Devin Townsend Project
Transcendence

Devin Townsend and his project are back with a new album, one of transcendence and with a good-looking cover. And I can state that a new album by Devin Townsend is always of interest as he is capable of some great stuff, as we have heard in the past. Although I think his latest albums have been quite predictable and hasn’t really offered anything surprising or overly exciting lately. So what about this time? Well, to be honest, I think that it is more of the same.

The sound is excellent as usual with Townsend and the performances as well, I especially like the touches with female vocals. A good quality production in my view but it is also a rather predictable one and also a rather long album that doesn’t quite have the variation to make it interesting enough to last the entire album. I think the album lacks a bit of dynamics, maybe it could have been shorter or have more depth and variation. I think it sounds too much like it has done and perhaps he should have called it a day for the DTP before this album as he was thinking. Sure it isn’t bad and the fans will probably adore it but as much as I like Townsend’s music I cannot really see why I should bother with this one.

I think that where is album is missing out is in the dynamics, but mostly in the fact that it is so very predictable. The start is great but then comes the typical Devin Townsend sound and you already know what will come before you even hear it. Perhaps not quite what I had expected from Townsend as he usually makes something interesting, this one is good but not really that interesting and the back-catalogue feels like a much better choice considering what you get with this one and what is in that catalogue.

Perhaps he has passed his prime, the best before date has passed and it is only downhill from now for the good old Devin. I don’t really think so but I would not be surprised if this turns out to be the swansong for the Devin Townsend Project, and a decent Swansong it would be although I do believe it was better in the past. Transcendence is a pretty good album but it will not transcend anything on my top-list of 2016.

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