August 2022 Feature Release - The Infinite Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Infinite, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is one of two 2011 albums that are part of the Devin Townsend Project series, Deconstruction, from the Canadian progressive metal mastermind himself. Deconstruction is one of my favorite albums from Devin Townsend, and this hodge-podge of progressive and experimental aspects and vocalists from other bands makes me think of the offering as next-gen extreme Ayreon! There are some comedic elements that you might find ridiculous, but those can be pardoned because of the album's awesomeness.

https://metal.academy/releases/1087

I did my review, here's its summary:

You ever think years from now, in the later part of this century, people are gonna look back at albums dating back to the 2000s and 2010s and realize how much outlandish yet great appeal would carry over to their future children? This album Deconstruction is an experimental evolution of an album to remember! We could finally see again what an extremely talented musician Townsend is. The production is inspiring and the music is ridiculously awesome! The experimental writing stays steady and catchy. The hooks are far more unique than the ones in Addicted or any other album in the world for that matter. An array of vocalists (as many as in Ayreon's albums) help sing these satirical yet meaningful lyrics for a bombastic nature taking this wonderful offering to where no other album has gone before... This mighty array includes harsh vocalists from Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Gojira, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, clean singers from bands like Cynic and Nightwish, and a guitar solo from Meshuggah. This unique mix of orchestral electro-industrial progressive metal that occurs in many songs, including a 16-minute epic in the middle, can be referred to as "Ziltoidian metal". But I refer to this album as...next-gen extreme Ayreon!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Stand", "Planet of the Apes", "Sumeria", "The Mighty Masturbator", "Pandemic"

For fans of: Ayreon, Between the Buried and Me, Strapping Young Lad

Hhhmmm.... I have to admit that I initially found "Deconstruction" to be a bit of a struggle as it's so clearly not targeted at me as an audience. I usually steer well clear of words like "wacky", "quirky" & "theatrical" when it comes my metal & this record has all of them in spades with Devin seemingly throwing the kitchen sink at every track on this lengthy third album under the Devin Townsend Project moniker. I quite liked 2009's "Addicted" but had no time whatsoever for the prog rock of "Ki" from the same year. This time he released both "Deconstruction" (an avant-garde progressive metal beast) simultaneously with another ambient new age album in "Ghost" which I really despised & perhaps that's what kept me away from "Deconstruction" up until now.

You can expect a real wall of sound with all sorts of things layered over the top of each other here. It's very clear that Devin has made a conscious attempt to sound as off-the-wall & bizarre as possible with his strange sense of humour coming into play at various times too. There's a significant symphonic component incorporated throughout the record & Devin tries all sorts of vocal techniques across the tracklisting along with a variety of musical styles from electronic music & opera right through to blast-beat-driven death metal. A couple of listens saw my ears starting to become adjusted to what was in store for me & by the end of the third listen I found myself showing some appreciation for what is undoubtedly an extraordinarily original & generally very consistent piece of art. It's just not something that appeals to me enough to see me returning to it too often. "Deconstruction" is highly progressive, is over the top in every way & pushes the insanity dial up to eleven for its entire duration. "Addicted" still gets my vote for Devin Townsend Project's best work but not by a lot & I feel sure that there's a healthy fanbase out there for records like this.

For fans of Strapping Young Lad, Ihsahn & Buckethead.

3.5/5

As a Devin Townsend fan and as someone who loves Empath, Deconstruction was still a bit of a sucker punch since I'm not too familiar with the middle portion of his discography. I always knew his style was overblown from Empath and Transcendence, but it took me a few years to eventually go back to Ocean Machine, Terria, or other albums like Accelerated Universe to get the full picture of Devin's music. Turns out he was a nutjob (in an endearing way) for way longer than I thought, since Empath was my first foray into the more insane and eclectic brand of Devin's music. I knew that Ziltoid was a thing but haven't gotten around to it, but I didn't realize that Empath wasn't exactly breaking new ground in the way I thought it did after listening to Deconstruction this month. All of the zaniness that I loved about Empath is shown off in full force here, but it's definitely more aggressive and a bit less mature. Devin's brand of sensory overloading walls of sound have always entertained me, but I'd say Deconstruction has more intrigue and interesting songwriting than his other, similar albums. 

This post was going to be about how Deconstructed fell into the same bin as most of Devin's other albums for me, but as I put off writing this because I couldn't quite gather my thoughts, I found myself listening to it more and more. To be honest, it's basically like watching a car crash or some embarrassing stand up comedy act that you can't look away from. It's such a stupid album in some truly irredeemable ways, but at the same it's it's incredibly good at being stupid that I've come full circle with it. Hell, it was apparently so stupid that I missed every single guest vocalist on here until I read Andi's post. I know my audio/voice recognition is really bad but this was a new low for me. I think part of that is because Devin is, in fact, a very talented vocalist with a ton of range so I didn't really notice it, but also because there's so much going on in each song that you hardly have time to figure out whether that random growl in the background sounded like Opeth or not. Once I wrapped my head around the different guests and their places in each song, the album as a whole got much more enjoyable as I'm always a fan of all-star lineups, for the most part. 

As other reviews have said this album is definitely an exercise in excess and throwing a gigantic middle finger to the expectation of professionalism in music. Granted I definitely wish there was a bit more professionalism here, considering I'm never a fan of toilet or fart noises. I'm sure there's some metaphor you could figure out regarding the music industry or the music scene in general, but Devin's antics tend to get the better of him throughout the entire album. Thankfully there are enough great riffs and soundscapes to make this a standout in his discography for me, but it's going to be an acquired taste no matter how you look at it. 

I've been horribly busy recently so trying to come up with things to say about albums has been the least of my worries, hopefully stuff like this will get me to be better about stream of consciousness writing because trying to form an opinion about this album has my head spinning. 

4/5