The Devin Townsend Project: Addicted

When he is not crushing your skull with the pure brutal poundage that is Strapping Young Lad, Devin has the ability to take it to a whole new overtly melodic dimension.

Trust Devin Townsend to permeate the sinews of my brain and dump all sorts of melody, harmony, infectious grooves, and polyphonic tunefulness in the form of his new (and fooking brilliant) album ‘Addicted’. And he has stayed ensconced in my head – refusing to leave but never, never overstaying his welcome. When all is said and done, I’m happy to have him there ‘cos ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – this new album is phenomenal!

The man knows ’song’. He knows how to construct a tune that will remain with you long after the iPod’s hard-drive has stopped spinning.

Earlier this year, he released the fabulous ‘Ki’ album. (Played that one to death!) ‘Addicted’ is two of a four part series of albums and so far, the poppier of the two with ‘Ki’ being a more “tense, quiet” affair.

Said Townsend, “With ‘Ki’, I kind of strode out in uncharted territories for myself musically, and loved the experience. But during the course of writing this four-record project, it was inevitable that I would end up writing a selection of tunes that were very much in line with my back catalogue”.

Each of these four albums will feature a different theme and band.

‘Addicted’ features the amazing vocal stylings of former Gathering singer Anneke van Giersbergen. Having been a huge Gathering fan over the course of the past decade, I was pleased as punch to see and hear this collaboration. Anneke’s hauntingly beautiful vocals just marry so well with Townsend’s hooks and guitar accents. Perfect. Just perfect. Check out the track ‘Hyperdrive!’ and you’ll see what I mean.

She sounds amazing on this record cutting through the layers and layers of sounds that Townsend is want to include on all his records (see the YouTube clip below for a sneak peek into the Pro-Tools work that went on during the making of this record!)

There is not a single weak moment on this record. And seriously, I need to stop writing this review so I can go and listen to this sucker again! I haven’t stopped playing it since I got it, and frankly, I can’t see myself not playing it for a long, long while.

Fucking phenomenal!