The Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction [2011]

Wahey! I was NOT expecting an electronic almost break-beat style to the beginning of the album. Damn, nice way to ease the music into epic and crushingly heavy metal. "Stand" drags a lot during the middle, but tries to make up for it with a validating end. "Juular" is quite an epic and energetic song... it is much needed after the very long and drawn-out "Stand". "Planet of the Apes" is all over the place. Thrashy, dragging, energetic, validating... it's got the lot. "Sumeria" flexes some of the catchier and more brutal muscles that Devin has. It's a strange album, this. It's so all over the place that it never really settles on anything that I prefer. So, there are times when I feel it's just boring. It's also not the catchiest or most gripping album. Even so, there is a lot to like about this album. The creativity is nearly burning the album alive. There are some really great riffs thrown in here as well as a lot of madness. Most of what I don't like about this album I can chalk up to me simply not being in the mood for a concept album. I can still see what an epic album this is despite my mood. As the album progresses, I feel myself diving deeper into it... it could be that my mood is being altered, or maybe it's that the songs have gotten better.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.hevydevy.com/

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Dir en grey - UROBOROS [2008]

Ominous and quite cool first track. "Vinushka" establishes this newer style as one that is much more deep and beautiful than previous albums. If the rest of the album is this carefully written, I'll love it. It even dives very suddenly into thrash metal with some death metal vocals before dropping back into a more acoustic section. "Red Soil" is sadly a bit more straight-forward even though I like the Death Metal section in the middle. Though, the second half of the song does redeem itself a bit some more creativity and psychotic vocals. Unfortunately, the more metal sections on this album are produced in a very flat way and with weak guitar distortion that removes most of the metal punch from the songs. That said, there's a lot to love in this album; "nice" sections are absolutely beautiful, metal sections offer a nice change from the norm, there's still some creativity thrown in there, and acoustic parts create a wonderful mood. The album is a bit too long, though. So, I start to get bored just after the half-way point. Stand-outs include "Inconvenient Ideal", "Sa Bir", and "Vinushka".

Rating: 8.25

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

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The Devin Townsend Project - Addicted [2009]

First thing I notice is that the vocals a bit more buried than I thought they'd be. "Addicted!" is attacking the heavier side of Devin that reminds me a lot of the stuff he did with SYL. "Universe in a Ball!" is more punchy and a little more catchy. Large up-tick in catchiness with "Bend it Like Bender!". "Supercrush!" keeps the catchiness and adds beauty into the chorus. Wow, "Hyperdrive!" is more of the same from the previous two tracks. The album started heavy, but not catchy and not in sync with itself. However, after that uninspiring start, things really pick up and great songwriting comes through. The focus of the vocals on this album is on female lead vocals. "Resolve!" really passes by without even being noticed, but "Ih-Ah!" yanks the attention back to the music with it's beauty. Boring start to "Numbered!", but it does mostly redeem itself by the middle of the song. There are extremely effective and pretty unique uses of effects littered around the album. I just can't believe what a turnaround this album had after the beginning couple tracks. It went from a creative but boring style to an excellent emotional adventure through beautiful soundscapes.

Rating: 8.25

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Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omniscient [2007]

Entertaining intro track with plenty of camp. Hilarious concept, but "By Your Command" demonstrates amazing use of musical dynamics even though it's not all that catchy for most of the first half of the song. "Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!" kicks up the catchiness with a great groove. "Solar Winds" and "Hyperdrive" take things into the realm of a more calm and thoughtful space. It may not be the catchiest album in the world, and the songs don't really stick with the listener after hearing them, but damn is it a fun album to listen to. It's quirky as hell, funny, and dynamic.

Rating: 7.75

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The Devin Townsend Band - Synchestra [2006]

"Let it Roll" starts things off with acoustic beauty slightly giving way to some progressive elements later in the song. While "Hypergeek" starts off the same way, it kicks in with wall of sound madness and metal. "Triumph" shows off a bit of the switching the listen can expect on this album. It's almost as if the whole song is constantly in a state of transition... Metal, Progressive, Folk, Pop... it just never stops. POLKA! lol. Damn, it really blends into "Vampira" perfectly, though. Fuck, that's quite amazing. There are a few heavy sections littered throughout the album, but the focus of this album is obviously not heaviness. This is a progressive metal album with a good amount of the creativity that I like to see from Devin. However, it's not particularly catchy and doesn't really stick with you after listening. So, the immersion is hampered a bit.

Rating: 7.75

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The Devin Townsend Band - Accelerated Evolution [2003]

Up-beat and catchy start to the album with "Depth Charge". Not as brutal as Physicist, and not as contemplative as Terria. "Storm" has a very kind feel to it despite the harsh guitar distortion. The production on this album isn't quite as solid and heavy as the last couple of albums. There's a bit too much of the stock-rock influence for my taste, especially since the writing isn't all that catchy or gripping.

Rating: 7.25

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Devin Townsend - Terria [2001]

A much more introspective introduction to the album with "Olives" flowing right in to the more brash and punchy "Mountain". It drags a bit, but it's not bothersome because the riffs change nicely between sections and there's more than enough variation within the song to hold my consciousness in it's gravity field. For the most part, Devin keeps the tempo on the moderately slow side until "The Fluke". Devin seems to be combining the heaviness of the previous album with a more post-metal attitude and the more progressive vocals from Biomech. It's a bit of a journey, this one. A noticeably more inside-out approach than anything Devin has done before. The catchiness isn't really there, but it's much more creative and passionate.

Rating: 8

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Dir en grey - Withering to death [2005]

Impressively heavy start to "Merciless Cult" and equally impressive calm and soothing middle section. The production, isn't quite as impressive since the distorted guitars feel a bit dead. "C" confirms that the Japanese Rock aspect is still alive and well in their style. I'm beginning to see why this album got more favorable reviews than VULGAR: the metal sections, while heavier, pander more to the masses quite a bit with the more melodic writing and even some breakdowns thrown in there. The album isn't bad at all, in reality, it's quite good. However, it's not as creative and captivating as VULGAR was.

Rating: 8

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

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Dir en grey - VULGAR [2003]

Four songs in and this is already an awesome album. The metal influence has remained integral, but they've ramped up the creativity and, equally important, the catchiness. There are many overtones of Japanese Rock. The songwriting is a massive improvement over anything they've ever done that it's almost like listening to a completely different band. They have finally become good song writers instead of just continuing to rely on creativity and genre-hopping. There is enough variation to keep things fresh. Even poly-rhythmic sections are thrown in there. The energy is staggering in many songs. I have no idea what could have possibly changed in 14 months to illicit such a wonderful change, but I'll be fucked if I say I don't love it.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

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Devin Townsend - Physicist [2000]

Thrashy metal start. Damn, it's so much like SYL. "Namaste" is quite catchy and powerful once the vocals kick in. "Material" is pretty damn catchy. "Kingdom" is pretty flat with a lot of repetition and no real point to the song. And then, "Death" kicks in like a fucking jack-hammer to the face. Highly, distorted vocals, palm-muting thrash, and blasting to boot. Interesting, this is much more like an SYL-dominant style with sprinklings of the more progressive vocals and guitaring of DT's previous solo albums. I'm missing the catchiness and creativity of Infinity, but the brutality has been ramped up quite a bit. The wall-of-sound production really makes this feel like an SYL album, but it can become too much when listening to the album all the way through since there are virtually no dynamics at all. Things to begin to get a bit dull towards the last three songs of the album, however. It's certainly not written as well on the whole as Infinity.

Rating: 7.5

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Devin Townsend - Infinity [1998]

Really starts off like a SYL album with powerful bassy explosions. "Christeen" follows on from OMB with a bit more metal injected into the style. But then, "Bad Devil" jams some jazz and swing into the same sandwich as metal. It's INSANELY catchy, this. "War" continues on with a good swing beat, but it's a bit long. Clearly, this is the album where Devin started going even MORE insane... "Ants" is really written with the title in mind. Crazy, spastic, and nutty as fuck. The first couple of songs really lie to the listener. Once the third track begins, one understands that this will not just be a more metal version of the previous album, rather there will be much more creativity and madness. Things change up a bit with "Unity" which really slows things down to create a feel less like a sledge-hammer and more like a velvet rope. It's quite good, not as catchy as OMB, but far more interesting and creative.

Rating: 8

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Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech [1997]

"Seventh Wave" started things off very nicely with surprisingly heavy production and riffage. It's a nice combination of progressive vocals and heavy guitaring without creating a rift between the guitars and the vocals. But then, "Life" just shocks the hell out of me. It's insanely catchy... to the point that it feels like it should be illegal. Not very creative, but damn it sticks in my mind. Catchiness is certainly the name of the game here, but it's not done in such a way as to feel contrived or ripped off with no emotion. It just makes me feel good while I'm listening. However, it is a bit long and there isn't much in the way of variation.

Rating: 7.75

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Animals as Leaders - Animals as Leaders [2009]

I'm really getting into this album. This almost feels like the DEFINITION of Progressive Metal. The songwriting is superb. The technicality is suicidal in short bursts. The emotion and care to which this album is crafted is nothing short of inspired. It's also managed to pull off a neat trick in that it has a good amount of variation but still feels cohesive. It's fairly creative as well, and the style blending often goes between new-age, electronic, and post-rock in addition to the Metal base. Hopefully I'll hear slightly better guitar distortion in the future.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.myspace.com/animalsasleaders

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Dream Theater - Awake [1994]

Better production with heavier guitars. The songwriting is also heavier and definitely feels like it has defined their style. There's a bit more creativity as well. The vocals are much heavier as well with more distortion during verses. The first two songs are good, but not all that catchy. "Innocence Faded" is quite good and catchy, if a bit straight-forward. "A Mind Beside Itself - I" is a good instrumental that makes "A Mind Beside Itself - II" just that much more sweet. "The Mirror" flexes DT's metal muscle quite well and flows directly into "Lie" which also boasts a steel approach with quite a bit of groove thrown in the mix. "Lifting Shadows Off a Dream" brings things down to a very calm and beautiful feel. This album paradoxically seems to have the most "blah" songs in the first two tracks. Other than that, it's pretty brilliant. The music may not be as proficient and well-crafted as disc two of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but it's catchier and the lyrics are certainly better.

Rating: 9

http://www.dreamtheater.net/

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Dream Theater - Images and Words [1992]

Production is a bit better, but not by that much at all. The snare drum is way too explosive, even on quieter parts and the guitar isn't high enough in the mix to be as heavy as it was intended to be. However, the songwriting is still at least as excellent as WDaDU and even more creative at times.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.dreamtheater.net/

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Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite [1989]

Not really good production quality. I especially don't like the production quality and sound of the bass guitar. It's got a heavy and very active feel to the songs. Starts off with more of a Power Metal feel, but quickly drops into the Progressive Rock genre that DT has been known for. There's some quite catchy stuff here and the songwriting is pretty proficient especially when considering that this is their first release. There are plenty of times when this album has a distinct Heavy Metal feeling to it. There's plenty of technicality on all instruments throughout the album as well. This is certainly a very active and energetic album when compared to the more docile stuff from 2000 and on. It isn't as much of a master piece as, say, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but each song is really good and the writing is very solid with a very charming attitude throughout the album. Production really is the only major gripe I have with this album.

Rating: 8

http://www.dreamtheater.net/

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Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe [1999]

Very interesting song writing. It definitely blends Jazz and Metal in a progressive sandwich much better than most bands that make the attempt. The vocals are odd enough for this genre to be enjoyable. Normally, this vocal style would be better suited for Progressive Rock/Metal in a similar vein as Dream Theater. The music skips back and forth between Progressive Metal and Jazz. The music is extremely technical most of the time. The vocals are very accurate and bursting with talent. The production reminds me of 90s underground metal like Atheist. The creativity is quite excellent at times (i.e. "Moving Spirit" and "Occam's Razor") and plenty of riffs have a dark spin to them much to my liking.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.spiralarchitect.com/

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Textures - Drawing Circles [2006]

Much less thrash influence. Hardcore vox are more like Silhouettes' and so is the style in general. However, there is a bit more of the experimental clean style in this than on both Polars and Silhouettes. Heavier production and more catchy than Polars.

Rating: 8

http://www.texturesband.com/

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Textures - Polars [2004]

Damn good beginning. Not a fan of the hardcore vox compared to Silhouettes, but the clean vox are equally as good. Wow, the title track is fuckin' insane. Avant-Garde doesn't even describe it correctly. There are some parts that are leagues more experimental than anything on Silhouettes. At the same time, it has way more thrash metal influence.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.texturesband.com/

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Textures - Silhouettes [2008]

Cool and interesting album. It's fairly unique in it's song structure. Melodic vocals come in often enough to give the songs dynamics and these sections are well-done with the vocals sounding serious and non-emo. It's very energetic and has lots of groove. There's some pretty unique guitar work as well. Production is great. The album is full of talent (mostly the drumming). Unique, catchy, and well-written even amongst a genre that's known for having unique ideas.

Rating: 9

http://www.texturesband.com/

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