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Label: Inside Out - Rating:
If you don't listen to this album, Gene Hoglan will blast beat you into your component atoms.
Still alive? Then let's hop right to this, shall we? Immediately apparent on Devin Townsend's new Project, Addicted, are the increased use of traditional electronic samples. But as with all things Devy, they are used to juxtapose music that is anything but traditional. Maybe you've seen the comments that Addicted is "danceable" and brings in raver music, but the truth is far more enigmatic and puzzling. In a good way. Let me explain!
The title track definitely plays up the dance-beats while still being familiarly heavy and screamy. Imagine Strapping Young Lad's self-titled album being remixed by an electronic artist that knows rock music: maybe Trent Reznor, Rhys Fulber, or DJ? Acucrack. It's got all the atmospherics and epic layers of sound that Devin brings to his brand of DevyMetal, along with a taste of some extra melody brought to you by former-The Gathering, current-Agua de Annique frontwoman Anneke Van Giersbergen. But just a hint...it's mostly just good ol' Hevy Devy at this point.
But the electronics get bigger and bigger as the album goes on (never at the lack of metal, though). The heavy gets heavier than a freight-train on "Universe In A Ball!" which is probably the key track to sample if you're interested in this album: it'll give you a good idea of what's in store for you, and also happens to be one of the best tracks Devin's put out since...well, probably his last album, 'coz he's consistently good, but whatever. Point is, it rocks hard, and at about the 2:30 mark somehow grows bigger and more terrifyingly good. I peed myself. Thanks, Devin. Can you mail me a demo so I can get an extra pair of tighty-whiteys? (Obscure reference, I know, but with a little help from Google, you'll be laughing. I guarantee.)
"Bend It Like Bender!" is where you'll get your first huge, up-front introduction to Anneke (which pretty much lasts from this point out) in the super-melodic chorus. I don't know what the hell this song is really about, but it's so grungy, whacky, fun, and ridiculous that it'll be in the rotation for a while. And it serves as a great introduction for what is then a series of much more "serious" songs. "Serious" being a giant misnomer when it comes to Devin Townsend music - hell, it's probably an insult - but for lack of a better term, that's what you're getting on "Supercrush!" and subsequent songs. Even if Devin and Anneke, in all their duet glory, were singing nonsense about a clown's testicles, they do it with such passion and intensity that you can't help but feel that the subject matter is beautiful and heavy (both in "mood" and "crushing guitar" volume). Those clown testicles could bring tears to your eyes (as well as those of little girls the world over). Maybe I'm getting off topic...
You may have heard "Hyperdrive!" somewhere else...and you'd be right. But you'd be wrong, too. You haven't heard it like this. Apparently, Anneke's covered this song (originally from Devin's 2007 "Ziltoid the Omniscient") with her solo project, Agua de Annique, and that's cool. But this version is like a Tears for Fears moment, where Gary Jules comes along and does a cover of "Mad World" that's better than the original, and so they steal it back and rearrange it to create some hybrid that's better than the previous two versions. So mote it be: the new "Hyperdrive!" is sleeker, sexier, and probably gets you further across the galaxy with less Astrogation planning than before (a little Star Wars nerdery there). Devin shows that you can take a song that's only two years old and really change it up without going too far afield yet delivering a shockingly different feel. And we applaud him. And there is much rejoicing. Which clearly carried over to the laughter that opens up the next track, "Resolve!" It's like The Human League meets Ocean Machine: over the top keys, Anneke and Devin screaming their lungs out, and a thousand Bon Jovi fans raising their hands and wearing bad headbands. It's amazing.
Then Devin says in a quiet, hushed voice, "I'm gonna turn things down for a sec and play a little acoustic number." That number is "Ih-ah!" It's nice, it's serene, it's got some I-love-you's in it, and then the harmonized vocals with Anneke make you cry a little. The techno-beats make you dance a little. And while you're doing your little crying-dancing thing, you start chanting the nonsensical "Ih's" and "Ah's" that reign supreme on this ballad. But watch out; it doesn't stay serene for too long, because after three and a half minutes we have to find "The Way Home!" Funky bass slapping, running double-bass drum beats, politely chuggariffic guitars, and building tension in the soaring vocals and the chirpy samples; that's what this is about. In typical Dev fashion, things change up yet again for "Numbered!" The guitar-work is like an anvil chugging a PBR at a frat party, but the Vai-influenced arpeggios and the singing that clearly pulls from Anneke's days with The Gathering bring crashing crescendos down upon your unwitting skull at every turn. Some bands write great tunes around their raging choruses. Devin writes raging choruses around his raging choruses, and then arranges them so that they rage harder than they did before. Hell, I can't describe it: the man's just a genius.
And in case my review is putting you to sleep, there's "Awake!" This song is at home with the entire The Devin Townsend Band catalog as a melodic rocker with glistening keyboards over the slick rock & roll guitars, but it also hints at the darkness of SYL with its death metal vocal moments, as well as the beauty of the rest of this disc with the dual Anneke/Devin vocal attack. Like many of Devin's final tracks, it fades out in movements that suggest other bits and pieces of the album: ambiance, discordant guitar, twinkling keyboards, high-fi and low dives.
Do I really need to sum this up?
[Editor-in-chief: Yes! That's what I pay you the big bucks for!]
Big bucks?! Well, anyway, here's the summary: if you don't know Devin Townsend by now, do yourself a favor and experience some of his tunes. Oh, you do know him? From that "Osbournes" Final Season commercial, right? Just listen to the music already. The man's smarter than all of us. Seriously, go. What the hell are you still doing here?
