Devin Townsend
Empath

Last year I was impressed by the live album that was really great and well worth getting and now Devin promises something daring, something that incorporates a wide variety of styles. It has a cover that doesn’t give much away; you cannot really guess what style it is going to be from looking at the artwork. But as it is Devin Townsend you can guess that it will be a bit aggressive but also melodic with Devin’s characteristic voice and his ideas. And it can of course be quite great but Devin also has some pretty poor albums in the discography so I guess it could be either or, but the idea to screw conventions and go for something less conservative is always great even though I know that metallers and rockers are usually pretty boring people who fear creativity and fresh ideas – so they should fear this album quite a lot.

Musically it is an album that cannot be easily fitted into one of the usual genre boxes, it is more exciting than that. Devin uses elements of almost anything from pop to metal and jazz and whatever, he uses choirs and growls as well as clean vocals and guest singers and other prominent musical guests. It is an album that is very diverse, could be considered incoherent almost – but it is incoherent in a coherent way, and I think that this album is quite a creative feat and it has a fresher sound than most of the stuff I get to review. The production is really strong, the sound excellent and the album is really varied – the album also feels quite sensible in terms of playing time despite being well over an hour long. That is also quite an impressive feat to make such a long album feel rather short.

It is a very impressive album, the best I have reviewed this year. The songs are really strong and it is always great to get to hear something that is creative as it isn’t the most common thing that I get in the pile of stuff to review. It is impressive song writing we get on this album, the variation, the energy and the feel of it is great and there is no particular weakness despite the album incorporating so many different musical styles into one. It is an album that deserves a high rating and the only thing preventing me from giving it the highest rating is that there are some parts that feel a tad slow and perhaps somewhat less interesting than the album in general. But there isn’t too much room to complain here as this is an album that shows how good Devin Townsend is as a musical creator when he is at his best, and this album is certainly one of the best, if not the best, he has put together.

Empath is a rather fantastic album, the first real track Genesis is a great kick in the face and then comes more great songs, like the ending Singularity that is a great long epic track of the highest quality. But the highlight for me is Borderlands; it is a brilliant track and can be considered eleven minutes of genius. I think I might purchase this album, or I know that I will and I can recommend that you do the same. It is just great with albums that doesn’t fit into a single genre box, I guess that if you ask Devin what genre it is he will reply with only yes as it is most genres, or no genre if you prefer to use that. Perhaps it may not be for everyone but it is an album that is both memorable and brilliant, I recommend that you order it.

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