"I know where I'm headed, but I don't know what it is," says Devin Townsend in the initial episode of the seven-part documentary that prefaced the release of Empath, his first solo album since dissolving the Devin Townsend Project in 2017.
For nearly 30 years, Townsend has erased artificial boundaries between genres.
He has continually juxtaposed tracks ranging from extreme metal to progressive rock, classical, new age, ambient music, and even Americana on the same album.
Here he goes much further: He grants listeners -- and himself -- witness to the jarring totality of his musical identity as he collides, explodes, and re-combines genres and sonic stratagems within songs.
It's tempting to hear this dizzying and at times, confounding record as a career summation in one album -- it's actually a new way of working that presents Townsend's massive soundworld in an ordered universe acting in balanced, simultaneous equanimity.
Townsend plays loads of instruments and synths here and sings his ass off; he's accompanied by a top-flight cast with vocalists Anneke Van Giersbergen and Ché Aimee Dorval, the Elektra Women's Choir, bassist Nathan Navarro, former boss Steve Vai, drummers Morgan Ågren, Anup Sastry, and Samus Paulicelli, and even Nickelback vocalist Chad Kroeger (who convinced Townsend to undertake this project).
The music director for this massive undertaking is none other than guitarist Mike Keneally.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Castaway | Devin Townsend | Play | 02:28 | 5 MB | 9 MB |
| 2 | Genesis | Devin Townsend | Play | 06:05 | 13 MB | 42 MB |
| 3 | Spirits Will Collide | Devin Townsend | Play | 04:39 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 4 | Evermore | Devin Townsend | Play | 05:30 | 12 MB | 38 MB |
| 5 | Sprite | Devin Townsend | Play | 06:37 | 15 MB | 42 MB |
| 6 | Hear Me | Devin Townsend | Play | 06:30 | 14 MB | 48 MB |
| 7 | Why? | Devin Townsend | Play | 04:59 | 11 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | Requiem | Devin Townsend | Play | 02:46 | 6 MB | 15 MB |
| 9 | Singularity | Devin Townsend | Play | 23:32 | 53 MB | 146 MB |
| 63 mins | 144 MB | |||||
| 63 mins | 404 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Devin Townsend | Primary Artist |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |