Review by SilentScream213 for Devin Townsend - Accelerated Evolution (2003)

This was the album that made me a Devin Townsend fan. Everything before this was too inconsistent, too bizarre, too unserious… here, everything comes together so well. His previous albums had moments of genius, songs that displayed an incredible potential, but he was too unhinged, and the songwriting was way too all over the place to put down a full album of quality material. 

On this album, Devin actually sounds like he wants to say something rather than hide behind cryptic lines about eating vegetables. A lot of these songs tie into love and relationships, as well as mental health. Devin’s still got his sarcastic sense of humor, but most of these songs are driven by genuine passion and serve to deliver a mood and message rather than just serve as a playground for him to experiment with 100 layers of sounds.

Speaking of layers of sounds… beautiful. Production is fantastic, density is immense, yet at the same time everything feels weightless, clean. Even that album cover evokes the immaculate era when we thought the future would look like Frutiger Aero. The album is a treat to listen to again and again thanks to every moment being loaded with undercurrents of melodies, chords, and ambience that can only be picked up on after multiple passes. 

The choruses here are great, and Devin’s voice is just fantastic. The screams are phenomenal. There’s passion, power, control. The songs are really atmospheric and dense, so the choruses work as the perfect earworms to work in tandem with the otherwise overwhelming songs.

One criticism I have is that almost every song on this album features one riff or chord progression that just isn’t good. I dunno what it is with this guy, but he seems to self-sabotage everything he does by throwing a garbage passage into his would-be fantastic songs. Every single song on this album has the potential to be a masterpiece, but most of them had parts that I really just wasn’t crazy about, dragging the song down a bit.

It’s not a perfect album, but it is a clear embrace of Devin’s strengths as a singer, musician, writer and producer. Terria, while inconsistent, proved to me he could write some fantastic songs; Accelerated Evolution proved to me the man can write a great ALBUM, and henceforth I’m incredibly excited to listen to all of his following works.