superseded
his time to record, he would shelve them
temporarily. Z2 was begun in 2009, as a
sequel to 2007’s Ziltoid the Omniscient;
he had stockpiled over 70 associated songs.
The concept was realized (and pared) as
two separate albums -- Sky Blue and Dark
Matters-- in a single package and issued in
October of 2014. The band premiered »
INTERVIEWS_DEVIN TOWNSEND
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